Baldur's Gate - BaldursGate.com Stirs Awake

Vurt posts on our forums that BaldursGate.com is suddenly alive, over a decade after the trilogy ended. As I post, the site seems to be down but earlier there was a single page with the logo, main theme music and an in-game quote. A Whois search reveals Trent Oster - former BioWare employee and founder of digital vendor Beamdog - as the registrant.
GameBanshee let us know they reached out to Trent who told them they were hoping to make an announcement soon.
One theory would be some sort of remake - you may recall Beamdog has previously released MDK2 HD, an official HD makeover for BioWare's old action/adventure.
The source code for the page is certainly suggestive, with text such as:

<!— February 13, 2012 —>
<!— Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine —>
<!— oh dear it's coming soon —>

<!— February 28, 2012 —>
<!— Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine —>
<!— You haven't guessed it yet! —>

Hmmm…should we get excited?
More information.

If it is a remake please keep it compatible with the mods.

so many old titles surfacing in the news these days…wasteland, bard's tale and now baldur's gate…i like that :-)

Yeah the logo and game music are up again. Atari has the license - but Bioware still owns the copyright on the games, the art assets and holds the trademarks specific to the games them pubveloped (it's a word, I swear).

However there is also this - Atari teasing for announcement today:
https://twitter.com/#!/atari/status/174243150934704129

I'm not sure if an HD re-release of BG I and II would require permission from the license holder - but without it anything worth considering over the GoG version in terms of improved art fidelity or new content would almost certainly invite a lawsuit from Atari. Maybe these three parties did manage to work out some sort of deal though.

I think Atari probably lost the license when they lost the D&D license so I don't think Atari will be involved unless a miracle happened and they got the license back.

PS. Atari getting the license back after what they did with it isn't very likely and I don't think WOTC will just sit back and do nothing with it.

Perhaps it is simply an iOS port

Anything is possible but as a PC digital vendor, I'd have thought Beamdog would want something they could distribute on their platform.

It surely has me excited but some odd port would be kinda disappointing.

I'm a bit unsure as to what would a HD version of Baldur's Gate actually add. Usually HD means higher resolution textures. Most of the IE games are pre-rendered backgrounds which looks fine by me even if using some of the higher resolution hacks.

Could this be related to Fading Suns? ;-)

We already have a HD Baldur's Gate with mods - so another would be kinda redundant.

So, if it's a PC title - they need to do something more with it. Of course, lots of people would gladly pay for a HD version - regardless of it being redundant. Such is the nature of modern consumers. But still, I'm hoping it's something more.

I wouldnt say its redundant, i don't think the art is that spectacular for the most part (I'm currently playing BG1), it could look a lot better. It's not really down to just the low resolution. Also, the widescreen mod makes it zoomed out by a tremendous amount (not that it bothers me really).

There's no way they're going to re-render everything with new assets if they're not also remaking the game in a significant way. It would be way easier to cash-in on just upping the resolution and fiddling a bit with the interface and stuff.

We'll see, I guess.

But I'll eat my hat if this is Baldur's Gate with no change except redone and up-to-date art.

If it IS something significant, then my guess is that it's a 3D engine upgrade with an interface/AI overhaul.

About the widescreen mod - I just run it at 1280x720 on my 1920x1080 monitor. It's slightly blurry - naturally - but it's an excellent compromise. You could also just run it in a window - but I've never been a big fan of that way to play.

Let's hope it's a little more dramatic than a dodgy iOS port or some misguided attempt at a remake.

Trent tweeted this the 17th:

"A new toy for the office. What could we be developing that would require an iMac? #yeg #gamedev "

Personally i wouldnt mind an ipad port..

Oh, how trivially boring.

I'm getting pretty sick of these cheap cash-ins.

12 year wait is over Announcing Baldursgate remake as FPS!!…..

Some other of his tweets that probably are related:

"The Cintiq is for our soon to be announced art hire. We're planning a few big announcements in the new year. My toy is a new 3DS Max 2012"

"Building level art again. Who would have thought?"

"We're looking for a 2D Illustrator / Concept artist for Overhaul games. Our next game is a biggie."

Originally Posted by vurt
Trent tweeted this the 17th:

"A new toy for the office. What could we be developing that would require an iMac? #yeg #gamedev "

Personally i wouldnt mind an ipad port..

Yeah, I take back my earlier comment.

Rebuilding level art, iMac, 2D illustrator… My bet is on a HD Baldurs Gate cross-platform re-release.

A rerelease would seem a bit pointless. Thanks to GOG we can play all the BG games on Win 7 with out any issues and use mods to increase the graphics quality. I would love it to be a new entry to the series but sadly I suspect it's the iPad version …. never let new ideas get in the way of milking a cashcow. Back to Skyrim for the time being I suppose … wonder when we'll get SkyAndroidrim?