Moving on from Baldur’s Gate
FOLLOWING its unprecedented success with the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 last year, publisher and developer Larian Studios will be walking away from the franchise and Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as a whole.
As of March, the game has sold over 10 million copies, along with winning numerous industry awards last year. Released over 20 years ago, the first two Baldur’s Gate games were for a niche audience, but Baldur’s Gate 3 has propelled the intellectual property (IP) into global repute.
Despite the IP’s popularity, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke explained that the IP would be handed back to Wizards of the Coast as the studio moves on to other projects.
“Baldur’s Gate 3 will always have a heart — a warm spot in our hearts. We will forever be proud of it, but we are not going to continue it. We are not going to make [new expansions or Baldur’s Gate 4, which everybody is expecting us to do. We are going to move on, away from D&D, and start making a new thing,” he said during a talk at the recent Game Developers Conference.
In a subsequent statement, Vincke clarified that he initially wanted to make more Baldur’s Gate, but subdued the desire, as it would go against Larian Studios’ vision.
“We want to do big, new things. We don’t want to rehash the thing that we’ve done already”.
Vincke’s statements were later confirmed by Larian Studios publishing director Michael Douse on X (formerly Twitter).
A week after news broke that Larian Studios will not be involved with future Baldur’s Gate projects, speculation arose that Vincke and the studio had a falling out with Wizards of the Coast, the owner of the IP.
Addressing the issue, Vincke
posted on X that Wizards of the Coast is not to blame for the studio’s decision to go in a different direction.
“On the contrary, they really did their best and have been a great licensor for us, letting us do our thing. This is because it is what is best for Larian.” –