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The rise of NFTs, and why people are collecting moments and assets differently now.Wizards of the Coast announced Tuesday that the latest Dungeons & Dragons video game, Dark Alliance, will debut June 22.Developed by the Montreal-based studio Tuque Games, Dark Alliance is a cooperative action-RPG for up to four players, set in the Forgotten Realms. As four of the Companions of the Hall — Bruenor Battlehammer, Wulfgar, Catti-Brie, and Drizzt Do’Urden — you’re tasked with defending Icewind Dale against invading beholders, giants, and dragons.This is the first glimpse of Dark Alliance that Renton, Wash.-based Wizards has offered the public since its initial announcement in December 2019.It’s also the first game to debut following last month’s news that Wizards’ parent company Hasbro is planning to reorganize itself to further support of both D&D and Magic: The Gathering. Both franchises had their highest-grossing year to date in 2020. Notably, Dark Alliance is the first D&D video game to be published by Wizards of the Coast itself.Dark Alliance‘s first gameplay trailer was released this morning, and while it’s short, there are a few useful takeaways from it. For one thing, this is arguably the most deliberately metal presentation for a D&D-based video game, right down to using an Ozzy Osbourne song as its background music. It’s reminiscent of the sort of ad campaigns that have run for recent Magic: The Gathering expansion sets like War of the Spark. Wizards is making a real marketing push here.Dark Alliance is also running off of some back-to-basics concepts. Despite the lack of a number in its name, it’s technically the third game in a series that began with the 2001 spin-off Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance.Developed in Bothell, Wash. by Snowblind Studios, which has since been acquired and merged into WB Games’ Monolith Productions, the original Dark Alliance was a top-down dungeon crawler published by Interplay Entertainment. It was successful enough that it led to a sequel in 2004, as well as a series of other dungeon crawlers, such as the Everquest spin-off Champions of Norrath, that were either made with or based on the same engine.

The 2021 Dark Alliance is also focused on four of the most recognizable characters in any D&D setting, rather than a collection of random adventurers like the previous Dark Alliances. If Dungeons & Dragons has a single mascot, it’s Drizzt Do’Urden, and he’s front and center here.(Wizards of the Coast Image)© Provided by Geekwire (Wizards of the Coast Image)The four main characters of Dark Alliance 2021, the Companions of the Hall, were originally introduced in R.A. Salvatore’s 1988 Forgotten Realms novel The Crystal Shard. Salvatore originally intended the series to revolve around Wulfgar, a human barbarian, but Drizzt, who Salvatore came up with on the spur of the moment, quickly became the book’s breakout character.

There’s a lot about how Dungeons & Dragons has evolved in the last 30 years or so that can be traced directly back to Drizzt’s popularity. In the ’80s, the Forgotten Realms’ drow elves were made to be creepy plug-and-play villains; they lived underground, practiced slavery and human sacrifice, and worshipped a goddess called the “Spider Queen.” (Since then, Wizards of the Coast has announced its intention to revise D&D to move away from the concept of villainous races.)Previously: Hasbro reorganizes to support big growth from ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and ‘Magic: The Gathering’Drizzt was introduced as a renegade drow, by virtue of possessing such non-drow values as “having friends” and “not being a complete bastard.” He was initially introduced as a sidekick and mentor for Wulfgar, but by the third book in the original trilogy, 1990’s The Halfling’s Gem, Drizzt had definitively swiped Wulfgar’s protagonist spot. Salvatore went on to write over 40 additional novels and short stories that starred or co-starred Drizzt, many of which have made the New York Times best-seller list. The next Drizzt book, Starlight Enclave, is due out in August.Drizzt has ended up as arguably the single most recognizable signature character in Dungeons & Dragons‘ 40-year history, and inspired a hobby-wide fascination with drow elves as playable characters that’s become a running joke among long-time fans. In fact, for a while in the 2000s, every D&D-based video game had at least one renegade drow of its own, such as Dark Alliance 2‘s Vhaidra or Zhai in Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. (If you really want to push it, you can point to several other fantasy franchises, like Everquest and Warcraft, that have introduced Not Drow Really over the years in an attempt to cash in on that Drizzt money.)

While 2021’s Dark Alliance is far from Drizzt’s first turn as a playable video game character — he’s an unlockable option in both previous Dark Alliance games — it’s definitely a case of Wizards of the Coast playing to the crowd. They’re resurrecting an old beloved franchise, populating it with D&D‘s most popular heroes, and giving it a strong marketing bump. It’s indicative of just how seriously Wizards is choosing to take its new Dungeons & Dragons initiatives going forward.Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance will ship June 22 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. The digital version ($39.99) can be pre-ordered as of Tuesday morning, and comes with a special in-game weapon set with a Beholder design theme.A retail-exclusive version of the game ($59.99) will ship in a special “steelbook” case, which comes with the Beholder weapon set, a Lich-themed weapon set, a digital download code for the game’s soundtrack, an artbook, and automatic access to a planned expansion for Dark Alliance called Echoes of the Blood War

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