After the rampant critical and commercial success of Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, many people have been clamouring for some sort of hint when they can expect a follow-up.
However, with Larian making it clear that they’re stepping away from the Baldur’s Gate series to pursue different creative directions, Dungeons & Dragons license holders Wizards of the Coast have stated their commitment to finding a different studio to develop Baldur’s Gate 4.
That’s still some time away, however, and in the meantime, it’s becoming clear that Baldur’s Gate isn’t the only D&D game series that WOTC have in the pipeline.
What’s known about the new Dungeons & Dragons game?
Stig Asmussen is a game director that’s most known recently for helming the first two entries of the Star Wars Jedi series with Respawn – Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor.
Before that, though, he gained a lot of attention for being the director of the third and final game in the original God of War trilogy. For this new game set in the D&D universe, Asmussen will be operating as a part of a new studio – Giant Skull.
In defining that it definitely isn’t Baldur’s Gate 4, Wizards of the Coast explained that the game will be more action-focused, likening it to the recent God of War games – something that might make it quite similar as well to those recent Star Wars games Asmussen has worked on.
WOTC president John Hight said: “It’s going to hopefully appeal to people that love playing action games, that love the Jedi games, that love God of War games.”
Is it connected to Baldur’s Gate?
While the game is emphatically not Baldur’s Gate 4, it’s difficult to say at this point whether it will be completely devoid of references to Larian’s recent RPG hit.
After all, the D&D universe is one that’s capable of hosting all manner of creative possibilities, with all of the numerous modules, games, books and other adventures able to coexist within it without much conflict due to the flexible nature of the setting. However, it’s likely that this game is going to want to develop its own identity separate from those prior RPGs, especially if it’s not utilising the D&D ruleset.
What Larian has in store
Many will also inevitably ask where Larian Studios’ new game fits into all of this. While they’ve made it clear in the past that this is a project that’s going to take some time to see the light of the day, keeping details under wraps in the meantime, last year they divulged that it’s codenamed Excalibur.
However, as this is also the name of Larian CEO Swen Vicke’s puppy, it might not actually have any bearing on the plot of the game once it comes out.
