Does anyone have any info on the progress of Baldurs Gate 3?

X

xdarkyrex

Vault Senior Citizen
I tried to do a forum search and it came up with so many fallout threads that i couldn't find anything, but I just recently discovered that there is supposedly a Baldurs Gate 3 in the works.

Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound (code named Jefferson and FR6) was mentioned in early 2001 as a new game in the Baldur's Gate series to be made by Black Isle Studios using a completely new 3D engine.

BG3 was originally going to be a departure from the high-powered epic of the Bhaalspawn saga to a low-key, roleplaying plot. With protagonists progressing to around level four at the end of BIS' typically enormous campaign and a hard cap at level eight, gameplay was refocussed to a flat and wide adventure emphasizing quests over combat. In fact, the game was only titled "Baldur's Gate" due to Interplay having lost the general D&D license to Atari, but still retaining the right to make Baldur's Gate branded D&D games (the same reason as for BGDA's title.)

Unfortunately, the game appeared to be cancelled in 2003, just before its engine was repurposed for Black Isle's ill-fated Van Buren Fallout 3 project. The Black Hound is currently under development as a module for the recently-released Neverwinter Nights 2 computer game, being developed by Josh Sawyer, one of the designers of the cancelled game.

However, in April of 2004 IGN released information that a Baldur's Gate III is in the works. Any other information has, for now, not been released. According to some software distributors, the tentative release year is 2007, although there is no solid evidence as to whether or not the game is actually in development.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate_series



April 3, 2004 - While we reported that Baldur's Gate III is no longer being developed by Black Isle and published by Interplay in our recent Missing in Action: The Lost Games of the PC, Part 1 feature, it looks like the third installment of the popular RPG series is still in the works and will be published by Atari.

In a recent post on the Atari message boards, an Atari representative confirmed that Baldur's Gate III and Neverwinter Nights II were indeed in development, and that the games would be published by Atari.

In a post stating that "All Atari's game are crap.," an Atari representative replied with the following post:

All crap...? You either need to expand your sample size or refine your expectations. Here are some fantastic recent Atari titles:

Godzilla: DAMM
APEX
Battle Engine Aquila
DBZ
D&D Heroes
Civ 3
Rollercoaster Tycoon
NWN
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Championship

Huge titles on the horizon:

RCT3
NWN2
BG3
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Driver 3

And, several others.

There's good and bad with any publisher folks. We've got more good than bad although at times it can be hard to see when you're particularly frustrated with a single title or recent experience. It's the same with every publisher in the business...we're not in the business to stick it to consumers we just miss the mark on some titles.

Although no concrete developer information has been announced as of yet, since the original BioWare-developed Neverwinter Nights was published by Atari, we assume that they will return to work with Atari again on the sequel. We can only hope that the Canadian RPG masters are working on Baldur's Gate III as well as the previous Baldur's Gate titles were developed by BioWare, but again, no solid developer information has been given for either title.

While the post was made on April 1st, a day known for an abundance of gags and pranks, the representative asserts that the post is "No April Fool's Joke. We've got dozens of titles in all stages of development. We're currently talking with several top developers about creating the next generation of our strongest D&D RPGs. This really shouldn't be a surprise...lots of RPG goodness in the future from Atari," and that "Atari is the sole licensor of all D&D interactive properties. We could bring back Gold Box games if we were so inclined...and maybe we are... Man, I loved those adventures. My purpose here is simply to make sure you all understand that we're well aware of the importance and popularity of the franchise (meaning D&D ) to most of you. We've got some fantastic titles in our catalog and we are absolutely planning to do something with them. The whos, whats, wheres and hows...well, that's what we'll be saving for a full-fledged announcement."

We'll have more on these two Dungeons & Dragons sequels as we hear it.
Click to expand...

http://pc.ign.com/articles/504/504160p1.html
 
This seems weird for a couple of reasons. The first being that Baldur's Gate's rights were with Black Isle/Interplay, even though Bioware actually created the game.
However, Interplay lost the rights to the Baldur's Gate series when TSR ended their contract with Interplay. So now no one knows who owns Baldur's Gate 3.

The second reason why this seems weird is that we haven't heard about this game for three years, then, even though it was in production three years ago.
That just seems ridiculous. Unless it's Blizzard's secret third game.
 
Sander said:
However, Interplay lost the rights to the Baldur's Gate series when TSR ended their contract with Interplay. So now no one knows who owns Baldur's Gate 3.
Click to expand...

actually interplay still retained the rights to make baldurs gate games based on the D&D rules, which was why the console games "Baldrus Gate: Dark Alliance" had Baldur's Gate in its name. It wasn't just shameless whoring of a franchise name. They had to do it for legal reasons if they wanted to use any of the trademarked D&D stuff. It says in my first post. :P

But as to how Atari got a hold of it... well.... wtf, I got no idea.

And I also have no idea if it will ever come out.
I bet you it'll be an FPS.


Sander said:
Unless it's Blizzard's secret third game.
Click to expand...

:lol: You get the prize!
 
xdarkyrex said:
actually interplay still retained the rights to make baldurs gate games based on the D&D rules, which was why the console games "Baldrus Gate: Dark Alliance" had Baldur's Gate in its name.
Click to expand...
No, they didn't. They retained the rights to the Dark Alliance series (without the D&D rules). They lost the rights to the Baldur's Gate series itself.
 
Sander said:
xdarkyrex said:
actually interplay still retained the rights to make baldurs gate games based on the D&D rules, which was why the console games "Baldrus Gate: Dark Alliance" had Baldur's Gate in its name.
Click to expand...
No, they didn't. They retained the rights to the Dark Alliance series (without the D&D rules). They lost the rights to the Baldur's Gate series itself.
Click to expand...

BG3 was originally going to be a departure from the high-powered epic of the Bhaalspawn saga to a low-key, roleplaying plot. With protagonists progressing to around level four at the end of BIS' typically enormous campaign and a hard cap at level eight, gameplay was refocussed to a flat and wide adventure emphasizing quests over combat. In fact, the game was only titled "Baldur's Gate" due to Interplay having lost the general D&D license to Atari, but still retaining the right to make Baldur's Gate branded D&D games (the same reason as for BGDA's title.)
Click to expand...


Wiki lied to me then.

Go figure, eh?
 
xdarkyrex said:
BG3 was originally going to be a departure from the high-powered epic of the Bhaalspawn saga to a low-key, roleplaying plot. With protagonists progressing to around level four at the end of BIS' typically enormous campaign and a hard cap at level eight, gameplay was refocussed to a flat and wide adventure emphasizing quests over combat. In fact, the game was only titled "Baldur's Gate" due to Interplay having lost the general D&D license to Atari, but still retaining the right to make Baldur's Gate branded D&D games (the same reason as for BGDA's title.)
Click to expand...


Wiki lied to me then.

Go figure, eh?
Click to expand...
Heh. Well, I suppose it's possible that they retained the rights to the Baldur's Gate series, but I'm pretty sure they lost that. I'm very sure that they weren't allowed to make more D&D games, even if it had the Baldur's Gate brand name.
Wikipedia isn't the holy grail of information, you know.
 
THere is a BG3 project going on - sort of. It is not named BG3, I believe?,but I do know that Josh Sawyer is working on a project called 'black hound' which is a mod of sorts for NWN2. I think Josh originally did the design docs for the original BG3 project? also called Black Hound internally at Interplay/Black Isle?

And this is precisely why your never should trust anything you read, not even on wikipedia or in a newspaper...
 
His project is just a pet project of his to mod the existing stuff for the original BG3 project into NWN2. It has nothing to do with Atari.
 
Consider this one officially "no"d.

NEW STRATEGIC AGREEMENT WITH HASBRO CONCERNING THE DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FRANCHISE

DIGITAL GAMING RIGHTS TO BE SOLD BACK TO HASBRO FOR 19.5 MILLION US DOLLARS

Lyon, France, July 18, 2007 – As part of the relaunch strategy announced by the Group on June 21 and the Group’s plan to focus its investment on major franchises with significant potential, Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257) today announced the signing of a new agreement with Hasbro concerning:

- the extension until 2017 of the exploitation of the intellectual property rights to the Dungeons & Dragons universe, under an exclusive license covering all interactive formats, including online and wireless.

The agreement covers all current and future products that are part of this universe, including NeverWinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, etc. Two new games have already been announced for fiscal 2007-2008: NeverWinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack for PC and Dungeons & Dragons Tactics for PSP.
Click to expand...
 
Damnit, why won't anyone work with this!

The D&D ruleset is frickin amazing, and it makes me mad that no one will do anything with it!
 
xdarkyrex said:
Damnit, why won't anyone work with this!

The D&D ruleset is frickin amazing, and it makes me mad that no one will do anything with it!
Click to expand...

Rules? Why would anyone want to read rules when they can go through a sewer and learn EVERYTHING!?
 
Well, I suppose it's possible that they retained the rights to the Baldur's Gate series
Click to expand...

No they lost it, I'm completely sure since I was covering that at the time. They got a deal to use the Dark Alliance name though, that still stands.

There was a BG3 in the making, one community manager from Atari once slipped that during an argument on the late Atari boards, but it was putt on hold. Josh sawyer is making a mod for NWN2 based on the Black Hound, the original Baldurs Gate 3, but it will only use his original areas, it's a small thing.

Some kind of announcement regarding the series has been expected for three years now, maybe with today's agreement we'll have something soon. I really don't like The Forgotten Realms, so I'm not very interested.
 
As long as they can stop sucking Drizzt's dick, I'm a huge fan of the forgotten realms games (when handled tastefully).

So its important to me :D
Especially in the vein of Planescape: Torment (Sigil is an amazing place, and the stories about relationships between the prime material realm and the other realms is fascinating in its specific and complex design)

but thanks a lot for all the info guys!
Its surprisingly hard to find.
 
Atari has the rights to produce a new Baldur's Gate and Dungeons and Dragons computer games. They have renewed the agreement with Hasbro until 2017.

Regards
 
slamelov said:
Atari has the rights to produce a new Baldur's Gate and Dungeons and Dragons computer games. They have renewed the agreement with Hasbro until 2017.

Regards
Click to expand...

I do believe you, but if you have a link I would LOVE to get a hold of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top