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

As fans continue to enjoy multiple playthroughs of the year-and-a-half-old Baldur's Gate 3, the future of the franchise remains a topic of keen interest. With developer Larian Studios stepping away from the series, the responsibility now falls to Hasbro to chart the course forward. Fortunately, it seems we won't have to wait long for some updates on what's next for Baldur's Gate.

During a conversation with IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Dan Ayoub, Hasbro's Senior Vice President of Digital Games, revealed that there is significant interest in the Baldur's Gate franchise. "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 these plans involve a new full-fledged game like Baldur's Gate 4 or perhaps a crossover similar to the franchise's collaboration with Magic: The Gathering, he did express a personal 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 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 a worthy successor to Baldur's Gate 3, noting that this pressure extends to other Dungeons & Dragons-related projects. "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 such as Magic: The Gathering, the partnership with Saber Interactive, and Hasbro's broader gaming strategy. Fans can look forward to IGN's full interview with Ayoub next week for more insights.

Every IGN 10 of 2023

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