Baldur's Gate 3, now a year and a half old, continues to captivate fans who are enjoying their second, third, seventh, and even tenth playthroughs. However, with developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the future of Baldur's Gate rests in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait too long to learn about what's next for this beloved franchise.

During the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, spoke to IGN about the situation. He revealed that there is significant interest in Baldur's Gate from various parties, now that Larian has moved on. "We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that," Ayoub said. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."

While Ayoub didn't specify whether the upcoming announcements would involve a full-fledged Baldur's Gate 4 or perhaps a crossover similar to the one with Magic: The Gathering, he did express his desire for a Baldur's Gate 4. He acknowledged, however, that creating such a game would take considerable 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, noting that this pressure extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects, including a game Hasbro announced last year. "I'm never one to shy down from a challenge," he stated. "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 during the interview, including Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and the company's overall game strategy. Look out for the full interview with Ayoub next week for more insights.

Every IGN 10 of 2023

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