During The Game Awards tonight, Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast announced Invoke, a new game development studio based in Montreal, and their debut game, a dark fantasy RPG named Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons.
With the Dungeons & Dragons brand bigger than ever right now, Wizards of the Coast is continuing to find compelling ways to expand its reach and relevance. With the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the cult classic status of the major theatrical film, ongoing popularity of the tabletop game thanks to the likes of Stranger Things and Critical Role, plus much more, now is the perfect time to launch a new video game set in the iconic fantasy universe.
Compared to the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3, which is heavily based on the actual tabletop role-playing game’s ruleset and mechanics with dice rolls and turn-based combat, Warlock is far more removed from the traditional gameplay systems.
Instead, Warlock will be more of a standalone third-person single-player action-adventure dark fantasy RPG that leverages locations and concepts from within the Dungeons & Dragons mythos.
In Warlock, players will take on the role of Kaatri, who is played by Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Lucifer), using full vocal and performance capture. Kaatri is an accomplished warrior who makes a pact to wield otherworldly magic and become a warlock.
If you know much about D&D lore or remember Wyll’s storyline from Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll know that warlocks, by design, access their powers from their patrons, who are often demon-like figures. And as expected, those powers often come with a price and strings attached.
Since warlocks are magic users, learning powerful spells and using those abilities to overcome a variety of environmental and combat challenges is the core of the gameplay loop in Warlock. Player freedom and flexibility are at the core of the game’s design.
Warlock is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC. Invoke is planning to reveal official gameplay footage and more details in summer 2026 with a full launch planned for 2027. Wizards of the Coast is also planning to release Exodus in early 2027, an all-new sci-fi RPG from former BioWare veterans at Archetype Entertainment.