As *Baldur's Gate 3* continues to captivate players even a year and a half after its release, with many of us diving into our second, third, seventh, or even tenth playthrough, the future of the series remains a hot topic. Developer Larian Studios has decided to move on from the franchise, leaving the ball in Hasbro's court to determine the next steps for *Baldur's Gate*. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long for updates on the franchise's direction.
During a conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, 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 do 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 would be a new *Baldur's Gate* game or perhaps a crossover akin to the previous collaboration with *Magic: The Gathering*—he did express a desire for a *Baldur's Gate 4*. However, he acknowledged that developing such a game would take considerable time. "It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he 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 deliver the next *Baldur's Gate* successfully, a pressure that extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects. This pressure, however, is seen as a positive challenge. "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*, the partnership with Saber Interactive, and Hasbro's broader gaming strategy. Look out for our full interview next week for more insights.
Every IGN 10 of 2023
18 Images
