by Eric Law
When it was first announced at The Game Awards in 2024, Dispatch looked promising. Created by AdHoc Studios, which was founded by developers who worked on hit episodic Telltale Games adventures like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Tales from the Borderlands, this superhero workplace comedy had all the ingredients for success, save for studio name recognition. Luckily, that did not stop Dispatch from a perfect landing, receiving near-universal praise for its writing, premise, and gameplay.
While Dispatch’s commercial success is obviously great news for AdHoc, it may be even bigger for Critical Role. The Dungeons and Dragons actual play giant announced it was teaming up with the makers of Dispatch to create the very first official Critical Role video game. While such a project almost certainly would have been able to fly on its own, Dispatch has cleared the runway for a perfect takeoff.
Dispatch Is Running So That Critical Role Can Sprint
How Dispatch Put AdHoc Studios On the Map
The collapse of the original Telltale Games is one of the messiest studio closures in recent memory. Despite the success of games like The Walking Dead, Telltale ran out of money and fell apart on September 21, 2018. 90% of the workforce was let go overnight; employees received no warning, no severance, and only 30 minutes to pack up and leave the office. Clementine voice actor Melissa Hutchison reportedly learned this had happened in the middle of a recording session. By October, the remaining staff were laid off, and the studio effectively closed.
That said, the death of Telltale Games was not permanent. In 2019, LCG Entertainment acquired many key Telltale IPs and reopened the studio under new management, with an estimated 50% of the studio staffed by former Telltale employees. However, a second studio spawned from the original Telltale Games: AdHoc Studios. Composed of alumni from Telltale, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio, AdHoc was created with the goal of “carrying the interactive narrative torch into the future.”
Dispatch is AdHoc Studios’ first game, and it was a big hit. With over a million copies sold in the first 10 days since the release of episodes one and two on October 22, Dispatch blew up on Steam, even briefly claiming the number one spot on the Top Selling Games list over Battlefield 6. Its flagship game proved AdHoc Studios was as much a worthy successor to the original Telltale Games as the LCG version – and set the stage for another critical success.
AdHoc’s Critical Role Game Rides On Brand Recognition and Dispatch’s Success
On July 21, 2025, Critical Role announced a partnership with AdHoc Studios. The former would create Dispatch merchandise, tabletop gaming content, and an animated series, while the latter would make a video game in Exandria. While it is too early to know much about “Project Exandria,” hints from Critical Role Productions CEO and Dispatch voice actor Travis Willingham suggest the game could include the following:
- Choice-driven narrative gameplay similar to Dispatch
- A new story set in Exandria at some point between the main Critical Role campaigns
- Cameos from Vox Machina, the Mighty Nein, or Bells Hells
The entire core cast of Critical Role appears in Dispatch, including Laura Bailey as Invisigal, Travis Willingham as Phenomaman, Matthew Mercer as Shroud, Liam O’Brien as Lightningstruck, Ashley Johnson as Ashley Rhinnes, Marisha Ray as Brickhouse, Sam Riegel as Sweettalker, and Taliesin Jaffe as additional voices.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
