Baldur's Gate 3 almost made by Obsidian in 2008

Fallout creator Black Isle Studios was supposed to continue BioWare's RPG series Baldur's Gate a decade ago with a third core game, but that vanished soon after being announced. Years after the developer shut down, though, Baldur's Gate 3 almost happened again, at the studio founded by several Black Isle veterans, Obsidian Entertainment. Feargus Urquhart has revealed that it almost signed with Baldur's Gate owner Atari around 2007 to make BG3, but the deal fell apart.

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Fallout creator Black Isle Studios was supposed to continue BioWare's RPG series Baldur's Gate a decade ago with a third core game, but that vanished soon after being announced. Years after the developer shut down, though, Baldur's Gate 3 almost happened again, at the studio founded by several Black Isle veterans, Obsidian Entertainment. Feargus Urquhart has revealed that it almost signed with Baldur's Gate owner Atari around 2008 to make a 'new' BG3, but the deal fell apart.

"We were talking to Atari, and we started talking, and oh my god this was like the Cherokee Trail of Tears pitch," Urquhart told Kotaku. "They asked in 2007 if we wanted to do Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm like 'Yes, if you guys are serious about it.' They were like, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'If you'll put a real budget behind it: it can't be $10 million, it needs to be $20 million, $25 million. If you really want to do this, then you need to put a real budget behind it. You need to give a budget that BioWare would have to do a Mass Effect or whatever. It has to be a real budget.'"

Obsidian put a pitch together and slowly won Atari's heart, and was due to sign a contract around the end of 2008. However, the publisher started dragging its feet, expressing concern after visit Obsidian that the studio might not be able to make the game. "And then a week later all of Atari Europe was sold to Namco Bandai," Urquhart said. Obsidian's producer at Atari was gone too.

"All this work got done," Urquhart said. "We negotiated a whole contract. Years worth of work, and it turned out they didn't have the money."

Baldur's Gate recently popped back into public consciousness with the release of Overhaul Games' enhanced edition of the original game. Overhaul hopes to revive BG if the EE and its planned revamp of the sequel work out, and Urquhart would be interested in joining forces for a new game. "We wanna work on great games. If that was something they were interested in, sure, we'd totally talk about it," he said.

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    December 17, 2012 6:02 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Baldur's Gate 3 almost made by Obsidian in 2008.

    Fallout creator Black Isle Studios was supposed to continue BioWare's RPG series Baldur's Gate a decade ago with a third core game, but that vanished soon after being announced. Years after the developer shut down, though, Baldur's Gate 3 almost happened again, at the studio founded by several Black Isle veterans, Obsidian Entertainment. Feargus Urquhart has revealed that it almost signed with Baldur's Gate owner Atari around 2007 to make BG3, but the deal fell apart.

    • reply
      December 17, 2012 7:02 AM

      2008 Obsidian? Thank your stars this didn't happen.

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        December 17, 2012 7:13 AM

        And personally, I am satisfied with the conclusions left off with the Bhaalspawn saga in Throne of Bhaal. I don't think we need a Baldurs Gate 3. We could use a "spin off series" that takes place in Faerun and nods to the events of BG1 and 2 and Icewind Dale (Uncle Xan connection). I wouldn't mind seeing some of my favorite NPCs make a return in a different region.

        Waterdeep is a popular choice, I'd rather not have another Neverwinter game, but there are plenty of other great options such as Calimsham, Zhentarim, Thay, Cormyr.

        Hell what about Kara Tur and Maztica?

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          December 17, 2012 7:15 AM

          [deleted]

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            December 17, 2012 7:21 AM

            Kara-Tur was the Asian Themed side, and Al-Quadim was the Middle Eastern.

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          December 17, 2012 7:20 AM

          Because a lot of those places don't exist as they were anymore because WotC had moved the world forward 100 years and in those 100 years a lot of chaos ensued (spell-plague, and Abeir transition to overlay Toril) and they are not ones to go ahead and say forget our current stuff and go back to the past. Actually with the advent of 5th edition, they have announced that they will have a major even to rectify a lot of the major things they did wrong, but they still refuse to move back.

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          December 17, 2012 7:45 AM

          I wouldn't mind it being called Baldur's Gate 3, since Baldur's Gate is a city, not a plot or a character. All sorts of stories could be told in that setting. Even if it just starts in Baldur's Gate and goes somewhere else, it would be better for sales if they could use the name.

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          December 17, 2012 8:15 AM

          We could have a bhaalspawn... spawn. The world would be different based on your previous game's ending. =D

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        December 17, 2012 11:55 AM

        Agreed. If it came out with the 2008 Obsidian team, we'd be waiting for fan-patches in 2012 to either complete the game or fix nagging bugs.

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      December 17, 2012 7:25 AM

      i have high hopes for project eternity but as someone else said above a baldurs gate made for a publisher by obsidian in their transition phase from neverwinter nights2 to alpha protocol might have ended up like dragon age 2.

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        December 17, 2012 7:41 AM

        Project Eternity is really the game I want and I think it's a perfect time for it from the perfect team. That is, for me, the spiritual successor to BG (without being tied to BG itself). Really what I want is a game that plays like BG, looks MUCH better (or modern) but has the same depth of story and characters as those old games. I don't really feel a need to re-visit any old places or see any old characters again. I have high hopes for PE.

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        December 17, 2012 12:09 PM

        I would play DA2 a thousand times before having to play Alpha Protocol again. Yea, that's a really low bar!

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      December 17, 2012 8:10 AM

      I still have hope that it will be one day.

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