The Sigil VTT Officially Fails Its Death Saving Throw

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The end has finally come for Dungeons & Dragons’ troubled Sigil virtual tabletop. Today, Wizards of the Coast officially announced that they will no longer be providing any further development efforts to the platform, with servers scheduled to be shut down at the end of October 2026. Anyone with a Master Tier subscription who has accessed Sigil at least once since its launch in March 2025 will receive a six-month Master Tier credit.

It marks an ignoble end to what was once hyped as the next evolution of D&D online play, but instead turned out to be a massive failure. So just why did WotC put Sigil out of its misery and what does it mean for the future of D&D? Below, we take a closer look at all the details.

What is the Sigil VTT?

Sigil is a virtual tabletop for Dungeons & Dragon built using the Unreal Engine 5 and integrating with the D&D Beyond online platform. It allows Dungeon Masters to host and run online D&D game sessions, with players able to interact with highly detailed 3D models of terrain, buildings, monsters, NPCs and characters (something that isn’t possible with other VTTs such as Roll20 and Foundry, which use 2D image assets).

First announced at Gen Con in the summer of 2024 under the code name “Project Sigil,” the platform was described as a major priority for Wizards of the Coast, with significant financial resources being put into the development (although an exact dollar figure has never been publicly acknowledged). Instead, after several years of work the VTT was quietly rolled out in February 2025, with virtually no marketing push from Wizards of the Coast. The initial Beta was riddled with technical issues and had only limited features. What’s more, the graphic-intensive, 3D nature of Sigil meant that it could essentially only be run on high-end gaming PCs (despite early promises from WotC that it would be accessible on virtually any kind of device, including smartphones and consoles). As a result, the Sigil beta generated a lacklustre community response and poor reviews. Less than a month later, WotC laid off 90% of the Sigil team, leaving behind a skeleton crew of developers to keep the platform on life support.

Surprisingly, even after the layoffs, WotC continued to release a number of different assets, including 3D digital minis, although it’s possible these were already created prior to the launch.

Why is Sigil being shut down?

In a D&D Beyond post entitled “Closing the Chapter on Sigil, and Thanking the Community” which is attributed to “D&D staff,” they note: “When we introduced Sigil, we imagined a powerful 3D virtual tabletop where you could share maps, minis, and environments with your friends and fellow players. While that vision inspired thousands of players and creators, we couldn’t sustain the level of ongoing development support that Sigil—or our community—deserved. That’s on us. What we’ve learned from Sigil, and from your feedback, will guide how we approach future digital tools. We’ll take the time to do it right in pursuit of developing the best D&D experiences possible.”

The reality is that the concept was simply something that Wizards of the Coast (and parent company Hasbro) couldn’t pull off. It shows how difficult it is to develop what’s essentially a fully fledged video game.

Final Thoughts

it’s sad to think what Sigil might have become and its cancellation marks a major misstep for both Wizards of the Coast and the D&D brand. WotC, however, seems determined to continue to push forward into the digital space, with Hasbro CEO affirming in a recent investors call that both new video games and new digital tools will remain a priority for D&D going into the future. Whether WotC will learn from the mistakes of Sigil, however, remains to be seen.

You can learn more about the shut down on D&D Beyond’s Sigil Sunset FAQ.