Microsoft “Always Excited” About Things Like Steam Deck, But No Game Pass Commitment Yet

The Steam Deck looks to be a high-tech way to play your PC games library on the go, but Valve has emphasized that it’s first and foremost a PC at heart. That means you can load it up however you might outfit a standard PC, which has raised the question: can we use Xbox Game Pass on it? So far there are more questions than answers.

For its part, Microsoft isn’t giving a clear answer. A Microsoft spokesperson simply told GameSpot, “We’re always excited when companies create new ways for people to play the games they love.” Xbox head Phil Spencer also lent his public congratulations on Twitter.

It stands to reason that the Steam Deck could potentially be made to run Game Pass games, which would grant it a massive library, including a steady stream of new first-party games. That’s an enticing possibility that makes the value proposition of the Steam Deck that much more appealing, especially if you’re already a member of Game Pass anyway. And Microsoft hasn’t shied away from the centrality of Game Pass to its overall market strategy. The company plans to bring it to TVs without an Xbox, so it would make sense for it to explore support for a device like Steam Deck, which would offer a portable version of Game Pass that doesn’t rely on cloud streaming.

Some questions remain open, though. For one, which Game Pass are we referring to in this dream feature? Microsoft offers three separate tracks of Game Pass–console, PC, and cloud. There’s plenty of overlap between the three, but the libraries differ slightly. As the Steam Deck is a PC at heart, it would probably be easiest to make it work with the Game Pass PC library. But some of those games are more targeted at KB/M controls, which wouldn’t necessarily work well with the Steam Deck controller. It’s also difficult to tell if text that was meant to be read on a monitor would cleanly transfer to a much smaller screen, though this is a problem potentially facing all PC games played on Steam Deck.

There is also the underlying technology at play. Steam Deck runs SteamOS by default, which doesn’t run Game Pass by itself. You may have to install a separate OS on the device, and we’re not yet sure how complex that process could be. You may have to choose one OS over another, and lose the SteamOS interface in the process.

The SteamOS also uses Proton to make non-Linux games playable, but that could mean extra work for Microsoft to ensure that each Game Pass game is compatible with Linux or Proton. That could ultimately lead to some Game Pass games being supported and not others, which could be awkward and confusing for casual players who enjoy the simplicity of Game Pass as a service. That alone might be enough to make it not worthwhile for Microsoft, at least until Steam Deck establishes a large enough install base to warrant the effort (which would track with Xbox’s reluctance to meaningfully get into VR).

And then of course there’s the question of market considerations. The Steam Deck should be very customizable, by nature of being a PC, but Valve is still aiming to push its closed ecosystem. Analyst Daniel Ahmad speculated that Valve is using the default Steam storefront to boost its profit margins for the Steam Deck, so that it doesn’t need to rely on the hardware itself to generate a profit.

If that’s the case, Valve may not be too keen on helping on-board customers into a competing service for which it makes no profit. Whatever work may need to go into helping Game Pass run on Steam Deck, Valve might not be jumping at the opportunity to do it.

Suffice to say that Game Pass on Steam Deck is an exciting possibility, but there are plenty of hurdles to overcome–both internal and external to the device itself. If it does work, though, it makes the promise of a decently-powered PC in your hand that much better.

The Steam Deck preorders open today at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Check out our Steam Deck preorder guide for more details.

Monster Hunter Animated Movie For Netflix Gets First Trailer

The first trailer for Netflix’s new Monster Hunter movie, Legends of the Guild, has arrived. The trailer introduces viewers to the main character, Aiden, who is defending his village from a dragon.

Aiden is voiced by Dante Brasco, who played a major role in the Steven Spielberg movie Hook and is also known for his voiceover career, most prominently in the role of Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild comes to Netflix on August 12. It’s directed by Steven F. Yamamoto, who has done visual effects for Transformers and is making his directorial debut with the film.

“A young man named Aiden, who calls himself a hunter, protects his isolated village. One day, he learns that his village is threatened by an Elder Dragon, a monster cloaked in mystery. Needing to find a way to save his village, Aiden leaves his home and sets off on a journey into the unknown alongside Julius, a first-rate hunter and member of the Hunter’s Guild, and his companions,” reads a line from the film’s description (via Eurogamer). “Thus begins an original story that shines the spotlight on characters in the world of Monster Hunter who have remained in the background until now.”

The movie was produced by Pure Imagination Studios. It’s the second Monster Hunter movie in under a year, following the live-action Monster Hunter film starring Milla Jovovich. GameSpot’s Monster Hunter live-action movie review said it was a “monstrous miscalculation.”

Xbox Head Phil Spencer Hopes The Industry Will Protect Old Games From Extinction

Backwards compatibility has been a key factor in Microsoft’s gaming strategy, as its current generation of Xbox Series X|S consoles are compatible with a wide range of original Xbox and Xbox 360 games, as well as the entire Xbox One library. Some other companies have a very different approach to games preservation, something which Xbox head Phil Spencer wants to change.

“I do worry a little bit about losing our artform and the history of it,” Spencer said on this week’s Kinda Funny Gamescast, where he also spoke about potential future acquisitions for Xbox. “When I think about old ROMs and MAME and these things of where these old games are going to go as the hardware that’s capable of running those games. I really wish as an industry we’d come together to help preserve the history of what gaming is about, so we don’t lose the ability to go back.”

Spencer believes that major platform stakeholders need to come together and archive older games or risk losing access to the titles that helped shape the industry.

As for Microsoft’s ongoing efforts, Spencer noted games that required the Kinect would be harder to bring to Xbox since the original peripheral is no longer supported. For other games though, Spencer added that cloud-based gaming could be an ideal solution.

“On preservation, one of the things that the cloud does offer us is the ability to throw more hardware at some of the emulation scenarios, to make it possible to really emulate,” Spencer said. “When we’re in the cloud, we don’t have to worry about the local compute capability to emulate those old systems. It’s one of the reasons why we look at the cloud and we continue on some of our backward compatibility work, which we are still working on, because I want those games to still be playable.”

Microsoft’s work hasn’t just made its older games playable; it has improved on them as well with 4K upgrades, auto HDR, and FPS Boost. As for Sony, PS4 games are backwards compatible with the newer PS5, but you’ll need to track down the original console hardware if you’re looking to try out some PS3 or PS Vita games. Fortunately, the digital stores for those consoles still remain open for now.

Other initiatives do exist to archive games, such as the non-profit Video Game History Foundation that built a dedicated research library that preserves all manner of items from the industry. This week also saw the Museum of Play track down a rare copy of Id Software’s port of Super Mario Bros. 3 for MS-DOS, which Nintendo rejected at the time as it simply wasn’t interested in the PC market.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 Review

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 is now streaming on Netflix.

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After delivering a pair of frightful and fun slasher adventures, The Fear Street trilogy concludes this week with the final chapter, Fear Street Part 3: 1666. Where the first installment hit hard with Scream-style scares and oodles of ‘90s nostalgia, the second trekked back to savage camp-set kills of ‘80s slashers. Now, co-writer/director Leigh Janiak whisks us back to where this horror saga began with a story of witches, demons, and suspicion that stands on its own as an entertaining and scary ride and also brings the series to a thrilling conclusion.

Picking up where Deena’s story left off, our Final Girl (Kiana Madeira) was reuniting the bones of the long-dead witch, Sarah Fier, with its severed hand. Just like that, Deena is thrust back into the past. This time, it’s not through a survivor’s sorrowful story — as was the case in Fear Street Part 2: 1978 — but through a full-bodied flashback that plants Deena in the shoes of Sarah Fier. It’s 1666 in the colony called Union, which will become divided into the cursed Shadyside and the prosperous Sunnyvale. Like the teens we’ve met in Fear Street Part 1: 1994 and its sequel, Sarah and her friends work hard and play hard. Amid their grim farming chores, they whisper excitedly about midnight plans to revel around a bonfire with applejack and some special berries that are essentially 17th century party drugs. Beyond frivolity, Sarah finds bliss in the woods, hooking up with the pastor’s daughter Hannah (Olivia Scott Welch, who played Sam in ‘94). The next morning, Sarah not only has a hangover to deal with but also a village rife with pestilence and paranoia. Has the devil come down on their town? And is her so-called sin the cause? 

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Janiak craftily recasts her ensembles from the previous two films to play the leads in this climactic chapter. This suggests that the victims of the Shadyside Curse — like Kate, Simon, Ziggy and Cindy (Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Sadie Sink, and Emily Rudd) — are related to the very first who suffered. Beyond that, though, it allows Janiak to double-dip into the star power of a crackerjack cast, whose mischievous smiles warm our hearts even if we know they’re destined for doom! Most clever, though, is casting Madeira in the place of Fier. When seen in flashes in the previous films, Fier was played by a yowling Elizabeth Scopel. But by letting Madeira take on the role sort of Quantum Leap–style, our connection and concern for Deena carries over, even as we slide into the story of the infamous witch. Likewise, the sapphic romance between Mary and Hannah is instantly electrified by memories of Deena and Sam’s shared passion, and that proves a poignant clue as to why Sarah chose these two to tell her whole story. 

In Fear Street Part 1: 1994, homophobia hissed at the edge of Deena and Sam’s narrative. Sam’s mother scowled. Conversations around coming out were coded yet clear, and slurs were kept to a minimum. In 1666, however, Sarah is outright called an “abomination” for her lesbian lust, and the girls are publicly blamed for a curse that’s turning food into rot and righteous men into murderers. The only grown-up who will even hear Deena out is the Solomon Goode, a widowed farmer who is the ancestor of 94’s Sheriff Nick Goode (both played by Ashley Zukerman). However, Nick betrayed Ziggy by dismissing her claims of a curse in ’78. Here, we learn the rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the family tree. 

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Without wading deep into spoilers, Fear Street Part 3: 1666 doesn’t just reveal the full story of Sarah Fier. It also exposes the political commentary throbbing at the heart of the trilogy. This was never just a witchy slasher. Janiak and her team of writers (Phil Graziadei, Zak Olkewicz, Kyle Killen, and Kate Trefry) were leading us into a labyrinth with a gory allegory about systemic oppression at its center. The Shadysiders do not suffer because of bad luck. They are not doomed to poverty and violence for not pulling themselves up by their bootsteps. There’s something darker at play, and this aspect of it makes the inclusive casting not colorblind or pandering, but a crucial part of the message. Janiak purposefully focused her trilogy on a Black, queer Final Girl who refused to play nice to a world that seems dead-set against her. The filmmaker then surrounded her heroine with people of color and complicated characters who either don’t often exist in slasher horror or are killed off so swiftly we barely get to know them. As such, Janiak has made a challenging slasher trilogy for our modern age, while looking back firmly at the past. 

The first two films have received mixed reviews for leaning into nostalgia, needle drops, and some cliches. I’m among those who found these touches a purposeful — and fun — walk through the murderous memory lane of the slasher genre before heading somewhere new. In 1666, the nostalgia is ripped away by centuries. A dedicated production design paints a world that feels ancient yet alive. The neon lights of ’94 were traded for the flash lights of ’78, now traded for the firelight of 1666. Echoes exist through repeated gestures, visuals, plot points, and — of course — casting. The colonialism era and its evils are demystified, with the cast tied already in our minds to more modern times. So, when the sneering jock from ‘94’s Sunnyvale (Jeremy Ford) begins fearmongering with talk of Satan and the wild women who assure disaster, it’s easy to see how such a character may appear today (probably shouting their concerns on YouTube or a podcast). Yet Sarah’s story does not end in 1666. Once she’s been lynched, Deena is back in the present (’94) in her own body, left to grapple with some heavy realizations and a final showdown that demands a team-up and a climactic trip to the mall. 

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As 1666 is bookended by 1994’s plotline, the pacing is admittedly jarring, but that feels fitting. We, like Deena, have a lot to process and little time to do it. So breathe in the Ck One and get ready for a battle royale that will pit our heroes against a masked clan of killers. Amid sprays of blood and black-light reactive paint flung about along with splashy slays, things get messy plotting-wise. Still, it’s hard to be bothered when Janiak and her team are turning in such a spectacular and inventive final blood bath. It’s an indulgence, but one welcomed and earned. 

Nicolas Cage Talks About Giving Up Hollywood And Pursuing Independent Films Instead

Nicolas Cage plays a celebrity chef who abandons his career to live in the woods with a pig in the new movie Pig, and the actor himself has gone on a journey into his own version of wilderness.

Speaking to Variety, Cage said that like his Pig character Rob, he’s unsure if he’ll ever return to his past life. For Cage, this would be making the types of big blockbuster movies he made earlier in his career.

“I do feel that I’ve gone into my own wilderness and that I’ve left the small town that is Hollywood,” he said. “I don’t know exactly why Rob left his stardom. It’s never fully explained, and I like that about the movie. But as for me, I don’t know if I’d want to go back. I don’t know if I’d want to go and make another Disney movie. It would be terrifying. It’s a whole different climate. There’s a lot of fear there.”

That’s too bad for people hoping to see Cage return to the National Treasure series, which is set to return as a TV show. Cage remarked that it was a “high pressure game” to make The Rock and Con Air with Jerry Bruckheimer back-to-back in the ’90s. Nowadays, he’s more excited by the independent film projects he’s involved with, like Mandy, Joe, and now Pig.

“When I was making Jerry Bruckheimer movies back-to-back, that was just a high pressure game. There were a lot of fun moments, but at the same time, there was also, ‘We wrote this line. It has to be said this way,'” Cage said. “They’d put a camera on you and photograph you, and order you: ‘Now say the roller skate training wheels line.’ I’d say, ‘I’ll do that but I’d also like to try it this way.’ On independent movies, you have more freedom to experiment and be fluid. There’s less pressure and there’s more oxygen in the room.”

Pig is playing now in theaters. Cage’s next movie will be The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he plays a fictional version of himself in a wild-sounding story. Cage will never watch the movie.

IGN UK Podcast #601: Whales are Scarier than Sharks

It’s time to welcome Emma. She joins Cardy and Al for a chat all about the new Valve Steam Deck handheld console. They also talk about how they felt about Loki now it’s finished and Black Widow. Emma then shares her experiences playing the Metroid series for the first while Cardy tells everyone why they should be watching The Sopranos.

Of course there’s also an Endless Search as well as your feedback including an onsen story from heaven this time.

Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected].

IGN UK Podcast #601: Whales are Scarier than Sharks

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Hackers Begin Leaking Stolen EA Data, EA Says It’s Not Concerned

In June this year, hackers stole 780GB of data from EA including the source code of FIFA 21 and the Frostbite engine, EA’s proprietary development engine used across most of its titles. Now, the hackers are leaking the information they obtained on the internet in an attempt to force EA to pay a ransom.

Vice reported on this development, after the hackers left a message on a forum about their plans. Apparently, the hackers had originally tried to sell the data, but have now decided to try and extort EA for ransom money instead.

The statement reads: “Few week ago we send email for ransome [sic] to EA but we dont get any response so we will posting the [source code]”. This is followed by a clear threat to keep sharing the data if EA do not respond: “If they dont contact us or dont pay us we will keep posting it,”

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The hackers also left a file on the forum, containing 1.3GB (in a compressed file) of information on internal EA files relating to development tools and EA’s Origin store. This could prove to be a major headache for EA, as the Frostbite engine is used in everything from their big sports titles like FIFA, to their flagship FPS franchise Battlefield, which is launching a new entry, Battlefield 2042, in October this year. Despite this, the company seems to think that the hack will have minimal impact on products and services. EA has released the following statement:

“We’re aware of the recent posts by the alleged hackers and we are analyzing the files released. At this time, we continue to believe that it does not contain data that poses any concern to player privacy, and we have no reason to believe that there is any material risk to our games, our business or our players. We continue to work with federal law enforcement officials as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”

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This follows similar wording to the original statement EA released after the hack occurred in June: “We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen. No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”

Vice reports that, whilst the hackers have sent ransom requests to EA, the company had initially refused to acknowledge or reply to these demands. However, the company has now admitted that it has received an extortion threat. Hacks have become increasingly common across the gaming industry, with both CD Projekt Red and Capcom becoming victims of significant hacking attacks in the past year.

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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Xbox Series X|S Tops PS5 In US June Sales, Best-Selling Games Revealed

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales report for June, revealing which games, consoles, and accessories sold the best in the US, while also providing an overall snapshot of the health of the business in America.

Total spending on video games–across games, hardware, and accessories–was up by 5% for June 2021 compared to June 2020, reaching $4.9 billion. For the first six months of 2021, total spending was $28.9 billion, up 15% compared to the first six months of 2020.

Once again, the Nintendo Switch was the top-selling home console in the US during June 2021 for unit sales. However, the Xbox Series family of consoles performed the best in terms of dollar sales. In fact, dollar sales of Xbox hardware in June was the highest ever for a June month, eclipsing the previous record set in June 2011.

For the first half of 2021, the Nintendo Switch remains the best-selling console in the US in terms of both unit and dollar sales. The PlayStation 5, meanwhile, continues to be the fastest-selling console in US history based on unit sales through its first eight months.

All major consoles are currently supply-constrained. The big numbers for Xbox in June came during the same month as the company’s big Xbox E3 2021 briefing. Sony did not hold one of its own.

Total spending on hardware for June 2021 in the US rose by a massive 112% compared to June 2020, adding up to $401 million. This represented the highest hardware figures for a June month since June 2008 ($617 million). Through June, total spending on hardware in the US reached $2.3 billion, which is up 45% compared to the first half of 2020, driven in part by the launch of new consoles.

Moving to game sales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was June 2021’s best-selling game in the US. It also hit the highest launch-month dollar sales for any title in the series, more than doubling the previous record-setter, which was 2016’s Ratchet & Clank for PS4.

Nintendo’s Mario Golf: Super Rush was the No. 3 overall best-seller in the US for June 2021, and this doesn’t even include digital sales. Super Rush had the highest launch-month dollar sales for any game in franchise history, passing Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour back in July 2003.

Another mover during June 2021 was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, which climbed from 51st in May to 17th in June thanks in part to the launch of the Switch edition. Additionally, Sea of Thieves climbed from 36th in May to inside the top 20 in June due to the A Pirate’s Life update.

In total, spending on games reached $4.319 billion for June 2021, representing a 1% increase year-over-year.

In terms of accessories, total spending dropped by 1% to $207 million. For the first half of 2021, total spending on accessories amounted to $1.2 billion, which was up 14% year-over-year.

The black DualSense controller for the PS5 was the best-selling accessory overall in June 2021, while the white version is the top seller for the first half of 2021.

June 2021 Game Sales All Platforms

  1. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  3. Mario Golf: Super Rush*
  4. MLB The Show 21^
  5. Scarlet Nexus
  6. Resident Evil Village
  7. Mario Kart 8*
  8. Minecraft
  9. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  10. Mortal Kombat 11
  11. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
  12. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
  13. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  14. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  15. Super Mario 3D World*
  16. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
  17. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
  18. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
  19. Pokemon: Sword/Shield*
  20. Sea of Thieves

*Digital sales not included

^Xbox digital sales not included

Year-To-Date Ending June 2021

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  2. Resident Evil Village
  3. MLB The Show 21^
  4. Super Mario 3D World*
  5. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  6. Monster Hunter: Rise
  7. Mario Kart 8*
  8. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  9. Outriders
  10. Minecraft

*Digital sales not included

^Xbox digital sales not included

12 Months Ending June 2021

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  2. Madden NFL 21
  3. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  4. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  5. Ghost of Tsushima
  6. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
  7. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
  8. NBA 2K21*
  9. Marvel’s Avengers
  10. Mario Kart 8*

*Digital sales not included

June 2021 Nintendo Sales

Mario Golf Super Rush*

Mario Kart 8*

Animal Crossing: New Horizons*

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*

Super Mario 3D World*

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

Pokemon Sword/Shield*

New Pokemon Snap*

Super Mario Party*

Minecraft*

*Digital sales not included

June 2021 PlayStation Sales

  1. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  3. MLB The Show 21
  4. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  5. Resident Evil Village
  6. Scarlet Nexus
  7. Minecraft
  8. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  9. Ghost of Tsushima
  10. Final Fantasy VII: Remake

June 2021 Xbox Sales

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
  3. Resident Evil Village
  4. Mass Effect Legendary Edition
  5. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  6. Scarlet Nexus
  7. Forza Horizon 4
  8. It Takes Two
  9. Mortal Kombat 11
  10. MLB The Show 21*

*Digital sales not included

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

New DnD Book Has Everything You Need To Know About Dragons

Kicking off D&D Live is a newly-announced Dungeons & Dragons book called Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. Of course, the narrator of the book is none other than Fizban himself, who is a dragon walking around in human form.

Hitting stores on October 19, Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons expands on the legendary beasts, giving players new dragon-themed options. The book will introduce gem dragons to 5e for the first time, adding new player character options. There are new race options for dragonborns, focusing on promatic, metallic, or gem heritages. Additionally, the book will be a big help to DMs who are looking to craft a campaign which is steeped in dragon lore.

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There will be a main cover, featuring art by Chris Rahn, and alternative cover, featuring art by Anato Finnstark. Additionally, you can see some art from the book above which includes gem dragonborns by Zoltan Boros, a metallic great wyrm by Crystal Sully, and a turtle great wyrm by David Auden Nash.

“There’s a definite focus in this book on stuff that you can use at the table right away,” explained D&D TRPG Studio executive producer Ray Winninger during a press conference. “Everything from dragon lair maps to, tons of new dragon stat blocks and non-dragon stat blocks, and various dragon-related monsters show up. We tried to take a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach to talking about dragons, so rather than talking to you for a while about the personalities of brass dragons, we give you a table of personality traits you can randomly roll on or choose from as you’re creating a brass dragon in a way that gives each dragon, a flavor quirk. There’s also a lot of player facing content, but really that focus of giving you stuff, you can use right away, is what I would stress.”

Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons features a large bestiary which features 20 different kinds of dragons, along with dragon-related creatures. This will be about a third of the book.

New subclasses include The Way of the Ascendant Dragon for the monk and the Drake Warden for the ranger. Further details about these subclasses were not revealed during the conference.

Stay tuned for more D&D news throughout the weekend and D&D Live reveals more info about upcoming books and events.

D&D Announces Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons Sourcebook

The Dungeons & Dragons team has revealed Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, a new sourcebook for D&D 5th Edition focused solely on the famous monsters that serve as the game’s namesake.

Fans of older versions of D&D will likely recognize the titular character, Fizban the Fabulous – who also provides point-of-view commentary throughout the book, similar to the in-fiction author Volothamp Geddarm’s notes in Volo’s Guide to Monsters – from Dragonlance, the AD&D campaign setting and series of novels.

Standard and Alternate covers for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

It’s important to note, however, that Fizban’s Treasury isn’t a Dragonlance sourcebook, despite recent releases and announcements for other realms like Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft on this fall’s Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos moving outside the game’s default setting of The Forgotten Realms. “We’re happy to be reintroducing at least some elements of that,” say Ray Winniger, Executive Producer of D&D for Wizard’s of the Coast. “It’s not [a Dragonlance book], it’s really a book about dragons across the whole of the D&D multiverse; it’s not specific to any given D&D world.”

“There’s an idea running through this book that every dragon has echos of itself on other worlds of the Material Plane,” adds James Wyatt, a veteran writer and game designer working on both Fizban’s Treasury and the upcoming D&D x MTG crossover deck. “They don’t come from outside it, they were there when it was made … Dragons are an essential part of the world, which is why we named the game after them.”

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Wyatt says the book consists of three main sections – a bestiary, full of new stat blocks and descriptions for draconic creatures ranging from tiny drakes and wyverns to the massive, godlike Great Wyrms, which dwarf even the ancient dragons that have long sat atop the D&D Monster Manual food chain. “It’s almost like fighting two monsters back to back, both of which are at challenge ratings above 20,” Wyatt says with a laugh. “They’re tremendous forces of magic and nature that bend the world around them and wreak havoc wherever they go.”

The other two sections will consist of some new character options for players and a plethora of DM tools and info. It introduces two new subclasses for the Monk and Ranger – The Way of the Ascendent Dragon and the Drake Warden, respectively – as well as new options for Dragonborn characters who wish to be descended from Gem dragons rather than the classic Chromatic or Metallic.

For Dungeon Masters, Fizban’s Treasury contains a horde of info on not only these Gem dragons – who are notably different from their traditional siblings thanks to their powerful psyonic power and unusual damage types (for example, their breath weapons might deal Radiant or Necrotic damage as opposed to Fire or Acid damage) – but also plenty of options for lore and the character of D&D most famous monsters. “We tried to take a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach when talking about dragons,” Wyatt says. “Rather than talking to you for a while about the personalities of brass dragons, we give you a table of personality traits that you can randomly roll on or you can choose from as you’re creating a brass dragon.”

While the book does contain a considerable amount of Official Lore™, Wyatt says that it’s all about giving players and DMs alike more tools and toys to play with in their own game worlds. “Even as we’re in the final stages of getting it ready to go to the printer, I’m marking up printouts on one side and writing notes for my next campaign on the other.”

Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons will release on October 19, 2021 and features a standard cover available at all online retailers and bookstores, as well as an alternate cover available at your friendly neighborhood game+hobby store.