Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast has announced it is launching a new game studio who will be focusing on story-driven RPGs. It's also got some pretty hefty pedigree heading it up.
While Archetype Entertainment's current number of employees isn't known, the big two names are James Ohlen and Chad Robertson. Both previously worked for BioWare.
Ohlen, who was hired by Wizards of the Coast last April, was the lead designer and creative director on some of BioWare's greatest games: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins and Star Wars: The Old Republic, while also contributing to Jade Empire, Mass Effect. He also worked on Anthem, but nobody can be perfect 100 percent of the time. He'll be the Archetype's Head of Studio.
Taking up the General Manager role, Robertson's mainly known as Head of Live Service for Anthem, though he previously worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic. He left Bioware Austin in November of last year, but before that was a main point of contact between the community and Bioware, providing updates on attempts to fix the game following its disastrous launch.
Interestingly, Archetype Entertainment isn't starting with games based on Wizards of the Coast's two major properties. Instead, it is working on a "story driven", "multi-platform roleplaying game set in a new science fiction universe". Ohlen's experience with the Old Republic series definitely gives him the clout to make a new sci-fi universe.
Wizards of the Coast has made a push into video games recently. Between Archetype Entertainment's project, the recently-released Magic the Gathering: Arena, and the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian, it's worth watching the publisher in the years to come.
