Baldur's Gate 3, now a year-and-a-half old, continues to captivate fans who are still exploring their second, third, seventh, and even tenth playthroughs. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, it's up to Hasbro to chart the course for the franchise's future. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long to learn about what's next for Baldur's Gate.

In a recent conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, the Senior Vice President of Digital Games at Hasbro, revealed 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 new installment like Baldur's Gate 4 or something else, such as a crossover similar to the characters' appearance in Magic: The Gathering, he expressed his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4, albeit acknowledging it 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 deliver the next Baldur's Gate successfully, which extends to other Dungeons & Dragons projects, including a game announced by Hasbro last year. "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."

The interview with Ayoub also touched on other topics such as Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and their overall game strategy. Look out for the full interview next week to learn more about these subjects.

Every IGN 10 of 2023

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