We might be a few weeks out from the announcement of one of the most heavily requested RPG sequels of all-time, as developer Larian Studios is teasing that the company is working on Baldur's Gate 3. Larian Studios is the company behind Divinity: Original Sin 2, widely regarded as one of the best pure RPG titles over the past decade and a game that was heavily influenced in its execution by past innovations made by the Baldur's Gate franchise.
The original Baldur's Gate trilogy wrapped up in 2001, and is, if not the best role-playing game series ever made, at least one of the most influential. The series was renowned for the excellence with which it approached its narrative, alongside the fact that it single-handedly innovated the RPG genre for decades to come with its incredible design. Baldur's Gate has gotten enhanced versions over the years, and they've surprisingly held up about as well as a nearly two-decade-old game could be expected to. Getting a Baldur's Gate 3 outright, however, has proven tricky, as the game is licensed from Dungeons & Dragons IP owners Wizards of the Coast and has been heavily protected as a property.
Earlier this morning, Larian Studios put up a teaser image on the company's website with a large number three plastered across the page. That naturally led many to believe that a Divinity: Original Sin 3 announcement was coming, something that would already have been a big deal given the pedigree of the first two. However, some HTML finagling from Twitter user @kunkken uncovered a slew of hints that suggests the teaser is actually for Baldur's Gate 3.
While Larian Studios has yet to actually confirm anything, the source code, which we've independently referenced as well, is a pretty clear indicator that Baldur's Gate 3 is in the works. If so, it'll be interesting to see what the story looks like—Baldur's Gate 2 as a game and Baldur's Gate as a D&D property don't actually coincide narratively, with the latter retconning the former. That being said, with so many excited by the prospect of continuing the journey that the original video games laid out, it would seem like a missed opportunity not to have Baldur's Gate 3 continue in the world that gamers last visited in 2001.
Whatever the case may be, the potential existence of Baldur's Gate 3 is huge—potentially one of the biggest stories of 2019. It's not a stretch to state that the franchise is responsible for many of the best RPGs ever created in one way or another, and Larian Studios has a proven track record of being one of the very best at developing the genre in the current era. We'll have to wait until we see what the game looks like, but the teaser seems to indicate we might get information as early as E3 2019, so fans of the Baldur's Gate series will want to stay dialed in over the next few weeks in anticipation.
Source: Larian Studios, kunkken/Twitter