Studio chief operating offer says he wants to make third core entry in role-playing game series, Kickstarter funding "makes so much sense."
The studio behind the upcoming enhanced editions of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II wants to build Baldur's Gate III. But many events have to happen before the project sees the light of day, Overhaul Games has revealed to GameSpy.
"Baldur's Gate III has been our long-term goal," Overhaul Games chief operating officer Cameron Tofer said. "We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that's the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for [Baldur's Gate] and [Baldur's Gate II] just make sense before there's any Baldur's Gate III."
As for how Tofer hopes to get Baldur's Gate III off the ground, he said using fan-funding service Kickstarter would be an effective course of action.
"We're totally thinking Kickstarter," he said. "It just makes so much sense and solves so many problems. I think what Brian [Fargo] is doing with Wasteland is very interesting."
The Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for Wasteland 2 reached its goal of $900,000 in just two days, and as of press time, it stands at over $1.37 million. That game is scheduled to arrive in October 2013.
The most high-profile Kickstarter game fund was Double Fine's campaign for its Double Fine Adventure game. In a record eight hours, the studio reached its $400,000 goal, ending last week at $3.3 million.
Would you support a Kickstarter fund for Baldur's Gate III? Let us know why in the comments section below.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I would love to see another game like Baldur's Gate come out. Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights...these games were very enjoyable, and I have been craving a new one for a while. I don't necessarily need Baldur's Gate, but I need that type of game very badly. Let's hope they pull this off...
For me the response for their first Baldur's Gate game wasn't all that hot. Baldur's Gate 2 is seen by some as one of the best games ever made so that particular games re-release is almost a win/win for them. I just don't see it and making it kickstarter will probably get alot of oh yes I loved the other games, click. Right now I would rather see someone else make it. If they want to make a similar game then fine but leave Baldur's Gate out of the title. Imo
1 Like I wouldn't trust a company that has only re-released games to create Baldur's Gate 3. Especially when 90% of the Baldur's Gate re-release was already handled by the community. The fact they didn't release 1 and 2 together, when Tutu already exists, reeks of money-mongering to me.
Well said, my thought the same. Based on the "new" content I'm seeing in Baldur's Gate EE, I am not convinced they have the talent to make a good BG3 to be honest.
well some people are already making a game called project eternity. I've funded that n want to see how that comes out before i fund anyother kickstarter......... But I would love someone to make a game that plays like witcher2, the open world like syrim, richness of the world as kingdoms of amalur, and yet you control a huge party of six and can meet up diversity of characters like baldur's gate and icewind series for recruiting............ I for one has started learning UDK to build one on my own cause there are no such games and there no projects that are being created.!
OH man! I was a huge fan of the Baldur's Gate series along with Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights... I'd jump in definitely!
Absolutely would support a kickstarter for BG3!!! BG is the best game I have ever played. Played it with all three of my kids as they grew up. Will never forget that time. I much, much prefer party-based adventures to single-player adventures, and the quality and love that went into BG was and is unrivaled.
1 Like If you promise to keep it on the same engine but add tons of stories, items, skills etc. I'm in for a kickstarter.. best game ever..
1 Like After reading the first page of comments I would guess that most people writing here are gamers of an era long past even if it was only 10-15 years ago and closer or after their 30's than 20's,which of course is the industry's target group for obvious reasons.What about the rest of us though?What has the industry offered in the last 10 years?Storytelling?Characters?Intrigue?Mature themes?...not really,other than a few and I mean very few games.So it is understandable for there to be some measure of hype revolving around this "project",as well as over the remake of the Ultima series or the Neverwinter reinvention which will be more action oriented like Dragon Age than a D&D modeled game.Maybe these guys just want to make a quick buck and move on to something else like some action shooter rpg adventure.Maybe.Then again maybe not..if they wanna make a third installment.But please respect and honor this franchise and all the old-fashioned "disgruntled" gamers.We deserve a respite...
1 Like "The rest of us" will finally get to experience a real game. In it's time, Bladurs' Gate was considered a 8.5 game, nowadays most people agree it was a masterpiece compared to the crap we are beeing served today. So it will feel like a breath of fresh air.
The only thing that worries me is that I never heard of "Overhaul Games" up until now. If they dare botch this up, you can expect alot of hatred from me!
I for one would easily pay them a thousand + dollars on a kickstarter for Baldur's Gate III, that is assuming they impress me, and don't ruin the remastered Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Easy to ruin them? Hard to? Time will tell.
I'm much more looking forward to the Torment Overhaul !!!!
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Overhaul-Games-Want-Do-PlaneScape-Torment-HD-Remake-40797.html
3 Like BG3 sounds great in theory but I will reserve judgement until I see what they do with BG1 and 2 - those are my favourite games of all time and I will be difficult to impress. I don't believe I am alone in wanting a decent RPG - the last one was Dragon Age in my view and Bioware have since shown they are no longer interested in making them.
PASS there is no way they won't screw this up. I would like to see BG3 but they should just make a new game similar to BG1 and BG2. Leave the franchise alone.
@madglee in addition, they say that it would be on i-pad (http://www.baldursgate.com/news/2012/03/21/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-for-ipad-3/), so I fear the worst
Yes I'd support them I'm a huge fan of D&D and this was one of the great games of there time. I spent many hours playing BG1and BG2. I'll spend more hours playing this one too as long as it doesn't go the STEAM route. I refuse to endorse STEAM anymore. I have nothing but bad things to say about steam and I'll leave that alone. But, BG is a great game and it has a big following from older gamers like myself. I would love to see the D&D universe come to life on the computer lords knows we need it. Bring the pen and paper to life in the computer.. No more mud'ing for me .. LOL...
I'd support a Kickstarter if the game was made in isometric perspective for PC gamers only, and written by some of the original writers. If BG III looked, played, or was written anything like Fallout 3, then no I would never support such crap.
Well, just like madball357 mentioned, so called "enhanced" edition will not be so enhanced at all. What a disappointment. I am using widescreen mod and gui interface, i can play baldur's gate at 1680 resolution with hi res interface textures even today. so i don't need an enhanced version. if these people want my money, they should do much more better than widescreen support. i want new areas, lots of new npcs, new spells, new items, new quests, new animations, new story telling demos.... anything less than that, i won't buy it. indeed, if it's anything less than that, they should not be selling it!
So it turns out the PC editions of these supposedly 'enhanced' games won't be so enhanced after all. From http://kotaku.com/5896538/they-hope-baldurs-gate-will-revive-the-classic-rpg Cameron Tofer said: ''The desktop versions of both games won't be changed much, Tofer says. They'll have higher resolutions and full-screen modes, as well as "working" multi-player, but they won't look too different from their original incarnations in 1998 and 2000.'' So you'll be paying for what you already can have with 2 mods. These people come from Bioware, right? Yeah, it kinda shows.
The Baldur's Gate Series are great games. Its kind of difficult to imagine them being "enhanced" , but I will support it.
1 Like Take your time.. this won't be positive for anyone familiar with the series if we get a poorly executed, rushed game. Stay true to the origins of the series and listen to the fans, and you'll have a game worthy of the title.
1 Like @MegamanX2011: Seeing that this game is coming to Ipad too, I have a hard time thinking that we will see "nowadays graphics". But then again, I don't even hope for that. Here's one hoping for HD 2D graphics, kind of how Lucasarts restored (which I find is the best word for it) Monkey Island.
1 Like It's good that Overhaul is being open about their long-term ambitions, but pledging money to that ambition is a bit premature. We need so see how the existing games turn out before thinking about a third.
Yes. I already have supported the online comic "Order of the Stick" through Kickstarter. I agree with the idea to let backers get more access to beta test spots as well.
1 Like I would indeed support it, in triplicate. However, the people taking that money should be well aware of the astronomic expectations that come with it. They really, really don't want to be the people to butcher Baldur's Gate by not doing it justice.
This will be really nice to remake another golden game. Xcom and this some of the best games ever made to me
Baldur's Gate franchise was an almost perfect franchise. It had the best ending possible. Some things are meant to be left alone and remain as a classic. If they make a BG3 and if it fails to live up the its predecessors....which i'll bet Minsc's space hamster that it probably will.....we can no longer say "Baldur's Gate franchise is the best ever". Leave the franchise alone, but give us re-mastered versions. Don't go the George Lucas way.
We should not be afraid because they are trying. Are you aware people have been asking for remakes of BG and BG2 for years? I really support them for that, as for BG3? Mixed feelings
Of course people will ask for a remakes. I'll be lying if I said I didn't want a spiritual successor to BG (not talking about DA:Origins)....or a BG3 worthy of the name. However, BG2's story was over and done. A new BG would either be a prequel or a separate timeline altogether. Either way, it wouldn't do justice to the original franchise. BG games wouldn't be BG without the orginal NPCs in the franchise. But we already got their ending in TOB - some died, some lived, some went missing, and one got turned into a women. There is really no need to expand on that.
I think it's a great target for a kickstart. The engine would be somewhat dated for mainstream audience, but it has a very loyal following (which I am among). It's a good story; at least the first one. And kickstarting gives the director authority to cater to the fan's desires, without being too worried about the mainstream, while giving fans a chance at the beta and such. I'd totally join in on this kickstream.
And the Kickstart bandwagoners start coming out the woodwork and piling on. It's the game scene equivilent of Dan Brown's book The Davinci Code. Once that became popular, all you could see on bookshelves for months and months after were craploads of other Dan Brown wannabee titles around the same mystical theme. Zzzzzzz. I think we should all see if Schafer and Fargo manage to deliver the goods first before we all start chucking gobs of cash at yet another project trying to cash in on a popular retro-game franchise.
1 Like Sure hope that by "overhaul" they mean updated graphics and longer game play, and not the current "overhauls" where it turns into a FPS with a week of game play.
Overhaul Games developing updated versions of classic role-playing games; original set to be released this summer on unspecified platforms.
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