Cortex has indefinitely paused development of He-Man RPG Legends of Grayskull after sale to Dire Wolf Digital
Myaah! I’m cancelled!
Tabletop studio Cortex Roleplaying has reportedly stopped development on Legends of Grayskull: Masters of the Universe Tabletop RPG as a consequence of former parent company Fandom selling Cortex to Dire Wolf Digital.
A Fandom spokesperson told Dicebreaker via email that the process of transferring ownership between the two companies meant the Cortex team did not have the resources to work actively on Legends of Grayskull and fit a release date that had already been delayed beyond its original 2021 timeline. The announcement video for the RPG has been privated, though a sign-up page still exists on a website dedicated to the now-defunct game.
While the spokesperson did not permanently shut the door on a future where players might embody their favourite He-Man universe characters - “never say never”, they told Dicebreaker - Cortex is choosing to allocate its time and resources to the impending Tales of Xadia expansions, The Sunfire Chronicle.
New owner Dire Wolf Digital, which handles Dune Imperium and the Clank! series alongside several well regarded PC and console versions of board games, also apparently found itself facing too many new and upcoming projects to shoulder a Legends of Grayskull-sized burden. No other projects of Cortex or Dire Wolf Digital were affected by the sale, according to the spokesperson.
Fandom apparently considered the sale of Cortex at the same time that it sold D&D Beyond to Habsro earlier this year. Wizards of the Coast’s owners - and thus the owners of D&D - acquired all members of the team that developed and maintained the popular digital toolset. This left Cortex without the staff to help with its own recently launched digital tabletop aids, but Fandom claims it spent the interim searching for the perfect solution.
“With the sale of D&D Beyond to Hasbro in the spring, it no longer made sense for us to operate in the TTRPG space since that was the large majority of our business,” the spokesperson said. “We're really proud of Cortex and Tales of Xadia and were very mindful of finding the right home for this business with a company who would nurture and grow it, so that's why there was some time in between the Hasbro sale and this acquisition.” The financial details of Dire Wolf Digital’s purchase were not disclosed.