Baldur's Gate 4 will not take 25 years promises Dungeons & Dragons owner

How do you follow-up Baldur’s Gate 3? (Picture: Larian Studios)

With Larian Studios not making a sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3, Hasbro is already in talks with other studios for the next game – but who could they be?

Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the biggest game of 2023, with its critical and commercial success confirming developer Larian Studios as one of the most talented studios working today.

While that level of success would make most studios double down on DLC and a sequel, Larian announced last month it isn’t doing either – with the developer moving away from the Dungeons & Dragons licence entirely for its next game.

The owner of that licence, Hasbro and Wizards Of The Coast, has now stated it is actively in talks with other developers about partnering up for Baldur’s Gate 4 – but they aren’t in a ‘rush’ to make any decision yet.

Speaking at the Baftas, senior vice president of digital strategy and licensing at Hasbro, Eugene Evans, said: ‘We’re now talking to lots of partners and being approached by a lot of partners who are embracing the challenge of, what does the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise look like?

‘So we certainly hope that it’s not another 25 years, as it was from Baldur’s Gate 2 to 3, before we answer that. But we’re going to take our time and find the right partner, the right approach, and the right product that could represent the future of Baldur’s Gate.

‘We take that very, very seriously, as we do with all of our decisions around our portfolio. We don’t rush into decisions as to who to partner with on products or what products we should be considering.’

Speaking to PC Gamer, Evans also addressed whether beloved characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 could return in a sequel, describing them as ‘essentially part of D&D canon’.

Baldur’s Gate 3 recently got a steamy update (Picture: Larian Studios)

‘I think it’s too early to express specifics and I think that there’s a much bigger question about how we approach Baldur’s Gate in the future,’ he added. ‘But I would like to think that all of those characters, for the sake of the fans, could potentially appear in future products.’

The biggest question is which studio could make Baldur’s Gate 4? CD Projekt’s positive history with The Witcher licence might make it a potential candidate, but the studio isn’t exactly known for making turn-based role-playing games.

The problem is that the Western companies best known for computer role-players are owned by other studios, such as Pillars Of Eternity developer Obsidian, who are part of Microsoft, and BioWare – developer of the first two Baldur’s Gate titles – who are owned by EA.

Hasbro could try to negotiate a deal with Microsoft or EA but apart from anything both studios have a number of other games already in development and likely wouldn’t be available for several years.

Also, BioWare’s Dragon Age was originally intended as a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, so they’re unlikely to want to compete with their own IP.

If there wasn’t so much behind-the-scenes trouble recently, Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM might have been a potential candidate too. The narrative-driven role-player was highly praised for its writing, but now most of the original team are no longer at the studio.

Wasteland developer inXile Entertainment is also owned by Microsoft but beyond that you start to get into much smaller developers, such as Shadowrun Returns studio Harebrained Schemes and Pathfinder creator Owlcat Games.

Hasbro may also consider Beamdog, who created the Enhanced Editions for Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, and a number of other older Dungeons & Dragons titles, but they’ve never made an original role-playing of their own.

Larian, meanwhile, confirmed earlier this year that it is already planning its next game, with CEO Swen Vincke having completed an early draft of act one. It’s unclear though whether the studio will return to its past IP, Divinity: Original Sin, with hints so far suggesting it might have a sci-fi setting.

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