Even after a year and a half, fans of Baldur's Gate 3 are still engrossed in their second, third, seventh, and even tenth playthroughs. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of Baldur's Gate now rests in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait too long for updates on what's next for this beloved franchise.
During a conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, revealed that there's 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. And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that," Ayoub shared.
While Ayoub didn't specify whether this "stuff" would be a full-fledged new Baldur's Gate game or another type of project, such as the previous crossover with Magic: The Gathering, he did express his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4. However, he emphasized that creating such a game would be a time-consuming process.
"It's somewhat of an unenviable position," Ayoub admitted. "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, noting that this pressure influences other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects, including a game announced by Hasbro last year.
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"I'm never one to shy down from a challenge," Ayoub stated. "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 various other topics, including Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and their overall game strategy. Keep an eye out for our full interview with him next week.
