Just because Larian doesn’t want to develop a successor to Baldur’s Gate 3, time at Wizards of the Coast is certainly not standing still. On the contrary, ambitions are huge.
What is the current status at Larian? It has been clear since March 2024 that Larian will not rush into a successor after the enormous success of Baldur’s Gate 3, but will turn to other projects. Specifically, two projects at the studio from Belgium are reportedly in the concept phase.
What exactly the developers around Swen Vincke are working on is unclear. For a brief moment, it seemed that Larian had returned to their Divinity series. However, the officials quickly squashed the anticipation. So we’ll have to be patient for a while longer.
Casual entertainment: the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Big Names, Heavy Legacy
What about the publisher? The rights to Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons & Dragons are known to lie with Wizards of the Coast and the Hasbro group. It surely comes as no surprise that the officials, like President John Hight (formerly at Blizzard, notably as General Manager for World of Warcraft), want to build on the success of Baldur’s Gate 3.
And that without Larian as well. They have brought in veteran developer Stig Asmussen (God of War 3, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor), who has been working with his new studio Giant Skull on an RPG with AAA ambitions in Unreal Engine 5, focusing entirely on the single-player experience.
Hight and Asmussen know each other well from their time at Sony – John Hight oversaw the production of God of War 3. It is now clear that the new RPG will be set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons and is intended to feel quite different from Baldur’s Gate 3.
If it were up to Hight, the new D&D RPG could also include a bit of Kratos power fantasy: ‘I think about what Stig and Patrick Murphy did in God of War 3 by bringing these gods and crazy monsters from mythology to life. It’s like: Wow, what if we could unleash them in D&D?’
The focus should be on compelling storytelling, fluid, brutally staged combat, and a smooth movement experience. However, with a game of these ambitions, it will likely take a while before the developers can actually show gameplay.
At the same time, John Hight stated to Polygon that they also plan to develop more classic RPGs in the future that will play more like Baldur’s Gate 3: ‘Don’t get me wrong, we will develop CRPGs that are just as serious as BG3.’
Classic or action-packed – how would you prefer your new D&D RPG? By the way, MyMMO has reported multiple times in recent months that Hasbro’s plans might also involve the license for Baldur’s Gate. However, many fans have a completely different wish: Publisher is eager to make a Baldur’s Gate 4, but players want something else
