reading time 2 minutes
After the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s been talk of Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast releasing more games based on Dungeons & Dragons. Bad news for fans looking forward to that: one of them, a title codenamed “Project Baxter,” has been fully canceled.
The title was in development over at Swedish developer Starbreeze, best known for the Payday franchise and 2012’s Syndicate. In a recent announcement, CEO Adolf Kristjansson said the “difficult but necessary decision” came as the studio is prioritizing a full revamp of its co-op heist franchise Payday. As such, “Baxter” development has been ended, and some of its assigned developers will be “redeployed across Starbreeze’s projects.” Others will be let go and given help by Starbreeze to find employment elsewhere.
“Baxter” was first announced in 2023, with Starbreeze at the time stating it’d feature “signature cornerstones” of its prior works like a live-service model and cooperative play. While the studio’s been quiet on it since then, the game would’ve released sometime in 2026 for “all major platforms.” Around this time in 2024, Starbreeze showed off concept art with a tease that it would show more in the near future.
View this post on Instagram
Dungeons & Dragons is no stranger to live-service games: before Baldur’s Gate 3, there was a co-op-focused reboot of Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance in 2021, and its online servers shut down this past February. Wizards of the Coast, which owns D&D, also cancelled five unannounced games prior to Baldur’s release, some of which were likely D&D games. At the time of writing, a single-player action game from Giant Skull set in the D&D universe—and led by Star Wars: Jedi director Stig Asmussen—remains in development.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Explore more on these topics
Share this story
Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more.
Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, and Gaten Matarazzo look back on the 'Dungeons & Dragons' game that started it all.
Wizards of the Coast is ending 2025 with more 'Final Fantasy' cards for 'Magic: The Gathering' and a surprise PlayStation collaboration.
There may be no shortage of crossovers coming to 'Magic: The Gathering,' but they won't all be as big as Spider-Man and 'Final Fantasy.'
Wizards of the Coast's still got some new cards to show for its Spider-Man crossover coming to 'Magic: The Gathering.'
The most crucial member of the Gaang will join Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and many more in the upcoming 'Magic: The Gathering' crossover set.
... which might be a bit of a problem coming into the next big crossover set with Spider-Man.
©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC.
All rights reserved.
Source: Gizmodo