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.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Pretty sure that's not true for any modern military. Human soldiers are expensive. You have to train them, equip them, feed and house them, care for them when they get blown up or shot. Meanwhile, drones can be built cheaply and quickly and in enormous numbers, as Ukraine is demonstrating, and they can handle all kinds of jobs from blowing up tanks to recon to logistical support.

The real answer to the question is that there are still a lot of things drones can't do, like holding territory... for now, anyway. But I expect to see fewer and fewer humans on the battlefield as AI and drone technology continue to improve.

Humans will be on the battle field as long as humans are fighting and directing the war. Armies are made of people and material. Losses in material almost never decide the outcome of a war. It is losses in people, unit cohesion and position that usually determines the outcome.
A battle with no humans in the loop is an AI thing or a demonstration, people will not usually accept defeat at a simple demonstration of firepower.

 

[Mournblade94]

Didn't Larian staff mention working with many people from WotC and that those no longer work at the company? That sounds like there were people at WotC that attributed to the games success.

Mike Mearles had alot of consultation input on bg3.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Which is kinda funny because Imoen was really rather underdeveloped and underwritten compared to the rest of the BG2 cast (everyone was underdeveloped in BG1), especially in Shadows of Amn, despite her being central to the plot. She gets somewhat more development in Throne of Bhaal but it's basically a case of too little, too late at that point.

If BG3 had proceeded with its DLC, I'd have been interested if Imoen made a return, given her supposed importance. I feel like Larian could've given her the Clone Wars Maul treatment in the sense of further developing a previously underwritten character and taking her in an interesting direction. If by some miracle we get someone actually good on a BG4, I'd be interested in her return there.

Supposedly Imoen was not intended to be a companion in BG2 past the tutorial dungeon. She would still get abducted and you'd spend the first half of the game looking for her. But by the time you catch up with her she would have been fully corrupted by Bhaals essence and turn into the Slayer, so you'd have to fight and kill her. Then at some point Bioware discovered that players really liked Imoen, so they reworked the game to give her a bigger and less tragic role.

Unfortunately I don't remember which ancient RPG forum I read about this on, so it could be complete naughty word. But it could explain why Imoen wasn't as developed as some of the other NPCs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Mike Mearles had alot of consultation input on bg3.

I think that's maybe an unintentionally misleading way of putting it.

Mearls' team absolutely provided Larian with information about D&D and the Forgotten Realms, and I'm sure that involved some amount of what is technically "consultation", but I'm not aware of any suggestion that Mearls or his team had significant "input" on BG3's story, characters, systems, etc., which is what you would think "alot of consultation input" would mean. Mearls himself talking about this has never suggested anything along those lines, nor has Larian (AFAIK).

I think it would be better to remove the word input entirely and say Mearls' team provided a lot of support to Larian in the form of information about D&D and the Forgotten Realms (especially the detailed history/events thereof).

 

[CleverNickName]

"And of course I've decided to pre-emptively hate it."
-the same three people on EN World

I just finished my playthrough of BG3 (Honor Mode), and I'm ready for more. I guess I'm having a hard time seeing a downside to this announcement. I guess I'm focusing too much on the words "Baldur's Gate 4" and not enough on "Wizards of the Coast."

 

[Parmandur]

"And of course I've decided to pre-emptively hate it."
-the same three people on EN World

I just finished my playthrough of BG3 (Honor Mode), and I'm ready for more. I guess I'm having a hard time seeing a downside to this announcement. I guess I'm focusing too much on the words "Baldur's Gate 4" and not enough on "Wizards of the Coast."

I mean, on the one hand I am with you, but on the other hand the history of D&D games has a certain Russian roulette cycle: the next one could be a masterpiece or a massive dud. Who knows??

 

[wicked cool]

Thoughts on this thread for searching for new games over the weekend

Watching a stream for tactical adventures (solasta video game series). They seem nice and passionate but a small studio with a limited budget. Solasta 1 had a budget around 450k?

Larian 4 million from r divinity 2
100 million for Bg3
Pathfinder games -maybe 5 million (raised 2 in kickstarter

My point is there aren’t a lot of studios out there making triple a RPGs

With the probable fall of BioWare there’s only a handful. Wotc had made an investment of a billion dollars in video games. Thats more than almost all other aa studios combined

 

[TwoSix]

"And of course I've decided to pre-emptively hate it."
-the same three people on EN World

I just finished my playthrough of BG3 (Honor Mode), and I'm ready for more. I guess I'm having a hard time seeing a downside to this announcement. I guess I'm focusing too much on the words "Baldur's Gate 4" and not enough on "Wizards of the Coast."

I don't think there's any particular problem with the announcement; the worst case is that the game is bad and we just ignore it. The best case is that the game is actually good and enjoyable to play. (The pie-in-the-sky case is that the game is as good or better than BG3 despite the lack of Larian involvement, but to me that seems virtually impossible.)

The only real downside is for those who were holding out hope for a BG4 that was really just "Baldur's Gate 3 Part II", but it's been over a year since it was apparent that wasn't happening.

 

[AlViking]

I mean, on the one hand I am with you, but on the other hand the history of D&D games has a certain Russian roulette cycle: the next one could be a masterpiece or a massive dud. Who knows??

Same is true of virtually all games, even ones from established studios. Then occasionally there's an amazing game from developers nobody has ever heard of. All games are suspect until released for me.

 

[AlViking]

Thoughts on this thread for searching for new games over the weekend

Watching a stream for tactical adventures (solasta video game series). They seem nice and passionate but a small studio with a limited budget. Solasta 1 had a budget around 450k?

Larian 4 million from r divinity 2
100 million for Bg3
Pathfinder games -maybe 5 million (raised 2 in kickstarter

My point is there aren’t a lot of studios out there making triple a RPGs

With the probable fall of BioWare there’s only a handful. Wotc had made an investment of a billion dollars in video games. Thats more than almost all other aa studios combined

I would be happy with more AA games like Solasta, a game that in some ways I enjoyed more than BG 3. Admittedly the original game could have used a bit more (perhaps significantly more) polish but it doesn't need to go to the extremes that Larian did to be a fun game. Solasta II looks like it's a pretty massive improvement in many ways, we'll see what happens.