Even after a year and a half since its release, fans of Baldur's Gate 3 are still deeply immersed in their multiple playthroughs. With developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of the franchise now rests in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long to learn more about what's next for Baldur's Gate.
In a recent conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, revealed that there is significant interest in the Baldur's Gate series 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 stated. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."
While Ayoub remained tight-lipped about the specifics—whether it's a new Baldur's Gate game or another type of project like the recent Magic: The Gathering crossover—he did express his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4. However, he noted that creating such a game would be a lengthy process. "It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he remarked. "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 highlighted the immense pressure to get the next Baldur's Gate right, which extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects, such as the game announced by Hasbro last year. "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."
In addition to discussing Baldur's Gate, Ayoub touched on other topics like Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and their overall game strategy. Keep an eye out for IGN's full interview with Ayoub, set to be released next week.
Every IGN 10 of 2023
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