D&D General WotC: 'Of Course We're Going To Do' Baldur's Gate 4

In an interview with The Game Business, Wizards of the Coast's president John Hight touched on the company's video games plans for Dungeons & Dragons.

Hight told interviewer Christopher Dring “Baldur’s Gate is an incredible game. And of course, we're going to do a successor."

Larian Studios, which made Baldur's Gate 3, has previously indicated that is not going to be involved in any potential sequels.

However, the previously announced game that game studio Giant Skull is currently working on is not Baldur's Gate 4. Hight says "This is not the successor to [Baldur's Gate 3]. We go to Stig and his team to tell an incredible story and bring D&D to a very broad audience. Ideally, the game will appeal to D&D players because it will help them realise their imagination. But it’s also going to hopefully appeal to people that love playing action games, that love the Jedi games, that love God of War games." Giant Skull's game will be a single-player action-adventure game.

Giant Skull's Stig Asmussen spoke a little about that--as yet untitled--game: "A lot of us have grown up on Dungeons & Dragons. And for me, with a new company, this is something that we’re good at. We're good at working with partners. We're good at capturing the spirit of those worlds. It wasn't something that we could just walk away from. It was actually a pretty easy [decision]... Dungeons & Dragons is the definition of a playground. When we had the meeting in Renton [Washington], my mind opened up to the possibilities of what we could do. There’s still a lot of things that we have to abide by. There’s the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons. There are the worlds, player agency and choice, building a party, actions have consequences… those types of things."

Giant Skull was founded by Stig Asmussen in 2023. Asmussen previously was the game director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as God of War 3.

 

[MGibster]

I would be surprised if a Baldies Gate 4 hits the same thing in the bottle like BG3 did.

I sure has heck wouldn't want to be the studio trying to follow up on Larian's success with BG3. Those are some mighty big shoes to fill.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You stop pretending. If you search why did Larian lose money in 2022 you see. The company in the past was in the verge of bankruptcy several times. It’s kind of exhausting

So why dont you explain wth happened and why they went to wotc and why a multinational Chinese firm owns 30% since you seem to have all the answers. Why did it take 3 pitches to convince wotc to let Larian make bg3

I already did at great length, read my posts!

I literally answered all of those exact questions in a post upthread. It's not on me if you don't read. It's on you.

 

[JConstantine]

Man Hawke was the one time, the goddamn one time when "pre-created character" 100% landed for me.

I grew to like FemHawke, but I'll admit I still would have preferred a custom character. The Witcher is pretty much the only cRPG where a pre-created PC has worked for me.

Hawke was boss. Like, I tried to make a better-looking character than default Hawke, and I just couldn't even come close

Same here with FemHawke.

(The one exception being I couldn't call out Anders for obviously lying to my face re: what we wanted bat guano for - I've played AD&D guys, I know a fireball spell is!).

Saltpetre! Like, BioWare, guys, this is not subtle. And I'm playing a mage!

I also normally played female characters in RPGs, but Male Hawke was so cool that I just didn't initially. I did eventually play female Hawke, she's also pretty cool. I had an incredible evil run with her.

I played FemHawke first, then MaleHawke, and Nicholas Boulton's delivery just doesn't compare to Jo Wyatt's for me. I'm a little disappointed she's not reprising Ciri for Witcher 4.

They did get incredible shizz for it, and for other things (some more or less justified),

DA2 got far more hate than it deserved.

and then Inquisition was just like an insane overreaction to all that criticism!

All of that felt more down to Mike Laidlaw chasing Skyrim's success, what with him explicitly mentioning it as inspiration.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I grew to like FemHawke, but I'll admit I still would have preferred a custom character. The Witcher is pretty much the only cRPG where a pre-created PC has worked for me.

Whereas for me I didn't vibe with Geralt at all (particularly in W2). Like 70% of the things I despise in an PC rolled into one.

1) Looks like a right twat. Sorry but he does. Tall, brooding and fit as hell so I get why chicks dig him in a "the absolute hottest 50-ish metal fan you ever saw" way but still.

2) Annoying accent (to be fair, Hawke has the same general accent as me, albeit more stage-y and less transatlantic, so I am biased in favour of that), though I did like his diction.

3) Allegedly "emotionless" character who is in fact extremely emotional, just like, an anti-social, zero empathy way (except when, randomly, for no apparent reason, he's really nice, when in the nearly exact same situation previously he was a huge callous jerk)

4) Character who "sees more clearly than others" but who absolutely just acts like a smug superior wanker who knows better than than everyone else.

5) Low charm (W3 was a lot better here than W2 where he had actual anti-charm) and usually zero wit (again random flashes out of nowhere just make the writing inconsistent imo).

6) Just "edgelord vibes" - again, W3 a lot less bad here than W2, I admit.

Even W3 really got me off on the wrong foot when I couldn't find any dialogue options that would cause Geralt to not be verbally abusive and frankly a little misogynistic to poor Keira, who like, I didn't know from Eve, why is Geralt being so nasty to her!?

You know how people get super-mad when they don't have "mean guy" options (c.f. Veilguard)? I think I'm like that but for "be kind" options that aren't just "Don't actually say an insult" lol.

Also, I want to be clear, it was a great, very consistent VA performance, I offer no criticism to Doug Cockle, it was just "not me".

I feel a bit like there's like "Geralt would play a Fighter, MHawke would play a Bard", and I definitely would play a Bard.

If we TLDR it: I couldn't get into Geralt's headspace at all. I just kept thinking "What is actually wrong with you?!".

Nicholas Boulton's delivery just doesn't compare to Jo Wyatt's for me.

They're definitely very different and it's one of the games where I'd say both were really good, like I didn't like Wyatt as much at first but once I'd played a bit into the game I really got her vibe and it worked (especially making horrible choices!).

Same for ME from ME2 onwards - in ME1 Hale nails her Shepard immediately but Mark Meer takes until ME2 to totally dial it in and get away from "Zap Brannigan?" territory, but in ME2 and ME3 it's like you're choosing between "Space Opera vibes" and "Military SF vibes" by choosing male or female Shepard - or like Farscape vs. nuBSG!

Whereas in Cyberpunk 2077 I would say Cherami Leigh absolutely own and defines V and gives a performance I will never forget, filled with emotion and brilliant use of vocal tension (jesus that woman knows how to subtly sound broken up or shocked - I didn't even know VAs could do it that well!), whereas the male V is like, fine but deeply forgettable?

 

[A-A-ron]

WotC cannot make software, full stop. If they have any sense, they'll outsource it like they did BG3.

They probably don't have any sense.

 

[Parmandur]

WotC cannot make software, full stop. If they have any sense, they'll outsource it like they did BG3.

They probably don't have any sense.

Beyond would suggest otherwise, also the runaway hit that is Arena. They have several full video game studios that they are sinking serious resources into, as well, Exodus in particular looks very promising.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I don’t plan to assume anything about it until it’s actually announced and we have actual information.

 

[Blue]

It made money so obviously the answer is to make another one...nevermind that the reason BG3 was so successful is solely down to the work of Larian and arguably occured despite the involvement of WotC. Given the huge success of BG3, we can expect the Hasbro suits will be much more hands-on with any BG4 studio. It will, therefore, suck.

Actually, Larian really screwed up the tone, but the players revolted. BG3 was so successful is solely down to the fans. What Larian was aiming at was a grey, bleak game in line regards to tone with some earlier games they put out. It did not have a Baldurs Gate feel at all.

 

[MGibster]

Actually, Larian really screwed up the tone, but the players revolted. BG3 was so successful is solely down to the fans. What Larian was aiming at was a grey, bleak game in line regards to tone with some earlier games they put out. It did not have a Baldurs Gate feel at all.

Didn't Baldur's Gate 2 start out with my character tortured and imprisoned, my beloved pal Khalid murdered, and my sister gets taken by the magic police for casting spells? The first BG was all about the child of a murder god running around trying to kill all his siblings so he could have the ultimate murder god powers.

 

[Dausuul]

Beyond would suggest otherwise, also the runaway hit that is Arena. They have several full video game studios that they are sinking serious resources into, as well, Exodus in particular looks very promising.

WotC didn't make Beyond. They bought it. And games in development count for absolutely nothing.

Arena is their one and only big success, set against a backdrop of failure after failure after failure.