Welcome to Baldur’s Gate III – The Black Hound.

Baldur’s Gate III was announced in 2002 and was expected to be the sequel to Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. However, like many other dreams, the game never materialized. What really happened to the Black Hound?

The Baldur’s Gate series was developed by Black Isle Studios with the initial video game being released in 1998. The first sequel, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn was released in 2000, with an expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal.

The game seem to have been canceled in 2003, although game publisher Interplay Entertainment made no announcement when it handed over the game engine for another video game. That same year, Black Isle Studios intended to launch the sequel, Fallout 3 on the same engine.

However, that same year 2003, Interplay Entertainment went bankrupt and closed down the development studio Black Isle Studios, and all projects with it, including Fallout 3 and Black Hound.

Nonetheless, In 2019, a new mystery seemed to unravel itself.  Larian Studios announced the new development of  Baldur’s Gate III. To date, the studio has not mentioned any connection to the previously planned Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound game.

After years of bankruptcy and lawsuits, Interplay (via Black Isle Studios), re-released Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. 

Although there does not seem to be any relationship between Interplay and Larian, Wizards of the Coast, owner of the Dungeons and Dragons IP, might just be the missing link. The family company is the third investor in the Larian company.

While Interplay is running the remains of the Baldur’s Gate franchise games, the battle for the properties does not seem to be over. What is still unclear is whether or not they will try to block Larian’s Baldur’s Gate III.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios, based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing system.