Starbreeze, the developer of the Payday series of games, has announced an officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons game due out at some point in 2026.
The untitled game, codenamed Project Baxter, will be developed and published by Starbreeze, the company said.
Details are scarce, but Starbreeze said Project Baxter is set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons and “will carry the signature Starbreeze game cornerstones of co-operative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through a Games as a Service-model, community engagement and a larger than life experience”.
Project Baxter will launch on all major platforms in 2026 and include cross-play, Starbreeze added. The game will be produced in Unreal Engine 5.
Starbreeze published two images for Project Baxter, below:
“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,” Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren said.
“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 license. I want to thank Wizards of the Coast for being such a great partner. Development of the game is in full swing, and we are excited to deliver an amazing Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure in 2026.”
“Dungeons and Dragons is having an extraordinary year” says Eugene Evans, SVP Digital Strategy and Licensing at Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. “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.”
Starbreeze's most recent release is co-op heist shooter Payday 3, which has endured a tough launch. Payday 3 was plagued with server issues that forced Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren to apologise. The developer apologised again for a lack of communication, then apologised again for failing to deliver a promised patch. Despite all this, Starbreeze said Payday 3 had an impressive 3.1 million players as of October 2, a figure no doubt boosted by launching day-one on Xbox Game Pass.
Starbreeze and Embracer Group, which owns Payday 3 publisher Plaion and is having significant trouble of its own, both said investment in the game was recouped as of the end of September, less than two weeks after launch. But Embracer said Payday 3's ongoing contribution to the company’s bottom line will be “below management expectations due to the softer launch.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.