With *Baldur's Gate 3* now over a year and a half old, fans are still deeply immersed in multiple playthroughs, reveling in its rich content. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of *Baldur's Gate* rests with Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long for updates on what's next for the franchise.
During the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, shared with IGN that there's significant interest in *Baldur's Gate* now that Larian has moved on. "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 didn't specify if this upcoming announcement would be about a new *Baldur's Gate* game or perhaps a crossover similar to the franchise's collaboration with *Magic: The Gathering*, he expressed a clear desire for a *Baldur's Gate 4*. However, he emphasized that creating such a game would take time. "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 intense pressure to deliver a worthy successor to *Baldur's Gate 3*, 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 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 the company's broader gaming strategy. Stay tuned for our full interview next week for more insights.
Every IGN 10 of 2023
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