New games are appearing on Steam every day. Now a developer wants to try their hand at a completely new genre after focusing on story games.
Which developer is it? The French developer Quantic Dream has provided some strong story games over the last few decades. With Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and their latest title Detroit: Become Human, they have captivated many players.
Since then, it has been rather quiet for the studio, and after 7 years, there is news about one of Quantic Dream’s next big projects: With Spellcasters Chronicles, they want to create a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short, and offer a competitor to the massive League of Legends.
What kind of game is it? Spellcasters Chronicles is a free-to-play MOBA in which six so-called spellcasters compete against each other. As a spellcaster, you move in third-person perspective on the battlefield across multiple lanes, aiming to destroy the opposing life stones.
The big feature of Spellcasters Chronicles is summoning an army on the battlefield. As a spellcaster, you are not only allowed to cast your spells but also summon creatures for support. These creatures have different strengths and weaknesses and help you in attack or defense.
The closed beta of Spellcasters Chronicles is set to start on Steam at the end of 2025.
Storytelling is also important in Spellcasters Chronicles
How is storytelling integrated into a MOBA? In Spellcasters Chronicles, players will have a say in shaping the world. In each season, you will face important decisions that are meant to influence the gameplay of the game.
Are there classic roles? Yes, but not as direct selections. Before each round, you build your deck and select your abilities and creatures from a list of more than 50 spells and summons.
In addition to small skeleton warriors, there are large dragons, entire structures, and huge titans to shake the battlefield. Additionally, you can enhance your summons with the power of the elements using fire or ice spells while flying across the battlefield and leading your army to victory.
The new game from Quantic Dream will be a completely different genre
Why is Quantic Dream changing genres? Quantic Dream has developed games with a strong focus on storytelling throughout their career. Games like Heavy Rain or Detroit: Become Human are popular among many players, and Detroit: Become Human even ranks among the top 250 games on Steam (steam250.com).
In 2019, the studio announced that they wanted to try new things after ending their exclusive partnership with Sony. David Cage, the head behind Quantic Dream, states that while they had some freedom in the 12 years with Sony, Quantic Dream now wants to develop entirely their own games to explore new directions and ideas (gamestar.de).
Quantic Dream is also known for a scandal: In 2018, the studio was accused of having stored several hundred photo montages on their servers. There, the heads of the employees were allegedly used to create partly racist and sexist edited images.
According to witness reports, the two highest-ranking employees of the studio, David Cage and Gulliaume de Fondamiere, were aware of this but allegedly did nothing against the bullying. After an employee sued Quantic Dream, the court found that there was no acceptable working atmosphere in the studio and that termination was inevitable (gamestar.de).
The CEO of NetEase aims to focus on mass-market games: In 2022, Quantic Dream became a subsidiary of NetEase Games. In spring 2025, the company’s CEO, William Ding, announced that they wanted to focus on more mass-market games that stimulate player spending (gamedeveloper.com).
NetEase Games has already closed several studios in 2025. The developers of the hero shooter hit Marvel Rivals were also affected. The studio had to lay off several employees for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency: Company fires developers of Marvel Rivals despite huge successes due to “optimization of development efficiency”
