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 lies in the hands of Hasbro. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait too long for updates on what's next for this beloved franchise.

At the Game Developers Conference this week, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's SVP of digital games, spoke with IGN about the situation. He revealed that with Larian moving on, there's significant interest from various parties in taking on 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 explained. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."

Ayoub did not specify whether this "stuff" would be a full-fledged Baldur's Gate 4 or perhaps something more akin to the crossover seen with Magic: The Gathering. However, he expressed a desire for a Baldur's Gate 4, acknowledging that its development would likely take considerable 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 ensure the next Baldur's Gate meets high expectations, which extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects. He mentioned a game announced by Hasbro last year as an example. "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 during the interview, including Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro's partnership with Saber Interactive, and the company's overall game strategy. A full interview with Ayoub is set to be released next week, so keep an eye out for more insights.

Every IGN 10 of 2023

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