Baldur's Gate Site Launches, Domain Owned By BioWare Vet

Baldur's Gate, the classic BioWare RPG set in Dungeons & Dragons' Forgotten Realms setting, may be pegged for some sort of return in the near future. There's a new teaser website online at BaldursGate.com; a WHOIS lookup reveals that the domain is owned by one Trent Oster, a BioWare veteran who co-founded the digital distribution service Beamdog with fellow former BioWare programmer Cameron Tofer in 2010.

Speculation is now running wild about this pointing to a possible return for the Baldur's Gate series, which hasn't been seen since the 2001 expansion pack for BG2, Shadows of Amn. A look at Oster's Twitter feed in recent days suggests that something is coming. In one tweet from last November, he refers to an upcoming project for Overhaul Games -- the dev side of Beamdog, behind the HD remake of MDK2 -- as a "biggie." Then there's a tweet from earlier this month pointing to a picture of a new iMac in the box; the comment reads, "What could we be developing that requires an iMac?"

Oster's been even more forthcoming in the past 24 hours, though he pulls up short of confirming anything. The closest is a reply to a snarky tweet that suggests the new Baldur's Gate will be an FPS with no one from the original dev team involved. Oster's reply: "Well, one is wrong for certain. I was on the original #Baldursgate team. Twice." The implication, of course, is that he's involved with the development of whatever this new Baldur's Gate thing is.

There's also some compelling evidence buried on the site itself. Baldursgate.com features the familiar skull logo and a set of character portraits behind it. Below it is a quote that reads: "The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny, chaos will be sown by their passage." More words below the quote read: "So sayeth the wise Alaundo," a nod to a prophet from the Forgotten Realms universe.

Oster confirmed to GameBanshee in a statement that the teaser site and whatever it's connected to is "not related to the Steam complete edition [of the original game]." He also adds, "Other than that, we're hoping to announce something soon." GameBanshee also spotted a few hints buried in the source code at Baldursgate.com, beneath a "February 28, 2012" timestamp: Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. And then... it returned. Better than it was before. Pore over the tapestries and works of art hanging from our walls if you wish, Child of Bhaal... perhaps you will find a clue. But patience, ah... patience would reveal it all. As the silver moon waxes and wanes, so too does life. It's true that nothing's been officially confirmed, but I expect that we'll be hearing something more on this fairly soon, perhaps even as soon as next week's GDC gathering in San Francisco.