Larian Studios officially announced Baldur’s Gate 4 at a press event in Ghent, Belgium on Monday, confirming that the Belgian developer will continue its collaboration with Dungeons and Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast for a sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3, the 2023 role-playing game that won more than 200 Game of the Year awards and sold over 25 million copies to become one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed CRPGs ever made. The announcement confirms a development that had been widely anticipated since Larian CEO Swen Vincke indicated in a 2024 interview that the studio was ‘already thinking about what comes next‘ despite having previously suggested the company might move to a wholly original IP.

Baldur’s Gate 4 will be set in the Forgotten Realms, the same D&D campaign setting as its predecessor, but will take place in the city of Athkatla, the capital of Amn that served as the primary hub of Baldur’s Gate 2 in 2000, and will extend into the surrounding regions of Calimshan and the Western Heartlands. Vincke said the new setting was chosen partly as a tribute to Baldur’s Gate 2’s status as one of the most beloved CRPGs of the 2000 era and partly because the rich political, religious, and faction-based conflicts of Amn provide ideal narrative territory for the morally complex writing that defined BG3. The game will feature a wholly new cast of companions and a new protagonist, though Vincke confirmed that certain characters from BG3 will appear in supporting roles, and that the story will be set approximately 25 years after the events of its predecessor. IGN noted that the 25-year time gap leaves room for narrative connection to BG3 without requiring the new game’s story to be constrained by the previous game’s wildly different possible outcomes.

The magic system in BG4 will be significantly revised, departing from the D&D 5th edition rules that governed BG3’s mechanics. Larian has negotiated with Wizards of the Coast to use a hybrid system that draws on D&D’s evolving One D&D ruleset while incorporating original mechanical elements developed by Larian specifically for the video game format. Vincke said the decision to move beyond a strict adaptation of tabletop rules reflects lessons learned from BG3 about the disconnect between rules designed for a tabletop experience and mechanics that feel natural and satisfying in a real-time rendered video game environment. Eurogamer‘s preview coverage described the new magic system as “substantially more flexible and narratively integrated” than its predecessor, allowing spells to have dynamic effects on environments, NPCs, and the game world that persist across sessions in ways that BG3’s implementation could not accommodate.

Larian confirmed a targeted release window of 2028 for Baldur’s Gate 4, acknowledging that the development timeline reflects both the ambition of the project – which Vincke described as “everything BG3 was, but built with the experience of having done it once” – and a deliberate decision not to rush a release that the studio believes will define its legacy for the next decade. The game will be developed simultaneously for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, with no current-generation console versions planned. Polygon reported that Larian’s studio headcount has grown from approximately 400 people at BG3’s launch to 850 people currently, reflecting the expanded team size that a project of BG4’s scope requires.

Pre-production on Baldur’s Gate 4 has been underway for approximately 18 months, with the formal announcement marking the transition to full production. Larian said it will share development updates through a series of Panel From Hell video presentations beginning in early 2027, adopting the same community-facing development communication approach that built substantial audience investment in BG3 during its multi-year early access period.