Baldur\u2019s Gate 4 appears to have developers running scared because they\u2019re worried about meeting expectations set by Larian\u2019s Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. But one developer has said they would consider making the game a \u201cgreat challenge\u201d \u2014 although they\u2019d avoid simply replicating what had gone before.<\/p>\n
After Larian decided against making Baldur\u2019s Gate 4 and left Dungeons & Dragons behind to work on Divinity, fans have wondered which studio might be capable of taking on perhaps the toughest sequel in all video games. Among the studios that are often mentioned in online debates about who to turn to is Owlcat Games.<\/p>\n
Owlcat is the developer of a number of well-received role-playing games including cRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which was compared to Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 upon its 2023 release. Rogue Trader is considered one of the best Warhammer 40,000 video games ever made, with fantastic characters, a gripping story, and over 100 hours of content \u2014 just like Baldur\u2019s Gate 3.<\/p>\n
While it didn\u2019t quite reach the heights of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, Rogue Trader did well enough for Owlcat to secure a follow-up, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, which has many fans not just of Games Workshop\u2019s grimdark setting on high alert, but cRPG fans rubbing their hands in anticipation.<\/p>\n
So, would Owlcat answer the call, if Hasbro were to pick up the phone and ask it to make Baldur\u2019s Gate 4? That\u2019s the question I put to co-founder and creative director Alexander Mishulin, and\u2026 well, he didn\u2019t say no!<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I would like to thank all the players, all your audience that consider us to be able to do that,\u201d he began, diplomatically. \u201cIt’s a really great honor. You already said that we are a little bit masochistic. So yeah, we will consider it a great challenge!\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed I had said Owlcat was masochistic \u2014 for taking on the challenge of making Warhammer 40,000 games and a The Expanse game (we\u2019ve got an exclusive reveal on The Expanse right here), as part of a wide-ranging interview in which we discuss Owlcat’s enormous growth over the last decade. The Warhammer 40,000 and The Expanse universes each has a hardcore fanbase that puts any adaptation under intense scrutiny, but Owlcat is very much up for meeting player expectations, which is why Baldur\u2019s Gate 4 might be a great fit.<\/p>\n
It’s worth noting that Mishulin is not confirming anything here, but understands what taking on Baldur’s Gate 4 would involve, and the challenge Owlcat would face were matching the standards set by its predecessor. But, he suggests, that\u2019s fine, because any developer simply trying to replicate a Larian game would be doomed to fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, Larian has made their own vision of how a sequel to Baldurs’s Gate should be, and they presented it to us. Any other studio that will be doing BG4 will be doing their own game in the Baldurs’ Gate setting,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt will not be Larian’s BG3, because BG3 is very Larian formula, with all their ideas for combat and how they mix with Dungeons & Dragons, with their idea of the co-op experience and how it plays into the Dungeons & Dragons experience. So any studio that would be trying to replicate that is bound to fail. It\u2019s just not the way it works. Larian were making such games for 20 years, 30 years right now, starting from the first Divinity. It’s their view of the games, it’s their view of RPGs, and it’s a great game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut other studios will do something differently. They will have their own DNA, their own ideas, and they will pour them into Baldur\u2019s Gate 4, and it will be something else. I hope that there will be a studio brave enough and passionate enough and skillful enough to do that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Owlcat?<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you!\u201d Mishulin replied, with a smile.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe Best RPG of 2023<\/h3>\n