Wizards Of The Coast has confirmed that Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t the end of the franchise, even if Larian Studios don’t want to be involved anymore.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was developed by Larian Studios, who licensed property from Wizard Of The Coast’s iconic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Despite the huge success of the game though, Larian confirmed earlier this year that it wasn’t interested in a follow-up, leaving the future of the franchise up in the air.
However, in a new interview with PC Gamer, senior vice president of digital strategy and licensing for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, Eugene Evans confirmed the company wanted to keep Baldur’s Gate alive.
“We’re now talking to lots of partners and being approached by a lot of partners who are embracing the challenge of, what does the future of the Baldur’s Gate franchise look like?” he explained. “We certainly hope that it’s not another 25 years before we answer that,” Evans continued, with Baldur’s Gate 2 coming in 2000 while the acclaimed follow-up was released late last year.
“We’re 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.”
It was previously been confirmed by Larian that the characters they created for Baldur’s Gate 3 are the property of Wizards Of The Coast. “I would like to think that all of those characters, for the sake of the fans, could potentially appear in future products,” said Evans. “The bar has been set very high, and it’s our job to reach and surpass that bar.”
In February, it was reported that Baldur’s Gate 3 had earned Wizards Of The Coast over £71million in royalties.
Last month, Larian CEO Swen Vinke revealed that the studio had started work on an expansion for Baldur’s Gate 3 as well as early plans for a sequel before cancelling both projects. “You could see the team was doing it because everyone felt like we had to do it, but it wasn’t really coming from the heart, and we’re very much a studio from the heart,” he explained.
Taking to social media, Vinke said the move was the “right” thing for Larian. “The team has grown a lot during Baldur’s Gate 3 and I think you can be very excited for what that growth means for our next game.”
In other news, Take-Two has confirmed it is due to lay-off hundreds of members of staff as well as cancelling several projects currently in development.