Wizards of the Coast has opened its new studio, Skeleton Key. Led by industry veteran Christian Dailey, the team will focus on making AAA games.
Dailey will become its vice president and studio head. “It’s early days right now at Skeleton Key but looking forward to sharing more soon,” he wrote on Twitter.
Prior to joining the new studio, Dailey served as executive producer on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. He has over 20 years of experience at companies like Blizzard and Electronic Arts.
Based in Austin, Texas, Skeleton Key will be making AAA titles. “Our mission is to create immersive gameplay, unique stories, and thought-provoking moments of suspense and horror that guide players to have fun while facing their fears,” the studio’s mission reads.
Right now, Skeleton Key is looking for an art director, design director, senior producer, lead technical designer, and principal engineer.
Very excited to announce that we’ve started a new AAA game studio with the amazing folks at @Hasbro and @Wizards of the Coast!
It’s early days right now at @SkeletonKeyDev but looking forward to sharing more soon. Please keep a lookout and check our open roles! https://t.co/GJUmEDMvrk
— Christian Dailey (@ChristianDailey) July 26, 2022
“We are thrilled to continue to build our roster of exceptionally talented digital gaming leaders and welcome Christian to the team,” Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming president Cynthia Williams said in a statement. “We will greatly benefit from the experience that this team and new video game studio bring to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro.”
Skeleton Key joins other Wizards of the Coast’s North American studios, including Atomic Arcade, Tuque Games (Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance), and Archetype Entertainment. The latter consists of several BioWare veterans, such as Drew Karpyshyn, James Ohlen, and Chad Robertson, and is now working on an untitled sci-fi RPG.