What Studio would you like to be in charge of BG4 ?

[Captain_Narol]

As most of us know already, Larian Studios declined to go on with the Baldur's Gate franchise, so the IP rights for future entries are back into the hands of Hasbro and his subsidiary WOTC.

If you were in the shoes of the big boss of Hasbro, what other developpement studio (internal or external) would you pick to make a successful BG4 that would earn them millions in sales and makes players happy ?

(Please explain your choice, for the debate to open)

[Angel]

I honestly don't care, if larian isn't making it it's not going to be a must buy for me

[Popsicles]

Black Isle Studios.

[Raz]

Larian was already in full production of BG4 and cancelled it. Guess WoTC left that bad of an impression for them.

Anyways, since Hasbro has one of their studios working on it, they own only four studios (one was renamed). One of which is ex-Bioware (Archetype Entertainment) but already making Exodus. Atomic Arcade is working on a new GI Joe game. Invoke Studios is supposedly working on a game from the DND franchise and have been around since 2022. Larian didn't cancel work on BG4 until around the launch of BG3. It is possible Invoke Studios took whatever bones Larian left and continued from there. That leaves Skeleton Key which is also working on an unannounced game.

So either Skeleton Key or Invoke Studios are working on BG4. Skeleton Key developers, if looked into, don't have a track record that wows. They all worked on failures from Bioware such as Anthem, Andromeda, and ME3 (yes, not a failure but the first game of BioWares of that era to start showing the cracks). Invoke, I haven't looked into but ALL of the studios Hasbro has working on games will be the first outting of said studios and lite spelunking into the crews, many of them used to work for RPG titans but doesn't mean these people were a part of those titans success.

Realistically, I am not expecting BG4 to be half the game that Larian made BG3 to be. The fact developers across the board whined it is unfair for gamers to expect that level of commitment and polish for all games is a red herring to the fact they cannot actual produce such quality in the first place. Mind you, what Larian put out still has bugs, issues, etc but can be glossed over because it's still quite a sound game, good story telling, good characters.

I mean, look at Veilguard. By all accounts that game runs as a well oiled machine but being highly optimized and having little bugs doesn't make a game good. It just encourages people to heap more praises at your feet.

Anyways, as to your topic question; if it's not Larian or a similar indie company that has earned its weight in salt, I frankly trust no AAA company to work on BG4. They'll just ♥♥♥♥ it up.

[Chaosolous]

Don’t care. I’m a Larian fan not a Baldur’s Gate fan.

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Raz:

Invoke, I haven't looked into

Invoke made the D&D: Dark Alliance game that was so unsuccessful they are shutting down the servers at the end of this month.

[Raz]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Originally posted by Raz:

Invoke, I haven't looked into

Invoke made the D&D: Dark Alliance game that was so unsuccessful they are shutting down the servers at the end of this month.

So basically... thus far only one game coming out of Hasbro seems to potentially have some legs and that is Exodus from Archetype Entertainment.

[Wankboy Doublefapp]

Originally posted by Popsicles:

Black Isle Studios.

[Skaraok]

Firaxis. It makes the most sense from a technical perspective. Turn-based combat is half the fun of BG3, and I don't think any other developer could really do it justice in the same way.

The narrative and writing might not be as solid, but honestly, would ANY team of writers be able to realistically live up to the hype?

[Something completely different]

There's so few companies left with the structure (eg no shareholders wailing constantly 'But mah profits!!!) that have the patience, funds and capacity to make a game like BG4 that I don't know.

If I had to pick I'd take CD projekt Red.

[TheLegendOfMylos]

Originally posted by Raz:

Skeleton Key developers, if looked into, don't have a track record that wows. They all worked on failures from Bioware such as Anthem, Andromeda, and ME3 (yes, not a failure but the first game of BioWares of that era to start showing the cracks).

SK Just hired on Veilguard's director, as well.

Not what I want to see for a BG4 prospect.

[Razorblade]

Making a BG4 for easy money won't make for a good game. Ideally, WotC should just shelf the BG IP for another decade or two until the time is right, like they did after BG2.

[Blaze]

I'm fine as long as the director of Failguard is not involved at all.

[Jean-Maurice Nya]

None. I was actually against a BG3, there was no need for it, and it didn't bring anything to the original saga, except pooping on the lore of previous titles.

[Cass]

Originally posted by Raz:

Larian was already in full production of BG4 and cancelled it.

Have you got a source for this? It's the first I've heard any work at all (let alone at Larian) had started on BG4.

[Popsicles]

Originally posted by Cass:

Originally posted by Raz:

Larian was already in full production of BG4 and cancelled it.

Have you got a source for this? It's the first I've heard any work at all (let alone at Larian) had started on BG4.

Totally made up. Fiction.