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.

 

[mamba]

I tried larians other games and they weren’t great and the studio was on the ropes.

except that they weren’t on the ropes at all, so not sure where you heard that, but I very much doubt it was from Sven, he would have known better

 

[wicked cool]

That actually isn’t true so maybe you should do some homework

Larian made money in 2022 but reported a loss. They needed the ip in order to turn themselves into a triple a studio. The loss is public info

You are correct that wotc only got about 12% but that was 90 million with o money so that’s probably a big reason why Sven wanted out

It took 3 pitches for wotc to get fully on board. Watch the Sven interviews as he talks about it a lot

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

I'm interested to see what form BG4 takes. I'm also interested in seeing what Larian's next game turns out to be. However, as the saying goes, the pride comes before the fall. You can see that with BioWare's follow-ups after Dragon Age: Inquisition (Anthem, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard). Meanwhile, CDPR's follow-up after the Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, was a disaster at launch. It took years for CDPR to fix and patch up the game. And if I recall correctly, one of the lead devs was nervous about living up to Witcher 3 with the upcoming fourth game.

 

[Necropolitan]

I'm hoping Baldur's Gate 4 has a well-developed Evil route where it's not just random acts of cruelty.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I say it should be handed over to legendary creator Yoko Taro!
Edit: it's age restricted! noooooo! not suitable for Eric's Grandma!!!

 

[Gladius Legis]

I can think of only two realistic candidates given Larian is out.

1) Obsidian. Obsidian have a long track record of making pretty great RPGs and CRPGs and seem to be on track to be getting better and better at it. Unfortunately they're owned by Microsoft, who seem to be in a bit of a death spiral games-wise at the moment, but on the flipside, most WotC leadership is ex-Microsoft, so maybe it'd be easier to get them for it? I think they could make a BG4 both good and different enough that it'd be accepted as a good game so long as it was a good game, comparisons notwithstanding.

2) Owlcat. Owlcat are also on an upward curve quality-of-CRPG-wise, and are moving into the AAA space (from the AA space), and are specialists in making RPGs/CRPGs based on other people's IPs. Do they have writers as good as Larian? No, but they have ones a lot better than Larian had for DOS2, and could make them better still. They're independent, too.

I'd add inXile to this list. Solid track record of CRPGs with its Bard's Tale reboot, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Wasteland 2 and 3 (especially Wasteland 3). Like Obsidian, owned by Microsoft now which has its advantages and disadvantages. Clockwork Revolution, while it's venturing out of the typical CRPG space, is looking like one of the most promising upcoming titles. Maybe a return to the traditional CRPG space after that with a BG4 would be something they'd be interested in?

 

[Mecheon]

I say it should be handed over to legendary creator Yoko Taro!

We don't want to go on Yoko Taro's wild ride.

I played Drakengard. D&D players are not ready for Yoko Taro.

 

[mamba]

Larian made money in 2022 but reported a loss. They needed the ip in order to turn themselves into a triple a studio. The loss is public info

they released DOS2 in 2017 and BG3 in 2023, so 2022 was deep in the BG3 development, a year dominated by investment into their new game. That year they posted a $220k loss, in 2023 they posted a $260M profit (pre-tax).

Saying they were on the ropes in 2022 due to the heavy investment into their new their upcoming title is simply wrong

 

[TheSword]

I don't really know how you look at the current state of video game development without a sense of pessimism, and I don't think Wizards of the Coast really knows what it's getting into by throwing their own hat in. If recent history is any indication, they throw their hat into video game development, staff up, realize how risky of an investment it is, get cold feet and bail out, and a bunch of great and talented devs are thrown to the wind yet again. Maybe you've seen franchises get wrecked by studios but in my experience, the failings of those studios are birthed from the C-suite.

Because there are continuously great games coming out that surprise and delight. Many by studios owned by publishers. As a general rule I put little stock in doomsaying. There’s going to be a Baldurs gate 4. That’s great.

 

[overchord]

Baldur's Gate 4 - sure we'll wait and see
I just wish we'd see more variety from the IP - More locations and lore being used to create perhaps smaller/more modular adventures on a general engine. Tricky to establish but a DLC dream afterwards.