It seems that Larian Studios, creator of the Divinity Original Sin games, is teasing a Baldur’s Gate 3 announcement. The company recently updated its website with what many thought was a hint at the third Divinity game. However, dataminers have seemingly found evidence that Larian Studios is making a third Baldur’s Gate instead.
Larian’s website simply shows a video animation with a stylized roman numeral three. While looking at the code of the animation, Twitter user @kunkken has found hints that it is referring to a third game in the classic Dungeons and Dragons RPG franchise.
Specifically, the code links to an image with the filename “BaldursGate_logo_III_retouched.png.” Additionally, more lines of code make copyright disclaimers acknowledging Dungeons and Dragon‘s current owners Wizards of the Coast.
Fans of the franchise have been waiting a long time for Baldur’s Gate 3. Black Isle Studios was originally working on the game, subtitled The Black Hound, back in the 2000s. However, that project was apparently canceled in 2003.
After this, Black Isle’s successor Obsidian Entertainment made another attempt at starting development on Baldur’s Gate 3. However, the figurative rug was pulled out from under the project after publisher Atari Europe was sold to Bandai Namco.
Yet another attempt at making a third Baldur’s Gate game happened at Beamdog in 2012. After releasing Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, the Edmonton-based studio planned to make its own take on Baldur’s Gate 3. This game would have had an all new story, not based on the initial work done by Black Isle for The Black Hound.
Despite the third game never coming out, interest in the series has seen a resurgence thanks to the enhanced editions. Beamdog’s efforts renewed interest in the series, and even introduced it to new fans.
Rumors that Larian was working on another attempt at Baldur’s Gate 3 started circulating last year. Former Black Isle developer Brian Fargo, who worked on the original games, added fuel to the fire by stating that he knew who was developing it. Larian, however, was quick to deny that it was working on the game.
With this new tease, it seems that Larian may have been trying to misdirect people. It’s possible that the developers hadn’t finished getting the rights to it, and couldn’t acknowledge anything. Hopefully, the studio will come clear about this tease and the game in the near future.
