Is the classic Baldur's Gate RPG series set to get its first proper sequel in decades, Baldurs' Gate 3? That's the rumour being fuelled by a new post on the website of developer Larian Studios.
Larian (which also developed the Divinity: Original Sin games, arguably the closest we've come to the heights of the Baldur's Gate series since the 2000 release of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn) posted a cryptic video showing stylised "III" numerals:
With E3 2019 around the corner, the safe money would be on this being a tease for a third entry into the Divinity: Original Sin series.
However! Save the video for offline viewing and open it in a text editor, as Twitter user Kunken did, and you'll find multiple references to both Baldur's Gate 3 and the series original publishers Wizards of the Coast. Suddenly, a Baldur's Gate sequel starts to appear to be on the cards.
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What's the big deal?
Baldur's Gate was originally developed by BioWare, the studio that would go on to make Dragon's Age, Mass Effect and the ill-fated Anthem. It's seen as the pinnacle of the isometric RPG craze of the 90s and early noughties, with a storyline that many consider to be among the greatest in all of fantasy, whatever the medium.
The series enjoyed a bit of a revival over the past six or seven years when another developer, Beamdog, took up the mantle of remastering the original two games and their two expansion packs for modern PCs, phones and tablets. In March of 2016 it even released its own expansion pack, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, which was designed to bridge the gap between the first two games to make one long epic adventure.
For years this lead to rumors of Beamdog producing an all-new sequel. And while it's continuing the job of porting the Baldur's Gate games, with the next platform set to be the Nintendo Switch, word on a true successor fell silent.
Should Larian be truly developing a sequel, it'd be the best fit for the franchise beyond a truly unlikely return from BioWare itself. Larian's Divinity: Original Sin games, with their isometric perspective, deep customisation and characterisation, as well as the in-game freedom to carry out quests in whichever manner a player sees fit, chimes well with what a modern gamer would want from a continuation of the storied Baldur's Gate series.
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