Baldur’s Gate 3 took the gaming world by storm in 2023. With a dense, resonant story populated by complex and likable characters, frankly incredible player freedom, and a low barrier to entry whether you were familiar with the franchise or not, Larian Studios proved that there was still a huge, hungry audience for the massive adventure role-playing game for one player.
After all the awards (Game of the Year at The Game Awards! Four BAFTAs!) and over 15 million copies sold as of this writing, the future of Baldur’s Gate is starting to take shape. It may not look as you expect.
Is Larian Studios making a Baldur’s Gate 4?
Image: Larian Studios
No. Studio founder Swen Vincke announced this in March during a lecture at the Game Developers Conference. “We’re not going to do that Baldur’s Gate 4, what everyone expects from us,” said Vincke. “We’re moving on, we’re moving away from D&D and we’re going to make something new.”
He expanded the decision in an interview with IGN, saying that his team had already started preparatory work for more Baldur’s Gate content, but that “the heart wasn’t there. It was more routine than really excited.”
He made the decision to change at the end of 2023 and believes it was met with relief by staff. “I saw so many excited faces, which I didn’t expect, and I could tell they shared the same feelings, so we were all on the same page. And I’ve had so many developers come up to me and say, ‘Thank God,’” he told IGN.
Larian Studios has returned its license for the Baldur’s Gate franchise to Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro, allowing another studio to take on the next Baldur’s Gate game.
Will there be Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC or expansions?
Image: Larian Studios via Polygon
In the same GDC speech, Vincke also announced that Larian was retiring Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC, with no plans to release any. The Larian team repeated this in a community update post on April 18.
“It was a dream come true for all of us to develop a game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. But as Swen recently confirmed, we won’t be adding any major new narrative content to the story Baldur’s Gate 3 or the original characters and companions, nor will we be making expansions or Baldur’s Gate 4.”
But that doesn’t mean Larian has stopped working BG3. The company is still working on bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and even a few story adjustments. The same community post confirmed that the upcoming Patch 7 will add official modding tools to the game, “improved evil endings to the game for even darker conclusions to your most sinister playthroughs” and “new features that we have yet to go into detail about.” Patch 7 will include so many new features and bug fixes that Larian will be holding a closed PC beta test to make sure everything is running smoothly before launch.
“After Patch 7,” the post continued, “we will continue to focus on bug fixes, performance improvements, and stability improvements to ensure you have the best gaming experience possible.” It also stated that crossplay and photo mode features are planned for later updates, “but the work required to bring these to you means these additions will likely happen further down the line.”
So what does Larian create after Baldur’s Gate 3?
Image: Larian Studios
That’s still shrouded in mystery! Vincke’s comments on this seem to indicate that Larian is returning to some of the ideas the company was working on before development began. BG3. These ideas reportedly include another single-player RPG that “dwarfs” BG3 in size and complexity – but Vincke has also indicated that Larian wants that awaits a new generation of console and PC development before you start that game.
As for Larian’s real next project, Vincke told IGN that it is ‘different than you think’, but ‘still familiar’. While the company is now certainly the most famous Baldur’s Gate 3his previous claim to fame was as the developer of the legendary Divinity franchise of tactical fantasy RPGs, most recently Divinity: original sin 2. Whatever Larian does next, you can bet it will be some kind of RPG (familiar), but given Vincke’s description… maybe it won’t be a Divinity game?
Larians Community post from April can support this inference by saying: “In this case, after six years in the Forgotten Realms and much discussion and rumination, we decided to take this opportunity to develop our own IPs. We are currently working on two new projects and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.”
Will there be a Baldur’s Gate 4?
Image: Larian Studios via Polygon
Probably! And even if it doesn’t, Wizards owns the rights to all the characters introduced in it Baldur’s Gate 3, so the company could produce regular old TTRPG modules, sourcebooks, novels, and other games based on the likes of Karlach, Astarion, Shadowheart, and the rest. Wulbren Bongle match-3 game, anyone? *dodges tomatoes*
It also seems like there are plans for a sequel Baldur’s Gate 3 are already in the early stages. In conversation with PC gamerEugene Evans, the senior vice president of digital strategy and licensing for WotC and Hasbro, said the company has already begun discussions about what the next Baldur’s Gate game will look like and how it will be made. “We are now talking to and being approached by many partners who are embracing the challenge: What does the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise look like?” he said.
There are no further details yet on what that project could be. “We are going to take our time and find the right partner, the right approach and the right product that could represent the future of Baldur’s Gate. We take that very, very seriously,” he said.
But there is good news for all the fans nervously watching the rift between the two Baldur’s Gate 2‘s release in 2000 and Baldur’s Gate 3‘s in 2023. Evans said WotC and Hasbro ‘s plan was not another 23 year wait before it is released Baldur’s Gate 4.