We Think We Know What Geoff Keighley’s Weird Desert Statue Is Teasing

Earlier this month, a large, demonic-looking monolith appeared in the Mojave Desert, and Geoff Keighley tweeted a photo of it. The monolith featured figures of all sorts of strange creators: skeletons, alligators, soldiers, a wolf, and more. In the time since, online gaming enthusiasts have been eagerly speculating as to what the monolith and Keighley were teasing ahead of The Game Awards. Diablo 4? The Elder Scrolls 6? God of War? Bloodborne 2? Altered Beast?

Well, the mystery may have been solved in advance of The Game Awards on Thursday. As spotted by MP1st, some newly registered trademarks reveal a game and a logo that looks essentially identical to a symbol on the monolith. And those trademarks appear to be for a new Divinity game, from Larian Studios.

How do we know? Well, let’s take a look at one of the trademarks. It’s for an image, and it looks like this:

Now compare that to the big symbol at the center of the statue:

So yeah, that’s definitely the same symbol, so we’re in the right place. Now, how do we know it’s Divinity? Let’s look at the next trademark registered at the same time by the same company, simply for “Divinity”, with a logo attached.

Now we’re getting somewhere! It’s not exact, but it’s quite comparable to past Divinity: Original Sin logos:

And even closer to the older Divinity games, slashed through “i” and all.

Okay, maybe it’s all just a big coincidence? Sure, I guess. But there’s one more clue. All three trademarks were filed by Ihde & Partner Rechtsanwälte, a legal firm that, among other things, has previously filed trademarks for Larian Studios, including past Divinity: Original Sin trademarks.

So that’s pretty cut and dry. But what about that third trademark? This is where things get a bit more mysterious. This trademark is also just for an image, this one here:

What’s that? I have no idea. But it’s probably related, given it was filed on the same day by the same firm and is in a similar style to the other trademarks. Maybe we’ll find out on Thursday.

Critically, this seems to be for a new Divinity…NOT a Divinity: Original Sin game. Director of publishing at Larian Studios Michael Douse was on Twitter/X today shutting down any rumors of a Divinity: Original Sin 3, but his language was very specific:

https://twitter.com/Cromwelp/status/1998484634397479293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

If this is indeed Divinity, that’s good news for Larian fans, as Divinity: Original Sin 2 was fantastic. We gave it a 9.6/10, saying, “Divinity: Original Sin 2 may have been designed in the spirit of decades-old RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 2, but that legacy serves only as a foundation for the expansive game Larian has built on top of it.”

Speaking of Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 3 is Larian’s most recent work, and that got an impressive 10/10 from us. We said, “I don’t want to say every CRPG going forward should aspire to be like Baldur’s Gate 3. Not everything needs to be nearly this big and ambitious, or even this dense. But it is a landmark moment in the genre, and if I had to point to one paragon that I would like everyone else making these to take inspiration from, this is absolutely it.”

While some may have clamored for Larian to immediately get to work on DLC or Baldur’s Gate 4, Larian explicitly said over a year ago that it wouldn’t be continuing with another D&D game. However, Larian CEO Swen Vincke has been teasing a new project for a while now, and based on past timelines, this year’s Game Awards would be a perfect time for an unveiling.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.