Art Starbreeze’s announcement of its new D&D game (Picture: Starbreeze)

Starbreeze is planning a multiplayer D&D video game for 2026 but it doesn’t sound very much like Baldur’s Gate 3.

Dungeons & Dragons used to be everywhere back in the early days of video games and following the unexpected success of Baldur’s Gate 3 they’re likely to become more commonplace again, as other companies chase a slice of that same success.

Speaking of which, Payday 3 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons developer Starbreeze has obtained the licencing rights to make their own, very different, D&D game.

Starbreeze says it wants to make a cross-play, live service game produced in Unreal Engine 5, with a release some time in 2026. The only problem is they haven’t said what kind of game it is.

CEO Tobias Sjögren promises a ‘play it your way’ experience, which is incredibly vague but seems to be imply a co-op action title at least somewhat in the style of Payday.

‘It is hard to imagine a better pairing than Dungeons & Dragons and Starbreeze – both with their foundation in cooperative and community driven experiences, ‘play it your way’ and infinite replayability.

‘When looking at prospective IPs for our future projects, Dungeons & Dragons was always at the top of our list and I’m incredibly happy to announce this licence.’

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Starbreeze, via its website, says the game is codenamed Project Baxter and ‘will carry the signature Starbreeze cornerstones of co-operative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through games as a service model, community engagement, and a larger than life experience.’

The Swedish developer and publisher is now best known for making first person shooters like Payday 2 and 3, but started out making real-time strategy games before pivoting to more narrative led shooters such as The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and The Darkness.

Most of the staff involved in those games left to form Wolfenstein developer MachineGames and while Starbreeze later had a hit with indie title Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, director Josef Fares subsequently left to work on A Way Out and It Takes Two.

Character art from Starbreeze’s new D&D game (Picture: Starbreeze)

Eugene Evans, SVP Digital Strategy and Licensing at IP holder Wizard Of The Coast, was equally excited about the prospect of another D&D video game, saying:

‘Our gaming brands, including Dungeons & Dragons, continue to attract great partners as we execute our plan to grow our digital games portfolio through licensing and development.

‘Our collaboration with Starbreeze is a prime illustration of this strategy. Given their impressive games and passion for Dungeons & Dragons, we are confident that they will create an experience that will delight fans worldwide.’

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Starbreeze is planning a multiplayer D&D video game for 2026 but it doesn’t sound very much like Baldur’s Gate 3.