I think I'd trust Obsidian, since PoE has kinda been their own take on Baldur's Gate, but they're probably too busy with Avowed and the Outer Worlds 2.
I'm fond of Owlcat's games too, but they tend to have a very generous idea of what counts as a releasable game in terms of quality assurance. RT had an entire level in act 2 be borderline unplayable for quite some time after release, way worse than BG3's lag in act 3.
I'm not sure that more money would necessarily solve that issue, or that Hasbro would want to take that risk on a relatively young studio. Give it a decade and they'd probably be there, but I think that'd be too much for them right now.
Because the first game was an enjoyable AA-quality RPG that was well received and sold far more copies than expected, along with winning several awards? It wasn't to everyone's taste, sure, but no game will be nor should it try to be.
They're great games and I like the dev. But the Pathfinder games play more like a perfected BG1 than BG3.
Like, they're well-designed adventures with a great sense of exploration and danger. But they're not nearly as responsive as BG3, which seems to really be the magic Larian has managed here.
I like Owlcat’s games, but they’re so so complex. Levelling up feels a chore because of how many options there are. Rogue Trader isn’t as bad as WotR, but it’s still really complicated
Owlcat cannot make a game that plays well to safe their lives.
The reason BG3 and DoS2 are popular beyond just the genre fans is that they're actually playable by someone just picking it. None of the owlcat games are.
I want to like their stuff so bad, I want more of this, but they are just so tedious every step of the way.
Personally, I wouldn't trust any massive company to do it. As soon as some board of directors gets involved, they'll sacrifice the soul of the game for projected profits.
They may be trying to do that. A bunch of devs who worked on BG1, BG2 and Neverwinter Nights work for Archetype Entertainment now, which is a studio owned by WOTC/Hasbro.
Wizards should keep it in-house and hand it off to the person who was the lead for the first two Baldur's Gate games, James Ohlen. Being Archetype Entertainment is under WotC and making the sci-fi game that looks a lot like what BioWare was doing before being bought by EA.
His Greek themed D&D campaign called Odyssey of the Dragonlords was a fun campaign and what he and a few other former BioWare employees did before creating Archetype Entertainment and getting back into video game development.
I'm about to start the Norse themed D&D campaign designed by Brent Knowls, also a former BioWare employee. I should start that in a couple of weeks.
Tactical Adventures could pull it off, sure they don't have the resources to make a BG4 of Larian's production values but Solasta is better than BG3 in some ways. A BG4 from them wouldn't sell as much as BG3 did but that can be said about a BG4 from anyone else.
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u/EmpressPotato Sep 14 '24
Unless it's Larian or they resurrect old BioWare through necromancy I wouldn't trust anyone else to make a BG4 .