Baldur’s Gate 3‘s success doesn’t make RPG guru Josh Sawyer want to make Pillars of Eternity 3 because he doesn’t think his vision would be able to turn a profit.
In a new Q&A posted to his YouTube channel (timestamped here), Sawyer was asked about the potential for Pillars of Eternity 3 following the explosive success of Baldur’s Gate 3. The original Pillars of Eternity was, after all, seen as a spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate series, and Sawyer took the lead on both it and its sequel.
Sawyer seemingly implied that conversations have been had internally at Obsidian about making another sequel, but said in no uncertain terms that he probably isn’t the best person to be directing one.
“Yes, people talked about [Pillars of Eternity 3] because BG3 was a huge critical hit, a huge commercial hit,” he said, pointing to the big gulf in funding between Baldur’s Gate 3 and the Pillars of Eternity series.
“Money doesn’t fix all your problems, but there are certain things you simply cannot do without money. So for example, the production quality of the character models, the cinematics especially, all the animation, that’s crazy. That’s a lot of time and money. So it’s an expensive proposition.”
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, despite being generally well-received, didn’t reach the soaring heights, universal acclaim, and indeed, sales of Baldur’s Gate 3. A few years back, Sawyer himself said the “relatively low sales” of the sequel would mean the studio would have to “re-examine the entire format” of a potential Pillars of Eternity 3. Now, he has strongly implied it would need someone else in the director’s chair as well.
“Looking at Deadfire and how it was received and looking at BG3 and how it was received, I feel like I don’t have the pulse of that audience, even if I ever did,” Sawyer said. “So whether I did 20 years ago or whether I do now, I don’t think I got it now. Things that they like and don’t like, mechanically, story-wise, things like that. Or I do get it, and I don’t dig it. So I feel like I’m kind of out of touch with that audience in a way that – if you want to give me a pile of money to make a game, I’ll make it [laughs] – I don’t think it’s necessarily going to appeal to the same audience and make that money back.”
Specifically, Sawyer said he doesn’t think his idea of a fantasy romance system in an RPG is what most fans would want.
“I’m out of step with that, and it’s hard for me to get it, and the things I do get it are like, ‘I get it, but I don’t like it’,” Sawyer said. “So I think that that’s a tricky aspect. And so the question there is, if I were to make romances in a game that were done in a way that I find appealing, would an audience enjoy that or would they really actually even hate it more than romances not being in the game?”
Curiously, back in October Sawyer said he would try making Pillars of Eternity 3 if he had Baldur’s Gate 3’s reported budget. It seems at some point between then and now he’s changed his mind.
While not a direct sequel, Obsidian’s upcoming action-RPG Avowed takes place in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity and now launches on February 18 after a recent delay. Sawyer’s most recent project, the 2D narrative-driven RPG Pentiment, launched to numerous accolades in 2022. It’s unclear what he’s working on next.
