- Primary Subject: Baldur's Gate 3
- Key Update: BioWare co-founder Trent Oster has revealed that multiple studios spent years trying (and failing) to secure funding for Baldur's Gate 3 before Larian finally brought the project to life.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: June 16, 2026
- Quick Answer: According to BioWare co-founder Trent Oster, several developers—including Black Isle, Obsidian, and Beamdog—attempted to make Baldur's Gate 3 long before Larian Studios succeeded. Most projects failed to secure funding, with publishers viewing a large single-player RPG based on Wizards of the Coast's property as too risky at the time.
Few games have enjoyed the kind of success that Baldur's Gate 3 achieved.
Larian Studios' RPG became a critical and commercial phenomenon, earning Game of the Year awards, breaking player-count records, and proving that large-scale single-player RPGs still have a massive audience.
But according to BioWare co-founder Trent Oster in an interview with PC Gamer, there was a time when even securing funding for a new Baldur's Gate sequel seemed nearly impossible.
Speaking about the long and complicated road that eventually led to Baldur's Gate 3, Oster revealed that multiple studios attempted to continue the franchise over the years, but none were able to get their projects off the ground.
Long before Larian stepped in, developers repeatedly tried to convince publishers and investors that a new Baldur's Gate was worth making. In many cases, they simply could not get the financial backing necessary to move forward.
Why Was Baldur's Gate 3 So Difficult to Make?
The effort to create a new Baldur's Gate game began shortly after the original series ended, with Black Isle Studios making one of the first attempts in the early 2000s.
The studio attached the Baldur's Gate 3 name to a Dungeons & Dragons project, but the company was already facing significant internal and financial problems at the time.
As Black Isle suffered through cancellations and instability, the project ultimately collapsed before it could become a reality.
Years later, another well-known RPG developer entered the picture. Obsidian Entertainment explored its own version of Baldur's Gate 3 and reportedly envisioned something quite different from what players eventually received.
The project was described as a third-person party-based RPG with a greater emphasis on exploration, drawing comparisons to games such as Mass Effect.
However, corporate changes involving the publisher halted discussions and the concept never progressed beyond the planning stages.
Why Did Trent Oster Want to Make Baldur's Gate 3?
For Oster, the repeated failures to revive the franchise felt particularly personal.
As one of the co-founders of BioWare, he helped shape the original Baldur's Gate and later worked on Neverwinter Nights.
Through Beamdog, the studio responsible for modern Enhanced Editions of classic BioWare RPGs, Oster became one of the most recognizable figures associated with preserving the legacy of those games.
Yet Beamdog's ambitions extended far beyond remastering old titles. The studio spent years looking for ways to continue Baldur's Gate.
In fact, Oster had publicly discussed his desire to create a sequel as far back as the mid-2010s.
Beamdog eventually released Siege of Dragonspear, an expansion designed to bridge the narrative gap between Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II.
The project demonstrated that the team was capable of creating new content within the franchise, but internal challenges soon followed.
According to Oster, industry controversies and harassment campaigns at the time significantly affected the studio and fractured portions of the development team, making larger ambitions much harder to pursue.
What Was Beamdog's Version of Baldur's Gate 3?
Even after those setbacks, Beamdog continued pursuing Baldur's Gate 3, recruiting former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider and developing its own pitch for the game.
Unlike Larian's eventual blockbuster, Beamdog's version would have been considerably smaller in scale.
Oster estimated that the project would have required a budget of roughly $20 million rather than the enormous investment associated with modern AAA RPGs.
Unlike some other proposals, Beamdog wanted to stay close to the formula that helped make the original Baldur's Gate games successful.
The game would have maintained an isometric perspective while utilizing modern 3D technology through Unreal Engine. Combat would have remained real-time with pause instead of embracing fully turn-based mechanics.
While Oster admitted the system had its flaws, he believed it offered a quicker pace than turn-based combat, especially in minor battles that risked becoming overly drawn out.
In the end, none of those plans moved forward because the project never received the funding needed for full development.
According to Oster, publishers consistently questioned the commercial potential of a single-player RPG built around an intellectual property owned by Wizards of the Coast.
From their perspective, investing tens of millions of dollars into someone else's franchise carried significant risk, especially at a time when many publishers were prioritizing multiplayer experiences and live-service games.
As a result, Beamdog explored other concepts instead. One of those projects was Cold West, a fantasy RPG that blended Wild West themes with supernatural creatures such as vampires, fairies, and ghouls.
But alternative pitches fared no better, highlighting the lack of publisher confidence in big-budget RPG projects during that era.
How Did Larian Succeed Where Others Failed?
Ironically, the industry's skepticism makes Baldur's Gate 3's eventual success even more remarkable.
The very type of game that many publishers considered too risky went on to become one of the most successful RPGs in recent memory.
However, Oster believes that success has created a different challenge. Instead of proving that smaller RPGs can succeed, Baldur's Gate 3 has set an exceptionally high standard.
Developers are now being compared to a game that featured extensive performance capture, cinematic storytelling, complex companion systems, romance options, and a massive budget.
Even after spending years pursuing his own version of Baldur's Gate 3, Oster does not appear bitter about Larian's triumph.
Instead, he credits the studio's resources, experience, and ability to fully commit to its vision.
In his view, Larian succeeded because it had the financial backing necessary to chase an incredibly ambitious goal without compromise.
While Beamdog's proposal may have stayed closer to the classic formula, Larian was able to deliver a much larger and more modern interpretation of what Baldur's Gate could become.
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