As we continue to enjoy multiple playthroughs of the year-and-a-half-old Baldur's Gate 3, the future of the franchise hangs in the balance with developer Larian stepping away. Fortunately, Hasbro, the series' owner, seems poised to share some insights on what's next for Baldur's Gate in the near future.
During a conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, expressed that there's considerable interest in Baldur's Gate following Larian's departure. "We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that," Ayoub said. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."
While Ayoub did not elaborate on whether this "stuff" would be a new Baldur's Gate game or something different like the previous crossover with Magic: The Gathering, he did express a desire for a Baldur's Gate 4. However, he emphasized that creating such a game would require time. "It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he noted. "I mean, we're not in a hurry. Right? That's the thing, we're going to take a very measured approach... We've got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We're starting to think about, okay, yeah, we're ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point, we're going to have some other things to talk about around that."
Ayoub also acknowledged the immense pressure to deliver the next Baldur's Gate successfully, a pressure that extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects. "I'm never one to shy down from a challenge," he said. "And I think anything that forces us to raise our creative bar, and developers love to have a high bar to go after, and I think we've actually seen the team push some really interesting ideas that they're like, 'Okay, we need to raise our bar. We need to go bigger on this.' And things like that. So, I think that's our hope, right? We would keep raising the bar and everyone just tries to go a little higher."
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Ayoub's discussion with IGN also touched on other topics, including Magic: The Gathering, the partnership with Saber Interactive, and Hasbro's broader game strategy. Stay tuned for our full interview, which will be available next week.
