Chromatic Games announced that Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is currently in Early Access on Steam for PC, and that the team will gather feedback and implement updates leading up to a second quarter 2020 release on PC and Nintendo Switch.

The game will spend several months in Early Access, launching with 12 maps, four difficulty settings, four playable characters, and 12 pets.

Throughout the Early Access phase they have plans on implementing additional modes and content. Once the game graduates from Early Access it will then launch in full on PC and Nintendo Switch, followed by a late third-quarter release on the Xbox One and PS4.

Did they turn the mage black and slap the elf on pants?

If so then the game is already showing signs of being converged.

Chromatic Games is made up of some of the talent who worked at Trendy Entertainment on the first two Dungeon Defenders games. Apparently they decided to change names to avoid the controversy associated with Trendy Entertainment after their lawsuit against Studio Wildcard for Jeremy Stieglitz allegedly poaching some of Trendy’s talent while a no compete clause was in effect, as reported by Gainesville.com.

I also noticed they didn’t call the game Dungeon Defenders III, almost as if to completely erase the abomination that was the free-to-play cash grab known as Dungeon Defenders II.

After Stieglitz left the franchise took a major hit in quality.

From the looks of it Dungeon Defenders: Awakened will be recycling content from the first game and Dungeon Defenders: Eternity.

According to the Steam user reviews they mention the same thing: that the game is basically recycling content from the original but with a higher price tag.

And yes, the price tag is steep for what’s essentially GOTY-edition of the original, carrying a $39.99 price point despite being in Early Access.