Hasbro SVP Teases Quick Updates on Baldur's Gate's Future

Baldur's Gate 3, now a year-and-a-half old, continues to captivate players as they embark on their second, third, seventh, or even tenth playthrough. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of Baldur's Gate is now in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long to hear about what's next for the beloved franchise.

In a recent interview with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, shared that there's significant interest in Baldur's Gate following Larian's departure. "We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that," Ayoub stated. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."

While Ayoub didn't specify whether this "stuff" would be a full-fledged new installment like Baldur's Gate 4, or something more akin to the franchise's previous crossover with Magic: The Gathering, he did express a desire for a Baldur's Gate 4. However, he cautioned that creating such a game would take time. "It's somewhat of an unenviable position," he remarked. "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 extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects. This pressure, he believes, pushes the creative boundaries. "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."

During the interview, Ayoub also touched on other topics, including Magic: The Gathering, the partnership with Saber Interactive, and Hasbro's overall game strategy. Keep an eye out for our full interview, which will be available next week.

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