Another Developer Says 'No' To Making Baldur's Gate 4

Hasbro is attempting to find someone to make Baldur’s Gate 4, but another developer it talked to about the possibility has turned it down. Following up the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be an incredibly difficult task, and it seems another dev who has a history with the franchise isn’t interested in making Baldur’s Gate 4.

Larian Studios did an incredible job creating Baldur’s Gate 3, so it only makes sense that Hasbro would ask the team to make another one. However, the studio ultimately turned Hasbro down, as Larian’s developers were interested in working on something new and fresh. As a result, Hasbro’s search has continued.

Former Baldur’s Gate Dev Says No To Baldur’s Gate 4

According to an interview with PC Gamer, Hasbro looked to one of the lead designers for the first two Baldur’s Gate games, James Ohlen, as a potential development lead for the next game in the series. Ohlen says that the same day the current CEO of Hasbro learned Larian wasn’t interested in creating Baldur’s Gate 4, he called Ohlen, asking if he wanted to work on the game. Ohlen was blunt with his response, saying he wasn’t interested because he was sure he would fail at the task. Ohlen explained that having to compete with the popularity and success of Baldur’s Gate 3 “would be insanity.” Since Baldur’s Gate 3 was built in Larian’s own propietary engine, Ohlen suspects it would take “half a decade of horror” to build everything needed for the game. He also noted that he thought that in order for Baldur’s Gate 4 to succeed, the developers who ultimately work on it should “do everything different” like his team originally did with the original Baldur’s Gate game.

Guess the games from the emojis.

Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)

It would seem that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a case of suffering from success, as the game won myriads of awards and sold millions of copies. Newcomers and long-time fans of the series alike loved Baldur’s Gate 3 at launch, and the title went on to add additional content over numerous patches, making it even better. Unfortunately, though, it would appear that Baldur’s Gate 3 was so incredibly successful and revolutionary to the RPG market that developers are hesitant to try following it up.

Without Larian Studio working on the game or the studio’s propietary engine, it’s likely that Baldur’s Gate 4 will differ quite a bit from its predecessor. There are considerable differences between Baldur’s Gate 2 and 3, though much of that is due to over twenty years passing between the releases of the two games. While much about the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise remains a mystery at this point, it’s evident that Hasbro would prefer to not wait another two decades for a follow-up.

While Baldur’s Gate 4 is probably many years away, the good news is that recent leaks indicate that Baldur’s Gate 2 is making a comeback. Allegedly, a remake of Baldur’s Gate 2 is in development already, which will give players a chance who started out with the third game to visit the second one in a modernized experience. It’s not clear if the original Baldur’s Gate is also receiving a remake, but given the two stories are directly linked, it would make sense to start where the series began and continue on to the second entry from there.