“We’re talking about at least half a decade of horror”: former Exodus lead explains why he wasn’t keen on doing a Baldur’s Gate 4 despite Hasbro offering the chance

Nah. Nope. I’m good, thanks. None of those are exactly what former Archetype Entertainment studio head and BioWare veteran James Ohlen said when Hasbro asked him if he fancied making a Baldur’s Gate 4, but they essentially capture the jist. Despite having worked on the RPG series before, the former boss behind upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus wasn’t keen in picking up the baton Larian had tossed aside, mainly because trying to live up to the expectations their last work set would be a hugely daunting task.

Speaking to Punchy Cleric Gamer, Ohlen recalled the chat he had with Hasbro CEO Chris Cox after Larian peaced out to go and work on Divinity. “‘Hey James, what do you think about doing Baldur’s Gate 4?’ [Cox said]. And I was like, ‘I don’t, I would fail, and here’s why I would fail.'”

The fundamental issue that convinced Ohlen that his studio taking up the mantle would be a bad idea was the fact they weren’t already set up in terms of tools, people, and institutional knowledge already in place to develop a game along those lines, as Larian had been thanks to their prior work on the Divinity: Original Sin games. Ohlen and co would’ve had to start work from scratch on an engine to underpin everything, unless Larian could be convinced to license out theirs, with Ohlen suggesting building those foundations could amount to “about at least half a decade of horror”.

There were also the small matters of Archetype already having an RPG on the go and whoever follows up the beloved BG3 facing an almighty task to live up to the standard set by Larian. As Ohlen put it: “Doing Exodus is hard enough, but having to compete against Baldur’s Gate 3? That would be insanity.” So, he said no, and has since gone on to leave Archetype, citing burnout.

As for what sort of studio Ohlen reckons stand the best chance of taking on Baldur’s Gate 4, the dev said it’d be one which mirrors the “us against all the other game studios, we’re going to outdo them” attitude which existed at BioWare back in the day and isn’t afraid to take things in new directions.

As it stands, no other studio has publicly stepped up to fight the great BG3 expectation monster since Larian backed out of doing a sequel. Wizards of the Coast have been reported to have remakes of older Baldur’s Gates in the works in the meantime, with Ohlen’s fellow Baldur’s Gate 2 veteran Kevin Martens involved.