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.[3]
The Black Hound 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" and "Icewind Dale" branded D&D games (the same reason as for BGDA's title.)[3]
The game appeared to be canceled in 2003, just before its engine was re-purposed for Black Isle's ill-fated Van Buren Fallout 3 project. Subsequently, Josh Sawyer, one of the designers of the canceled game, resumed development of The Black Hound as a module for Neverwinter Nights 2.[3] As of 2009, this remains a side project for Sawyer, who works at Obsidian Entertainment.[4]
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. There is no solid evidence as to whether or not the game is actually in development, although it will likely go ahead due to its commercial potential.[5]
In the January 2008 issue of PC Gamer UK, the editor claims that he knows that Baldur's Gate III is indeed being worked on - this has further been reiterated in the January 2009 edition, though, again, any more information is unlikely to surface until later this year, possibly even 2010. [citation needed]
On December 2, 2008, Atari stated in a press conference that the Baldur's Gate series (among others) would be revisited after 2009.[6]
On February 7, 2010, in an interview about Mass Effect 2, IGN asked Ray Muzyka of Bioware about the future of Baldur's Gate, noting the sighting of Boo in the Citadel souvenir shop. He replied, 'Hey, that's just a space hamster. Boo's brother. And again, you'll have to talk to Atari about that, they've got the license.'[7]