Luckily they dont really need to. Its the same as with Baldur's Gate III. ... yes, there will ALLWAYS (and i mean it litteraly) be someone claiming that this game is not worthy sucessor of that legacy.
The question is: Since its impossible ... was it even a goal?
But if you decide it is impossible to do a sequel and won’t even attempt it, why are you using the IP beyond exploiting the fan base and the IP? The only reason Bloodlines2 has my attention is because Bloodlines1. As such I expect for the game to live up to the expectation at least to some extend (like for example modern Deus Exs aren’t immersive sims I wish they were, but still clearly riff on DE1).
If one isn’t part of the exploitation one doesn’t care (I for one didn’t mind for Arcane having to do Prey reboot in name only, as I had no idea Prey1 existed, but at the same time game could have been called anything else), but I also don’t think it is right to let it slide. I think it would be better for everyone, if publishers stopped abusing IPs. But they won’t, it gives them too much power.
I guess for the same reason that Baldur's Gate 2 Shadow's of Amn was called Baldur's Gate 2? Couldn't they have just called it Shadow's of Amn, or the Bhaalspawn Legacy/Saga? I mean, the series, until then, had become part of that saga, with some other media, novels and some TT, I believe, adding to it. The only thing Baldur's Gate about 2 was that it had some of the same characters in it, with the same protagonist, if you imported one from the first game, which wasn't required. Other than that, it was just brand recognition, right? I mean, fast forward a bit, and suddenly it's the "Infinity Engine games", and includes IWD 1 and 2 as well. Given that we're pretty sure we're actually going to Baldur's Gate this time around, it already has as much in common with BG 1 as BG 2 did.
