It's been a year and a half since the release of Baldur's Gate 3, and fans are still immersed in their multiple 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 long to learn about what's next for the franchise.
During a conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, revealed 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."
Ayoub remained tight-lipped about the specifics, leaving it unclear whether the upcoming announcement will involve a new Baldur's Gate game or a crossover similar to the previous collaboration with Magic: The Gathering. However, he expressed his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4, acknowledging that creating such a game would be a lengthy process.
"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 deliver a worthy successor to Baldur's Gate, which extends to other Dungeons & Dragons projects, including a game announced by Hasbro last year. "I'm never one to shy down from a challenge," he 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 other topics such as Magic: The Gathering, the partnership with Saber Interactive, and Hasbro's broader game strategy. Look out for our full interview with him next week.
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