Although we know that Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios is not going to be heading Baldur's Gate 4, the question of who will work on the sequel remains unanswered.
It's bounced around in discussions on the web for quite some time now, with folks wondering who would take the helm for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast's IP – but there's still no solid decision there, it seems. As per a new interview with PC Gamer, however, it apparently could have been a Baldur's Gate 2 veteran: James Ohlen, the 2000 RPG's director of writing and design, who was working on sci-fi RPG Exodus at Archetype Entertainment when Hasbro approached him.
"The day [Chris Cox, Hasbro CEO] knew they [Larian Studios] weren't going to do it, he called me," recalls Ohlen. "'Hey James, what do you think about doing Baldur's Gate 4?' And I was like, 'I don't, I would fail, and here's why I would fail.'"
According to Ohlen, he simply wouldn't be able to overcome the hurdles that Larian had and create something that lives up to the reputation that Baldur's Gate 3 has built.
"I wouldn't want to compete against that," he admits. "Doing Exodus is hard enough, but having to compete against Baldur's Gate 3? That would be insanity." It wouldn't be easy in any way, either – Baldur's Gate 3 was built in Larian's own engine, which means he would've had nothing to work with.
"We're talking about at least half a decade of horror, building all that stuff," as he says. He did ask if Hasbro could get Larian to license its engine out. You know, much like Black Isle Studios did back in the day with BioWare's in-house Infinity Engine. Even if that had worked out, though, Ohlen isn't convinced it'd have been enough.
Larian, including lead Swen Vincke, sits as the RPG genre king now. "Swen's always going to be the master of building those kinds of things. It's really hard to take him off that throne, just because of everything – the tools, institutional knowledge, team."
As for who could do it, and how, Ohlen believes they'd need to be original – no abiding by any preconceived rules.
"That was me back in Baldur's Gate. I was like, 'Everyone else sucks, and we're going to crush it.' It was us against all the other game studios, we're going to outdo them. And because none of us had built games before, we were all like, 'We're going to do everything different.' And sometimes you need that." Indeed, you do.
I'd argue that's exactly what Larian did, too – and that it's why it's so difficult to exceed the expectations that Baldur's Gate 3 set. Hopefully, we know who's taking the torch soon.
