Studio developing Dungeons & Dragons RPG video game lays off 44 workers, shelves project
Hidden Path sought additional funding for six months amidst a “challenging environment”.
Washington-based video game studio Hidden Path Entertainment has laid off 44 of its roughly 65 employees and indefinitely shelved development on an “epic” Dungeons & Dragons RPG title.
Reporting from GameIndustry.biz and Game Developer confirmed the news originally shared to LinkedIn by the studio’s creative director Michael Austin, who said that Hidden Path had been forced to cut their headcount and pause all work on the unnamed project “in the face of a challenging environment.”
“For over six months, our team at Hidden Path Entertainment has been in numerous active discussions to find replacement funding for an exciting RPG project,” Austin said. “Because of this, we have had to make the painful decision to release 44 amazing game developers from our studio.”
Simply called ‘Dungeons & Dragons RPG’ on the studio’s website, the project was the subject of dissenting reports in January of 2023 when Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier reported that Hidden Path’s title was one of at least five in-development video game - including the internally nicknamed Jabberwocky - that had been cancelled after Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast “made some changes to our long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing our existing brands and those which show promise in expanding or engaging our audience in new ways,” a WotC spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Later that same day, Hidden Path tweeted that its project created in coordination with Wizards of the Coast had not been cancelled and that development would continue apace. Neither company had released any details about the video game beyond the developer describing it as an “epic” RPG using the D&D licence. All of the video games cancelled in early 2023 were unannounced and did not include Larian’s eventual blockbuster hit, Baldur’s Gate 3.
Hidden Path Entertainment was founded in 2006 and previously worked on existing PC video games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Age of Empires II’s HD Edition. The studio would go on to develop original video games such as the Defense Grid series and Brass Tactics. The video games industry has suffered consecutive waves of layoffs over the past few months totalling in the thousands. Hasbro itself laid off 1,100 workers just before Christmas 2023, including deep cuts to the D&D and Magic: The Gathering design teams.