Mobile video game publisher Playdek, who brought the card game Fluxx to mobile devices, has inked an agreement with Wizards of the Coast to bring the Hasbro subsidiary’s tabletop fantasy games to iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch — and yes, that means Dungeons & Dragons.
“We are thrilled to work with Wizards of the Coast to bring their great games to digital devices,” said Playdek CEO Joel Goodman in a statement. “We’ve always been big fans of Wizard’s games and it is an honor to work with their talented team to re-create this compelling entertainment in a mobile form. New and existing fans will soon be able to enjoy them anywhere and anytime.”
The first game from the Playdek-Wizards partnership is expected to launch “later this year.”
There is no specific info on what form these apps will take, but the next edition of the D&D game is in development, and Wizards has been aggressively mining older editions of the game for re-release both in print and digitally as the game’s 40th anniversary approaches in 2014. We could be looking at the long-promised, once-abandoned “virtual tabletop” coming to fruition, and/or any manner of accessories for playing the game such as electronic character sheets, virtual dice and reference tools.
While it’s possible these games will be simple adventure game adaptations of D&D concepts, from Goodman’s statement there’s hope this could instead mean the kind of digital interaction the classic game has lacked for years. Time will tell.
UPDATE: Polygon has more details from Wizards’ panel at PAX East, specifying that the games will be based on the recent D&D-themed board games such as Castle Ravenloft.
