Baldur's Gate III

This article is about the upcoming video game by Larian Studios. For the cancelled game by Black Isle Studios, see Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound.
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## Baldur's Gate III

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***Baldur's Gate III*** is an upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios for Microsoft Windows and the Stadia streaming service. It is the third main game in the *Baldur's Gate* series, itself based on the *Dungeons & Dragons* tabletop role-playing system.

## Gameplay

*Baldur's Gate III* is anticipated to be a computer role-playing game with both a single-player and cooperative multiplayer element. Single players will be able to create one or more characters and form a party with them and computer-generated characters to explore the game's story. Optionally, players will be able to take one of their characters and team up online with one or more other players to form a party together.

## Development

The original *Baldur's Gate* game was developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios, and published by Interplay Entertainment in 1998. The game used a licensed version of the *Dungeons & Dragons* (*D&D*) ruleset, specifically in the *Forgotten Realms* setting. The game's success led to a sequel, *Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn*, and its expansion pack, as well as *Icewind Dale* and its sequel, and *Planescape: Torment*. Black Isle Studios had begun work on a further sequel, *Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound* by 2003 but Interplay faced significant financial crisis that year and shut down Black Isle, cancelling the game. Interplay then lost the license to make *D&D* video games to Atari by 2008 who released *Neverwinter Nights* and its sequel. Wizards of the Coast had long since acquired the rights to *D&D* as part of their purchase of TSR, and had been making updates to the core rulesets over the previous years. The new sequel from Larian Studios has no connection to the cancelled *Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound*.

The series' intellectual property (IP) had been sought after by multiple developers; according to Brian Fargo, a former Interplay developer and founder of inXile Entertainment, both he and Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment had been seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Larian Studios had been interested in making a sequel in the *Baldur's Gate* series for some time, having first approached Wizards after their release of *Divinity: Original Sin* around 2014. At this time, Wizards felt the studio was still too new to the industry to be trusted with the *Baldur's Gate* license. Larian continued to develop *Divinity: Original Sin II* which would be released in September 2017. Pre-release materials related to the game had impressed Wizards, and the publisher contacted Larian asking if they still had interest in *Baldur's Gate III*. Larian accepted, and while working to wrap up the release stage of development for *Divinity: Original Sin II*, a small group gathered to develop the design document to present to Wizards with their ideas for the new *Baldur's Gate*.

The game will be based on the 5th edition of the *D&D* ruleset, though will include tweaks and modifications that Larian found necessary in translating into a video game. For example, the combat system is expected to be weighed more in favor of the player than in the tabletop version, to make the game more enjoyable.

Larian Studios first teased *Baldur's Gate III* in the week prior to E3 2019, and formally revealed it during Google's presentation on the Stadia platform just ahead of E3, confirming its release both for Microsoft Windows and on Stadia. A prequel tabletop adventure *Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus* was published by Wizards of the Coast in September 2019. Descent into Avernus takes place roughly 100 years after the events of *Baldur's Gate II*, and *Baldur's Gate III's* story takes place immediately following the events in the *Descent into Avernus* tabletop module.

## References

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1. ↑ Baldur's Gate III is finally happening, 19 years later. Retrieved on 7 June 2019.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Brown, Frasier (June 6, 2019). Baldur's Gate 3 will combine the best of Divinity and D&D 5th Edition. PC Gamer. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
3. ↑ MacCafferty, Ryan (June 18, 2019). Obsidian and inXile Both Tried to get the Rights to Baldur's Gate 3 – E3 2019. IGN. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
4. ↑ Brown, Frasier (June 6, 2019). Larian was shot down the first time it wanted to make Baldur's Gate 3. PC Gamer. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
5. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (May 30, 2019). Divinity: Original Sin studio teases new game, signs point to Baldur's Gate 3. Polygon. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
6. ↑ Grant, Christopher (June 6, 2019). Baldur’s Gate 3 announced for Stadia launch, watch the trailer here. Polygon. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
7. ↑ Dungeons & Dragons Clarifies Relationship Between Descent Into Avernus and Baldur's Gate III (in en).