Baldur’s Gate 4 is honestly the least exciting thing about a new video game-centric interview with WotC president John Hight.
In a new interview, WotC President John Hight talks upcoming video games and the franchise’s plans to take bigger swings in is pursuit of “premium games.” This includes Baldur’s Gate 4, because everyone talking about the interview wants you to click on their article—me included. But the interview dives into things like WotC’s plan to make big bets on smaller/newer teams as well as the upcoming Giant Skull game from Stig Asmussen of Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor fame.
WotC’s John Hight on Baldur’s Gate 4, a “Mythical” D&D Game, and More
First things first, Baldur’s Gate 4. In an interview with The Game Business, WotC president John Hight tackles video games and WotC. Naturally, Baldur’s Gate 4 is one of the top questions. Ever since the masterwork that is BG3 released two years ago, now, people have been clamoring for the sequel.
Well. Not “ever” since. Probably like a few months in once enough people got their hands deep into the guts of the game and realized that it was more than just a run-of-the-mill party-based RPG. But the point still stands. And, as Hight makes clear in the interview, Giant Skull (and Stig Asmussen) are not making Baldur’s Gate 4.
“Baldur’s Gate is an incredible game. And of course, we’re going to do a successor. [The game being developed by Giant Skull] is not the successor to that game. We go to Stig and his team to tell an incredible story and bringD&D to a very broad audience. Ideally the game will ‘appeal’ to D&D players bbecause it will help them realise their imagination. But it’s also going to hopefully appeal to people that love playing action games, that love the Jedi games, that love God of War games.”
It’s that last sentence that really makes me hopeful. Both for the Giant Skull game in particular and for the future of D&D video games in general. Because WotC isn’t just chasing the high of Baldur’s Gate. The company wants to make high quality games, as Hight outlines. And to that end, WotC is putting some of its considerable resources to supporting developers:
“We’re establishing a content creation team to help service [our studios[. We make fantasy games and sci-fi games. We’re going to have a team of artists and world builders that can help out, if Stig wants to use them, when they’re in full production. […] I don’t know that all publishers do that. But we’re fortunate, because a lot of our games are in the same space, we can bbuild a talented team that’s really good at fantasy art.”
Hight outlines WotC’s goal to become a “haven for talent.” Meaning that sometimes the company will have to take risks. Especially since experienced developers that are free to take on any project are becoming rarer. While Giant Skull is a major get for WotC, Hight pointed out to TGB that it’s not just entrenched vets the company is looking at:
“You don’t find folks like Stig every day. So we’re going to have to makesome bets on up-and-coming talent, and maybe do smaller games and give them a shot at building up teams and learning along the way. We’re going to do some experimental stuff.
We have five internal studios. We’re going to bring on a few more projects, hopefully of this ilk, maybe not quite as big as what Stig aspires to do. And then a number of smaller things.”
So look forward to more D&D video games in the future. For now, the next big video game for WotC is its first foray into a new IP, the upcoming Sci-Fi game, Exodus, being developed by Archetype Entertainment and due out sometime soon.
Get ready for more games!
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