Will there ever be a Baldur's Gate 4? Hasbro looks to be finding it tricky to secure a dev up to the task of following BG3

Is Baldur's Gate 4 ever going to happen? Hopefully, yes, but the problem is that Baldur's Gate 3 is such a tough act to follow that it's seemingly difficult to find a dev team up for the challenge of making the next instalment.

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PC Gamer reports that after Baldur's Gate 3 was a storming success, and Larian decided to leave the franchise (which wasn't an immediate departure, if you recall, and Larian did actually begin work on BG4 for a short time), Hasbro looked around for someone to take up the next iteration in the heavyweight RPG franchise.

The second person Hasbro asked to take on BG4 was James Ohlen, an ex-BioWare developer who headed up Archetype - the development studio making Exodus for Hasbro (Wizards of the Coast) - who was a co-lead designer on Baldur's Gate 2. Indeed, Kevin Martens, the other co-lead designer on BG2, was also at Archetype.

At any rate, Ohlen turned Hasbro down. PC Gamer tells us that Ohlen said: "The day [Chris Cox, Hasbro CEO] knew they [Larian] weren't going to do it, he called me. '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.'"

Ohlen observed: "I wouldn't want to compete against that. Doing Exodus is hard enough, but having to compete against Baldur's Gate 3? That would be insanity."

Ohlen noted that BG3 really stemmed from Larian's work on the Divinity: Original Sin games, and that he would need to start from scratch without Larian's engine - a task that would represent "at least half a decade of horror, building all that stuff".

In fact, Ohlen has since left Archetype, apparently due to experiencing burnout as PC Gamer reports. Martens remains at the developer, though, and is seemingly on board for the remaster of Baldur's Gate 2.

As to what could happen with Baldur's Gate 4 eventually, that's still very much up in the air. Clearly it's a massive opportunity to capitalize on the success of BG3, but equally it's a massive weight of expectations to carry and live up to.

Baldur's Gate 3 is without doubt an absolute classic of an RPG, an adventure of a frankly mind-boggling scope. It's the most fun I've had on my PS5 Pro, and BG3 took up some 250 hours of my life over the past winter (yes, I came to the game late).

I can see why prospective developers are wary, that's for sure.

Mind you, despite its brilliance, there are ways in which BG3 can be improved. I'd like to see the combat mechanics and rules streamlined somewhat, and to have fewer little fiddly bits and pieces of loot strewn across tables and the like.

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No, you don't have to loot them - but try playing coop with a partner who insists on picking up every silver knife, candlestick and soap dish that's going. We ended the game with quite a lot of spare gold, put it this way...