Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance cross-platform on day 1: Xbox, desktop, streaming

Today Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance was announced as an Xbox Game Pass game at launch. This means that, all told, the game will launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Windows 10 PC, and on every platform supported with Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) through Xbox Game Pass. It'll all be happening on June 22, 2021 – and it'll all be cross-platform cross-play on day 1, launch day.

The game has the brand name backing. It's Dungeons & Dragons – everyone knows the name. It has the graphics, and it has the backing of Wizards of the Coast and Microsoft. It's developed by the folks at Tuque, and it looks like it could be pretty fantastic. Now all we need is confirmation that it's going to go the distance.

It's difficult to create a game like this when so many other big-name games already occupy the space. New games aren't as safe a bet as expansions for old games, especially now that we've got games that have the ability to be launched and re-launched on new platforms. Here with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, it would seem that the heart and soul of decades of fantasy gameplay are ready to do business.

The Dungeons & Dragons game Dark Alliance is a third-person action brawler that "drops you and your friends into the unforgiving frozen hellscape of Icewind Dale to take on iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters and collect epic loot." This game can be played "on your own," but as Jeff Hattem, Head of Studio & Creative Director, Tuque Games suggests, "with the addition of cross play on PC and Xbox featuring up to 4-player co-op, why would you?"

And yes, this is the first Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance game in nearly 20 years. Cross your fingers this means we're ready to stay in this realm for 20 more.