Baldur's Gate (video game)

Did You Know?

• Development began in 1995 under the working title Forgotten Realms.
• The game had an estimated budget of $1 million.
• Wasteland was a major influence on Baldur's Gate, particularly its design philosophy of multiple methods to achieve each goal.

Plot

The game focuses on the Sword Coast, a region of Faerûn containing mountains, forests, plains, cities, and ruins, encompassing the city of Baldur's Gate, lands south including the Cloud Peaks, the Wood of Sharp Teeth, the Cloakwood forest, Beregost, Nashkel, and the fortress Candlekeep. Organizations from the setting appear, such as the Zhentarim, Red Wizards of Thay, Iron Throne, Flaming Fist, the Chill, the Black Talons, and the Harpers. Around 25 player companions can join the protagonist.

Canon characters like Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster appear. The player character is the orphaned Ward of the mage Gorion, living in Candlekeep. Gorion forces the Ward to flee the citadel one night without explanation. An armored figure and cohorts ambush them, demanding the Ward; Gorion refuses and dies, urging escape.

The next morning, the Ward meets Imoen, a childhood friend who followed secretly. With Candlekeep inaccessible and Baldur's Gate closed due to bandit raids, the Ward investigates the Iron Crisis.

Reception

Interplay's commercial forecasts for Baldur's Gate were very low; the British headquarters predicted zero sales there, and German lifetime projections were no more than 50,000 copies. BioWare's worldwide sales goal was 200,000 units. The game became an unexpected commercial hit. Ray Muzyka attributed success partly to the Dungeons & Dragons license and to using fan feedback during development, which he felt increased mass-market appeal.

After shipping on December 21, the game sold at a phenomenal rate; the first run of 50,000 copies sold out immediately. In the United States, it debuted at number 3 on PC Data's computer game sales rankings for the week ending January 2, 1999, selling 55,071 copies by year's end for $2.56 million. It rose to number 2 in its second week. Internationally, it reached number 1 in Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France.

Global sales reached 175,000 units by mid-January 1999, the fastest sales rate Interplay had ever seen, leading to a stock-price increase.

Legacy

According to IGN, Baldur's Gate did much to revive the role-playing video game genre. John Harris of Gamasutra wrote that it rescued computer D&D from the wastebasket. GameSpy called it a triumph that single-handedly revived the computer role-playing game. IGN ranked it number five on its list of The Top 11 Dungeons & Dragons Games of All Time in 2014.

Phil Savage of PC Gamer praised BioWare's level design for the titular city. Baldur's Gate was the first game in its series, followed by the expansion Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000), and its expansion Throne of Bhaal (2001). By 2006, total series sales were almost five million copies. The series set standards for other AD&D games, including Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000), and Icewind Dale II (2002).

A novelization by Philip Athans was released in 1999. The game was re-released in various compilations, including Baldur's Gate Double Pack (2000), Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga (2002), and the Black Isle Compilation (2002). It was released digitally on Good Old Games in 2010 and as part of the D&D Anthology: The Master Collection. A remake, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, was released in 2012 by Overhaul Games for multiple platforms.