New Dungeons & Dragons Video Game Announced by Payday 3 Developer

A new Dungeons & Dragons video game is on the way from the makers of Payday 3. The Swedish video game developer Starbreeze has announced "Project Baxterm" a new Dungeons & Dragons video game project. The game is described as a four player cooperative multiplayer game built using Unreal Engine 5. The game will be set in Waterdeep and isn't a turn-based game, nor does it feature a dice-rolling system. However, Starbreeze also notes that the game isn't a hack and slash game either. From the initial description, it sounds like the game will either be a fantasy version of Payday 3 or something closer to Diablo. Starbreeze plans to release the new game in 2026 and will crossplay on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Starbreeze is best known for the Payday franchise, which it took over after it acquired Overkill Studios back in 2012. Starbreeze made both Payday 2 and Payday 3, along with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. In an interview with VentureBeat, creative director Leif Westerholm noted that the game would have some similarities to the Payday franchise with some ebbs and flows and has the same "investment" as Payday 3, which was considered to be an AAA game. 

Wizards of the Coast has aggressively pursued the expansion of Dungeons & Dragons as a video game brand, with Baldur's Gate 3 showing the strength of the IP. However, there have been several pratfalls along the way too, most notably Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, which stumbled out of the game in 2021. Several other Dungeons & Dragons video games are in development at various studios, although several were reportedly cancelled by Wizards earlier this year. 

More details about Project Baxter can be found at Starbreeze's website. The new game is currently scheduled for launch in 2026.