According to a recent interview with a Beamdog boss, there was a time when Planescape: Torment 2 was on the table, ready to go.
Planescape: Torment is hands down, one of the best D&D video games of all times. Like many people are saying about Baldur’s Gate 3 now, when Planescape: Torment came out, it was a masterpiece. A revelation. It inspired countless other games, and you can still see its influence on the modern gaming landscape to this day. Just look at the resurgence of cRPGs like Pillars of Eternity and the spiritual successor, Numenera: Tides of Torment. Or games like Disco Elysium that are weird and wild and wonderful in their own right.
Funny thing though, while it’s had a spiritual sequel, there was a time when we might well all have had our grubby little paws on Planescape: Torment 2. At least that’s what Beambog boss Trent Oster had to say in a recent interview with PC Gamer.
WotC Greenlit Planescape: Torment 2 – But Wouldn’t Fund It
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Trent Oster of Beamdog fame, spoke about a moment in time when the world very nearly had a sequel to one of the greatest D&D games ever. It’s not surprising that it should be Beamdog, after all, they’ve been stewards of the recent updates to the original Baldur’s Gate saga, as well as the enhanced edition of Planescape: Torment.
According to the interview, Oster and BioWare writer David Gaider (KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins) teamed up to pitch a vision of what Planescape: Torment 2 could be like. And the team at WotC was bought in.
“We actually had some great meetings with their creative team. We were down talking with Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls about it, and they were really into what we were doing. We were talking about how we could tie it in with a source book and everything. It was an exciting concept.”
And I mean yeah, that’s an exciting concept. A Planescape video game AND tie-in sourcebook? It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. But then, as it too often does these days, comes the question of funding the project. And that’s where WotC executives balked.
“When we pitched it to Wizards, they were like ‘we don’t have money for external development, we’re not doing that right now.’ Over time, Wizards has kind of gone through these cycles where they’re like, ‘Oh, we’ll do all the internal development.’ And then, ‘Oh my God, internal development’s so expensive, we’ll just licence it all out. We’ll let partners take all the risk.’ [And then] ‘Hey, wait, these guys made a ton of money, let’s bring it internal again.”
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It all comes down to how much of a risk you’re willing to take. And how much of the burden a company is willing to take on when it has shareholders to satisfy. Especially since this was back in 2016, when D&D wasn’t quite another golden goose in Hasbro’s portfolio just yet. And when Oster and Gaider approached other investors, they balked at the idea of investing their money to make someone else’s IP worth more money.
All that to say, companies being too afraid of risks to make anything actually worthwhile proves time and again that you can’t business your way into making something great. Baldur’s Gate 3 was the masterpiece it was because of the passion and the love and care that its team put into it.
It will continue to resonate with audiences because it wasn’t made to make money. It was made to be a cool game. And for all that it did make money, we know for a fact that most of the folks at WotC that got that game greenlit were laid off for their trouble. There’s a lesson that companies keep refusing to learn. It’s not impossible to catch lightning in a bottle. But it’s impossible to do it every single time, according to the fiscal calendar and specific dates that will look good for the bottom line.
Well, at least there will always be Planescape: Torment – Enhanced Edition.
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Source: Bell of Lost Souls
