Baldur’s Gate 3 success pushes WOTC to double down on “premium games” based in the D&D universe 

Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a huge success, and Dungeons and Dragons IP holder Wizards of the Coast has taken notice. Alongside shoving BG3 characters into official D&D merch and selling downright laughable figurines of the game’s party, WOTC is pushing to double down on “premium” video games. 

Earlier this year, Wizards of the Coast explained that it wishes to continue to “raise the bar” of quality for Dungeon and Dragons video games. But what exactly has the studio learned from its time publishing Baldur’s Gate 3? 

Expect more premium D&D games after Baldur’s Gate 3 

In an interview with The Game Business, Wizards of the Coast president John Hight discussed the upcoming range of D&D video games, including the action-adventure game helmed by Star Wars Jedi lead Stig Asmussen. 

Hight claimed that the upcoming wealth of D&D video games will follow a Larian-like approach with lesser known teams working on high-quality games set in the RPG’s expansive worlds. 

“We are going to release premium games. There are going to be, hopefully, some of the best games that you’ll see. You’re going to start to associate the Wizards brand with premium publishing of games,” he said. 

“You don’t find folks like Stig every day. So, we’re going to have to make some bets on up-and-coming talent, and maybe do smaller games and give them a shot at building up teams and learning along the way,” he continued. “We’re going to do some experimental stuff.”

Hight explained that Wizards of the Coast has “five internal teams” working on games at the time of writing, and the company aims to “bring on a few more projects” in the coming years. This comes after the cancellation of numerous D&D games, including one long in-development title. 

The Wizards of the Coast boss explained the company is “trying to invest in the things that we believe in most” while also making sure they allow for a “number of smaller things”. Simply put, there are a lot of Dungeons and Dragons video games in the works, likely including Baldur’s Gate 4. 

Wizards of the Coast’s trajectory appears to be very similar to that of Warhammer 40,000 company Games Workshop which is also ramping up higher-quality game production following the massive success of Space Marine 2. However, it does appear that WOTC is going far above what Games Workshop is planning. (It must be due to that insane Final Fantasy Magic the Gathering revenue.)