Even after a year and a half, fans of *Baldur's Gate 3* are still diving into their second, third, seventh, and even tenth playthroughs. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of *Baldur's Gate* lies in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long for updates on what's next for this beloved franchise.
At the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, SVP of digital games at Hasbro, shared that with Larian moving on, there's significant interest in *Baldur's Gate*. "We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that," Ayoub told IGN. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."
While Ayoub didn't specify if this "stuff" would be a new *Baldur's Gate* game or perhaps another crossover like the one with *Magic: The Gathering*, he expressed a desire for a *Baldur's Gate 4*. However, he acknowledged that creating such a game would take time. "It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he noted. "I mean, we're not in a hurry. Right? That's the thing, we're going to take a very measured approach... We've got a lot of plans, a lot of different ways to go about it. We're starting to think about, okay, yeah, we're ready to start dipping toes a little bit and talking about a few things. And I think, in really short order, like I said, again, not to over-tease that point, we're going to have some other things to talk about around that."
Ayoub also highlighted the immense pressure to get the next *Baldur's Gate* right, which even influences other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects outside of the *Baldur's Gate* series. "I'm never one to shy down from a challenge," he said. "And I think anything that forces us to raise our creative bar, and developers love to have a high bar to go after, and I think we've actually seen the team push some really interesting ideas that they're like, 'Okay, we need to raise our bar. We need to go bigger on this.' And things like that. So, I think that's our hope, right? We would keep raising the bar and everyone just tries to go a little higher."
In addition to discussing *Baldur's Gate*, Ayoub touched on other topics like *Magic: The Gathering*, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and their overall game strategy. Keep an eye out for our full interview next week for more insights.
Every IGN 10 of 2023
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