AdHoc Studio

• 1. Introduction

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  AdHoc Studio is an American video game developer, and its first original game, Dispatch, has sold more than 4 million copies. That success came after years in which its founders watched their earlier work get shut down, sold, rebooted, or abandoned. Four people started the company in 2018, and each arrived with a résumé built inside other companies' franchises. So who were they before AdHoc existed? Why did they walk away from a sequel they had been invited to build? What became of a game they worked on that the public never played? And how did an idea that was set aside turn into a hit? The answers start with the places the founders came from.

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• 2. Telltale Alumni

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  Michael Choung, Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette founded AdHoc Studio in 2018. Between them, they had worked at Telltale Games, at Ubisoft, and at Night School Studio. The Telltale connection carries the most weight. Members of this group helped drive some of that company's most successful games: The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Tales from the Borderlands. The team put its ambition in a single sentence. It wanted to "carry the interactive narrative torch into the future". Ubisoft, though, is where Herman, Lenart, and Shorette had worked on a project that players never got to see.

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• 3. The Splinter Cell Detour

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  A Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell game was the project Herman, Shorette, and Lenart worked on during their time at Ubisoft. It was never released. Herman described it to Bloomberg News in an interview in November 2025. After the three left the company, the project was rebooted several times. It eventually turned into XDefiant, a very different kind of game. XDefiant shut down only a year after it launched.

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• 4. The Sequel They Left

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  In August 2019, a company called LCG Entertainment bought the assets of Telltale Games, which had closed suddenly in October 2018. LCG now operates as Telltale Games. It regained the video game rights to DC Comics properties, including Fables, the source of The Wolf Among Us, and Batman. AdHoc was an obvious partner for the sequel. Herman, Lenart, and Shorette, all among its founders, had been the creative force behind the first episode of The Wolf Among Us. The new Telltale asked them to help. The sequel had been cancelled under the original company, and The Wolf Among Us 2 was announced again at The Game Awards 2019.

  The same Bloomberg interview described how that collaboration ended. AdHoc wrote an 800 page script, built prototypes, and filmed scenes for the sequel. Then disagreements with the new Telltale surfaced. The team also grew tired of doing work for hire, so it pulled out. AdHoc itself does not know the current state of The Wolf Among Us 2, or whether any of its work will be used.

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• 5. The Cart Life Cancellation

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  In March 2023, a listing on Steam announced a re-release of Cart Life, an indie game first made in 2010. AdHoc Studio was named as its publisher. The release was planned for 2023. A forum post in 2024 from the game's creator ended that plan, announcing that the project was cancelled. A few months of silence were followed by news of something entirely different. At The Game Awards 2024, AdHoc revealed its first original game.

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• 6. Dispatch

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  Robert Robertson is the hero of Dispatch, and his giant mecha suit has been destroyed. Without it, he takes a job sending other superheroes out on their assignments. Actor Aaron Paul, known for Breaking Bad, voices him. Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey, and Matthew Mercer play supporting roles. The game is a story-driven adventure. Its origin was not a game at all. Dispatch began as a live action project inspired by the ESPN commercials known as This Is SportsCenter. The COVID-19 pandemic scrapped that version, and the idea returned later as a video game.

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• 7. An Episodic Launch

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  AdHoc published Dispatch itself, and it came out in episodes on PlayStation 5 and Windows. Releases ran through October and November 2025, and reviews were generally favorable. Versions for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 followed on the 28th of January 2026. A version for Xbox Series X and S is planned for later in 2026.

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• 8. Exandria Next

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  In July 2025, Critical Role Productions announced a partnership with AdHoc Studio. Together they plan a video game set in Exandria, the world of Critical Role. The concept is similar to Dispatch. The deal reaches beyond one game. It also covers Dispatch merchandise, tabletop games, and an animated series. The Exandria game goes by the working title Project Exandria. Critical Role Productions and AdHoc Studio are both listed as publishers, and its release date has not yet been announced.

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