A few hours ago, we learned that the Dungeons & Dragons group within Wizards of the Coast would shift to a 'franchise model' internally, where everything about the beloved fantasy IP sits under the same roof. The news was shared on LinkedIn by Dan Ayoub, a game industry veteran who spent a long time at Microsoft working on the Halo franchise, from Halo: Reach to Halo: Infinite. He left in 2021 to become Vice President at Certain Affinity, though that didn't last long, as he moved again to Wizards of the Coast in 2022, first as VP/Head of Studios and then as Senior VP of Digital Games. Now, Ayoub has been promoted to head the whole Dungeons & Dragons franchise:
So, what happened today? We shifted our structure internally and D&D moved to a full franchise model, meaning everything: books, video games, film, and TV – everything touching the franchise lives under one roof. The impact here cannot be overstated; this is massive for D&D and will allow a strong, coordinated, and well-funded approach for the franchise, and most importantly, for us, the fans.
Finally, in a moment that doubtlessly has my childhood self doing cartwheels (and okay, maybe some old man cartwheels too), I've been asked to lead this new group! As of today, I am thrilled, humbled, and somewhat freaked out to be leading the Dungeons & Dragons franchise for Wizards of the Coast.
Ayoub mentioned film and TV, but there are no publicly known plans to create a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which only barely recouped its budget, and work on the TV series that was going to air on Paramount+ has been paused.
Wizards of the Coast does have plenty of Dungeons & Dragons games in the works, though:
- The digital fantasy tabletop adventure game Demeo x DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Battlemarked, out in late 2025;
- Project Baxter, a co-op game in development at Starbreeze and scheduled to launch next year;
- A new game from Invoke, formerly known as Tuque, which made the Dark Alliance game;
- The recently announced action/adventure game in development at Giant Skull, the studio founded by Stig Asmussen;
- A survival/life simulation/action RPG in development at Gameloft.
The company is also hard at work on the future of the Baldur's Gate series, of course. In March, Dan Ayoub said fans of the franchise would know more about what's coming next in 'short order'.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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