http://baldursgate.com/

Looks like a new baldur's gate game is coming?

From the page source code:

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I read somewhere that it will be a remake using the Dragon Age engine.

Not sure if anything official has been mentioned.

Article from the Escapist and GameBanshee on the subject.

Both mention a promised announcement by Trent Oster of Beamdog Games. Trent Oster used to work for Bioware.

General spec on the net points to either a Baldur's Gate III or a remake. Stronger arguments are for a remake.

Some things to note/speculate upon:
Rights to Baldur's Gate belong to Atari. If a new game is coming out, are they the publisher or did they sell the rights?

Anything to do in D&D has to get an okay from WotC/Hasbro, of course. Surprised their trademark stamp isn't on the Website.

Atari announced a "Baldur's Gate III" many years ago (around the time they announced NWN2, I believe), which never saw the light of day.

I'd be curious to see what comes of this. I am not going to set high expectations however.

ETA: Keltoi: Were that true, there'd have to be some okay by or some way Electronic Arts is involved.

The Dragon Age engine remake is a homebrew modding effort.

Looks like Hasbro/WOTC has the digital rights to D&D back as of August.

Skeptical about any new Baldur's Gate. Will have to see what comes of it.

I do hope Hasbro getting the D&D video game rights back means we could see an Xbox Live/PSN version of "Shadow over Mystara" at some point.

Looks like Hasbro/WOTC has the digital rights to D&D back as of August.

These IP rights things get confusing, but my understanding -- which could well be wrong -- is that Atari still has the rights specifically to the Baldur's Gate IP/trademarks. I.e., only they can publish a game with the Baldur's Gate related stuff.

They would still have to get Hasbro's OK, though, since Hasbro still has to give the right to allow anything to do with D&D.

But maybe Hasbro did revoke everything. I wouldn't be surprised.

More from the source:

<!-- Take heart fellow adventurers, for you have curried the favor of Boo, the only miniature giant space hamster in the Realm! -->

I loved Boo!

Go for the eyes, Boo.

These IP rights things get confusing, but my understanding -- which could well be wrong -- is that Atari still has the rights specifically to the Baldur's Gate IP/trademarks. I.e., only they can publish a game with the Baldur's Gate related stuff.

Ah. Okay. Didn't realize Atari could still theoretically "own" Baldur's Gate.

Whatever's going on, if they can put out another good, party-based D&D RPG game, I'd be very happy.

I don't think we've seen anything along those lines since Temple of Elemental Evil, which unfortunately had tons of flaws, even after the work of the modding community. (Of course Atari's refusal to allow the release the source code didn't help.)

I may be wrong. But one thing I heard about WOTC having the rights for DnD computer/ video games is when a company makes one, they have to use whatever current ruleset is out for the table top game.

So does this mean this new version will your the 4th ed rules?

I can't remember exactly where I read it (Kotaku, perhaps?) but apparently one of the people associated with it blogged something about new toys in the office, and what would they do with a new iMac?

So my guess is an iPad port of at least I but hopefully II as well as I haven't ever had a chance to finish it. Based on my playing of Spiderweb Software's "Avadon" I think the iPad is a great platform for these types of games (turn-based RPGs). And since I've never played Torment or Icewind Dale, I'd love to see those on my iPad as well.

Greg

The current ruleset bit was in fact part of the old contract with Atari and I think that 4e would make a perfectly good CRPG.

In other news, it looks like the BG to DA project actually produced something, but unfortunately they only seem to have released the first section of the game. Take a look, it's actually quite impressive.

It's almost certainly a remake, or more likely a hi-def re-release of the original tailored towards the iPad and mobile platforms. Hopefully the PC and Mac get it as well, though. To currently get the games working on a modern PC you need the Tutu mod, the Widescreen mod and a fair bit of fiddling around to make them work together with the original game. Having a stress-free way of doing that would be great.

Yep, it was Kotaku.

Greg

I had a dream last night this remake had come out, and it was a multiplayer RPG for the Nintendo DS. There was new artwork that looked sort of cell-painted, but in a watercolory sort of way.

And then I remember liking the new Imoen model, but disappointed the new voice actress wasn't as good as Melissa Disney.

And it's probably a little sad that that's what I was dreaming about.

I never really played the PC games, but I would love a third Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the console.

I hope this amounts to something other then random tidbits thrown around. Coincidently there's more from the source code-

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And then at the bottom of the page-

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Sounds like the one about Shar could be about Viconia (Lolth left her to die). Or... (spoilers for the end of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal follow):

The quote about "brother" sounds like Sarevok.

The website now has a countdown on it. Should run out at 7pm GMT tonight :)

Yep, it will hit zero at 3:00 PM Eastern Time today (Thursday).

Oh well balls, smack dab in the middle of the work day.

They've switched the song to "Leaving Home" from the soundtrack (or one that's similar).

I'm in the middle of a BG1tutu playthrough, I'm wondering if there's a chance I could smoothly go from 1 to 2 to 3....

Wow... why couldn't I have found this thread tommorrow... Now I'm watching the counter tick down... lol

Anybody know for sure if this is just a re-release or something else?

I played the heck out of these games back in the day. Keeping an eye on the counter now.

James, I expect that we will know for sure in 3 hours. :)

My bet is a re-release/rebuild, hence the use of all the specifically Baldur's Gate I stuff on that website (the music, the character portraits, etc). But I could be wrong!

@ Enhevar -- The Dark Alliance series was very cool in its own right, but the only similarities between the console and PC games was the Baldur's Gate/Sword Coast setting (which Baldur's Gate II move south of, even). In a way, "Baldur's Gate" is a more apt title for Dark Alliance than for the PC Games, which is more "Saga of the Bhaalspawn." I wouldn't mind a Dark Alliance III (although I never finished DAII because I couldn't get past a certain boss fight toward the end of the game) and there'd probably be a market for it.

DA 2 pretty much ended with a cliff hanger/ intro to DA 3.. which never came out. Super disappointing.

And at the appointed time, the site crashes. ha ha. anyone get a peak at the super secret announcement before it went down?

Nope, as expected 3...2...1...crash.

Even a (decent) remake would be nice.

Hmmnnnn... All I get it she skull and the music. So the site is (still) down?

Per Joystiq: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Announced

I just went there, but not in time to get a peek. I don't think the server could handle all the people trying to check it out.

I'm blocked from most game sites at work, but I did get to this from Beamdog.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced

Some quick info, gleaned from announcements, press reports, and Oster's Twitter feed:

• The first game will be the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate I + Tales of the Sword Coast.
• The second game will be the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate II + Throne of Bhaal.
• The games are being updated in a variety of ways, including a rebuilt Infinity Engine - just speculation, but I'm expecting HD graphics options.
• The games will retain their 2D-isometric perspective.
• There will be some new content, but no details on the extent of the new content.
• New characters (if included) will have new voice actors.
• The design team is going to try to make the games approachable for mod developers.
• The games will continue to use their original (2nd Edition-ish) rules sets.
• The games will be available exclusively through BeamDog (a digital distribution platform like Steam).
• Summer 2012 release - no idea if this is for both games or just for BG1EE.
• The team wants to see a Baldur's Gate 3. According to Oster, the Enhanced Editions are part of the "master plan".

Exciting stuff.

It's also heartening to know that the announcement still got plenty of coverage (too much, judging by the smoking remains of their server) on the same day as the Diablo 3 release date announcement.

Additional info:

* Will definitely be on PC. Other formats to be announced.
* Original music will still be used.
* Improved UI.
* Compatible with save games from the original.
* Compatible with most existing mods.
* Uses Throne of Bhaal as a codebase, so should have all UI improvements from BG2 and ToB. Unknown if this means there will be no level limit for BG1.
* They have the source code itself, so can do more with the game than modders can, but appreciate work of the modders and have taken many of their ideas and suggestions on board.
* Ongoing mod support post-release. Several guys at Beamdog worked on NWN as well as BG, and like the idea of providing additional content. However, code limitations mean the new BG won't be as flexible as NWN was.

I wonder what it will be like compared to tutu.

TuTu just updated things to the IWD2 interface, right?

I imagine if this is everything they say it will be, it will be that much more comprehensive.

The difference is that Tutu and other mods can't alter the base sourcecode, they can only change certain parameters and move the data around. These guys can do things much more radical, like including whole new cities or changing the rules (which they're not doing, but if they wanted to and had the time, they could).

I imagine the biggest change is that they have access to the original art assets and artwork, so can go back and re-scan the backgrounds at a much higher resolution. Obviously, that's something the modders can't do at all. It also means they can change the original artwork or make it busier and more like BG2 (BG1 is kind of plain in comparison) if they really want to.

Hopefully, it also means that a number of hard-coded limits that modders have run up against can be removed (number of creature animations, limits on spellbooks, ability to add a scroll bar to the character creation screens so we can have more than the shown number of classes or races).

Also, TuTu updated the interface to the one used in BG2 (hence the name: "to 2")

Another hope. They use a weidu installer for the mods, which allows different mods to play well together. (If this will be compatible with most mods, it's pretty much a given that this will be the case).

Digital only. Disappointing. I'm out.

Digital only. Disappointing. I'm out.

Not to be harsh for its own sake, but this is the direction everything is going. It really is time for everyone to get on board with digital distribution.

If it does well, they may issue a disc version eventually. It has been done before.

As an aside, I have to say for a long time, I was someone who insisted on buying a physical disc. And I still feel there are some benefits to it--it's nice to have a physical copy. Problem is, the way PC games have been going for a long time -- you still will only get patches (not to mention player mods, etc.) digitally only, and patches come out more frequently. So if I have to reinstall a game, I have to install the disc version and then get online and install all the patches and other content I want anyway... and it starts to make sense to just download the whole game (one that comes with all the patches). Plus, takes up way less space on my bookshelf. I liked looking up at my boxes of my games from today and yesteryear, but these days it just feels like so much clutter I need to reorganize or toss.

Now, if packaged video game boxes still came with beautiful, lengthy player manuals and cloth maps and other random trinkets, that would be awesome, but they've done away with "feelies" long ago, sadly (fondly remembers Infocom and the cool stuff they threw in the boxes. I still have my crystal from Journey...).

The flipside of course is that downloading takes FOR-E-VER. Installation from disc takes a long time too these days, but nowhere near. Digital distribution often requires your digital management software of choice, like Steam or Impulse or Origin, which there are pros and cons to (I prefer Steam to a SecuROM disc check but some stuff on digital versions can get creepy). And of course--if a server goes down or a game stops being sold, and you saved no copy of the installer... you've lost your game forever. OTOH, at some point if a game is old enough it probably won't install or play properly anyway, but it's nice to have it...

And well, that was TL;DR wasn't it.

Back to the actual topic at hand... someone pointed out somewhere that this may be in line with Wizards' re-release of the AD&D books. Makes sense. As an aside, it also re-introduces to people the old Forgotten Realms BEFORE 4E/Spellplague/period of time which DQ no longer pays attention to FR Canon, which is interesting...

Wonder though if it inspires an actual BGIII to be made later, if THAT will be in 5th Edition though (as it will likely be out by then). And which "Forgotten Realms" it would take place in...

What story would Baldur's Gate 3 tell? The Baldur's Gate saga (1, TotSC, 2, TOB) tells the complete story, from lowly beginnings to deityhood. What is left to explore in the story, that isn't just a cash in on the name/brand?

It could always be a new story based in BG/Sword Coast area like BG3: The Return of the Sarevokian Redshirt.

~sighs~ I guess it is time to pull out the Baldur's Gate games and re-install them on my computer.

Glad to hear its using the 2nd ed rules. Hope they use same character pics and voices from orginal game.

Minsc and Boo are ready.

Yeah, BG3 would be a new game set in the same region, I imagine. THRONE OF BHAAL is BG3, for all intents and purposes, and rounds off the trilogy. The BG3 that Black Isle was working on when they went under was an unrelated game. In fact, IIRC, it was set in the Dalelands, so not even in the same region.

The reason it won't be a 'real' BG3 is that a 'real' BG3 would have to let you bring your character across from THRONE OF BHAAL. And I think desigining a BG3 that would simultaneously be challenging for Level 1 newbies and Level 40 demigods would be quite tricky :-)