The not-quite-making of Baldur’s Gate 3

It started with an iron shortage. The most dramatic and memorable D&D story ever told on PC began with the sort of regional news you might skip over in the newspaper. But via a handful of encounters with a meddling wizard named Elminster, and an unfortunate personal connection to the god of murder, Baldur’s Gate and its sequel built to become perhaps the most celebrated fantasy epic in RPG history. The rise of 3D brought change to the genre, leaving Baldur’s Gate largely undisputed as the definitive party-based D&D experience. And so when somebody like Brian Fargo suggests that a Baldur’s Gate 3 might be in development - but won’t tell us where - gamers of a certain age tend to lose it faster than Minsc in a pet shop. We gathered a party of classic RPG developers to tell us why Baldur’s Gate 3 still feels like such a big deal - and to peek into the bag of holding at a couple of the cancelled Baldur’s Gate 3s they’ve worked on before.