It's been a year and a half since the release of Baldur's Gate 3, and fans are still diving into multiple playthroughs, relishing every moment. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the franchise, the future of Baldur's Gate now rests in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it appears that we won't have to wait long for updates on what's next for this beloved series.
During an interview at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, shared that there is significant 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 didn't specify whether these plans involve a new installment like Baldur's Gate 4 or perhaps another crossover similar to the one with Magic: The Gathering, he did express his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4, albeit acknowledging that such a project would take 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 highlighted the immense pressure to ensure the next Baldur's Gate lives up to expectations, which extends to other Dungeons & Dragons projects as well. "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 such as Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and their overall game strategy. Look out for our full interview with him next week for more insights.
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