If you happen to’ve ever thought to your self that the Payday video games are nice however they’d be even higher in the event that they changed the weapons and financial institution vaults with swords, spells, and treasure chests, Starbreeze Studios has some oddly-specific excellent news. Its subsequent massive mission is a “co-operative multiplayer” recreation set within the fantasy RPG world of Dungeons and Dragons.
To be truthful, I do not know if Challenge Baxter, as the brand new recreation is thought internally, will actually be one thing akin to Payday: D&D. Starbreeze described Baxter as “the subsequent AAA title in our area of interest of cooperative multiplayer video games” in its August monetary report, when it was nonetheless negotiating for the license, but in addition appeared desperate to differentiate it, saying “it’s a utterly new mission, in a totally new style, in comparison with Payday.”
Nonetheless, it certain appears like the brand new recreation will not stray too removed from Starbreeze’s acquainted system: The brand new recreation “will carry the signature Starbreeze recreation cornerstones,” the studio stated in at present’s announcement, together with “co-operative multiplayer, lifetime dedication via a video games as a service-model, group engagement and a bigger than life expertise.”
“It’s onerous to think about a greater pairing than Dungeons & Dragons and Starbreeze—each with their basis in cooperative and group pushed experiences, ‘play it your manner’ and infinite replayability,” Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren stated. “When taking a look at potential IPs for our future tasks, Dungeons & Dragons was at all times on the prime of our listing and I am extremely blissful to announce this license.”
I truly discover it fairly simple to think about a greater pairing than Starbreeze and D&D. That is not a knock in opposition to Starbreeze, however let’s be sincere, it is most likely not the primary studio to leap to thoughts when you consider fantasy RPGs. It is in the beginning a shooter studio: Together with the Payday sequence, it is also answerable for The Chronicles of Riddick video games, The Darkness, and the woefully underrated Syndicate. D&D-style video games? Not a lot.
In fact, fantasy RPG trappings may be utilized to shooters, as we have seen in video games starting from Heretic and Hexen to Amid Evil and Immortals of Aveum, and I might count on that is what we’re taking a look at right here: Much less Baldur’s Gate, extra Baldur’s Weapons. Starbreeze does even have one recreation that very loosely suits that mildew to its credit score, the 2002 third-person ARPG Enclave, which was remastered earlier this 12 months for current-gen consoles.
And the extra I give it some thought, the extra it type of is smart. At its core, D&D is about placing collectively a crew, busting into locations you are not purported to be, whacking the guards, and stealing cash and valuables that belong to different individuals. And that is Payday, proper? So possibly Starbreeze is admittedly onto one thing right here.
No matter’s cooking, we’ll probably be ready a very long time to get an excellent take a look at it: Starbreeze’s new D&D recreation is not anticipated to be out till someday in 2026. For now, the studio’s massive focus is probably going nonetheless on Payday 3, which lastly acquired its first massive patch final month after a rocky launch.