Larian Studios won’t make any more Baldur’s Gate games
21.03.2024 - 19:37
/ polygon.com
/ Swen Vincke
/ Michael Douse
Now that Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a huge success both critically and financially, people are looking forward to what’s next for developer Larian Studios. However, according to studio founder Swen Vincke, the future doesn’t lie with the Baldur’s Gatefranchise or Dungeons & Dragons as a whole.
During a talk at the Game Developers Conference on Thursday (spotted by IGN and confirmed by Polygon in a video on the official conference TikTok), Vincke said that Larian won’t be working on any DLC, expansions, or a sequel for the game. It would be handing the IP back to Wizards of the Coast and moving on to unrelated projects.
“Baldur’s Gate 3 will always have a heart — a warm spot in our hearts. We’ll forever be proud of it, but we’re not going to continue it. We’re not going to make new expansions, which everybody is expecting us to do. We’re not going to make Baldur’s Gate 4, which everybody is expecting us to do. We’re going to move on, we’re going to move away from D&D, and we’re going to start making a new thing,” he said.
breaking news out of GDC2024: @larianstudios Swen Vincke announces no new expansions for baldursgate3, and no baldursgate4. He said they will be moving on to a new project. Watch his statement here.
Michael Douse, director of publishing at Larian, confirmed the news in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Had a lot of time to reflect on this incredible adventure as everyone has, and I can’t explain how excited I am for the next. Hope you join us for that!” he wrote.
Vincke spoke more about the decision with Gamespot. He explained that he initially wanted to make more Baldur’s Gate, but decided against it.
“That’s not what we were made for,” Vincke said. “That’s literally the opposite of what Larian is about. We want to do big, new things. We don’t want to rehash the thing that we’ve done already.”
All of this doesn’t mean Larian won’t continue to work on Baldur’s Gate 3. Just last month, Douse announced that the team would be working on a “cross-platform plan for mod support,” with implementation still many months away.
Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast, recognized how successful Baldur’s Gate 3 was in its 2023 financial report released last month. It stated that much of Wizard of the Coast and digital gaming’s growth can be attributed to Monopoly Go!, Magic: The Gathering,and Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s also been a huge success critically, winning multiple awards. Just a day before the announcement, Baldur’s Gate 3 won four trophies at the Game Developers Choice Awards (also put on by GDC), including game of the year. It also won game of the year at The Game Awards in 2023.
Hasbro is therefore interested in growing its gaming output and leaning on the Baldur’s Gate franchise,as company