Baldur’s Gate 4 Search Underway as Veteran Designers Decline Return
A fourth entry in the Baldur’s Gate franchise is still on the table “one day,” but the people most closely associated with the series’ early design history aren’t interested in returning to it. Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are reportedly already searching for a studio to build Baldur’s Gate 4, and now two veteran designers from Baldur’s Gate 2 have said they turned down the opportunity to come back.
Release-window and platform status
At the moment, there’s no announced release date, no listed platforms, and no confirmed development studio for Baldur’s Gate 4. What we do have is confirmation that Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are actively looking for the right team to handle a future sequel.
James Ohlen and Kevin Martens were part of the design team for Baldur’s Gate 2. Decades later, the two are still collaborating—this time on Exodus at Archetype Entertainment. Archetype is owned by Hasbro, which helps explain why, following Baldur’s Gate 3’s major success and Larian’s decision to move on from the franchise, Hasbro would look to other internal options with direct Baldur’s Gate experience.
Baldur’s Gate 2 Designers Say No to Returning for a New Sequel
The sticking point is that Ohlen and Martens don’t want to make a fresh Baldur’s Gate game either. Speaking about the outreach, Ohlen said Hasbro CEO Chris Cook contacted him after it became clear the company wouldn’t handle the next installment internally. Ohlen described the conversation as Cook asking what he thought about doing Baldur’s Gate 4, and Ohlen answering that he would not be the right choice—explaining that he believed he’d fail and outlining why.
Ohlen’s core concern is that a modern Baldur’s Gate sequel would be judged against what the series has become now, and against the benchmark set by Baldur’s Gate 3. In his view, that kind of direct comparison would set the project up for failure. He also framed it as an added layer of pressure on top of the already difficult work required for Exodus, arguing that trying to square a new sequel with the legacy of Baldur’s Gate 3 would be “insanity.”
Why Reusing Larian’s Tech Wasn’t a Quick Fix
Even if the end result was ultimately a “no,” the decision doesn’t sound like it happened instantly. Ohlen says he asked Cook whether there was any possibility of making Baldur’s Gate 4 using Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3 engine. If that path wasn’t viable, the other option would be to build a brand-new engine from the ground up—a timeline Ohlen characterizes as “at least half a decade of horror.”
There’s another timeline factor here: it’s been two years since Larian confirmed it would not be developing the next Baldur’s Gate installment. Instead, the studio plans to return to a world it originally created, with the Divinity universe offering more creative freedom. Larian’s recent work in the Divinity line—starting with the Original Sin games—has already shown what players can expect, and the implication is that this may shorten the wait for a new Larian release rather than forcing fans to wait for a Baldur’s Gate follow-up.
Newsletter request for Baldur’s Gate 4 insights
As for Baldur’s Gate 4, the search for a studio suitable for the job appears to be ongoing, but there’s currently no information on who that studio could be. The expectation being set is that it won’t be a team that has previously worked on a Baldur’s Gate project. It would also need a development group that’s both exceptionally skilled and willing to take on the challenge of producing a sequel to one of the highest-rated and most beloved games in the genre.
