Larian Studiosreveals the only sagas they would like to work on during an interview with their CEO,Swen Vincke. According to the studio head, there were only three licenses that met their expectations for the growth they sought in case they did not get permission from Wizards of the Coast to tackle BG3.
The Belgian studio, already known forDivinity: Original Sin, had great ambitions for their next step. While working on new projects unrelated to theDungeons & Dragonslicense, responsible for their great success in sales and reviews,Baldur’s Gate 3.
Talking to Edge magazine,Vinckeexplains that Divinity is a saga much loved byRPGfans, but it lacks the recognition thatBaldur’s Gate and Dungeons and Dragonshave; obtaining these rights allowed Larian to grow in several aspects, not just commercially: it would also attract new talent to the studio and hopefully, put Larian at the forefront of RPGs.
“I feel like there was a glass ceiling we couldn’t break unless we hadAAAproduction values, budget, marketing, all that,” says Vincke about the limited list of candidates: it could beUltima, Fallout, or Baldur’s Gate. “There wasn’t much else to choose from.”
Baldur’s Gate 3wasLarian’sfirst choice and as they say, the rest is history. However, the deal almost fell through because they had to present a document about the project, and at that moment they were finishingDivinity: Original Sin 2. “It was really bad. Wizards sent us a message equivalent to ‘this is absolute crap.’ We replied ‘we know, but we are launching a game, don’t ask us for this now. Give us time.’ Luckily they understood, and we had another chance.”
BG3 Kept Winning So Many Awards That It Affected Development
Vincke said that the team has to rotate development staff as some were dispatched to collect awards at various shows.
“It affects development – there’s a lot of them. This has been a real problem,” said Vincke, adding that when it was obviousBaldur’s Gate 3would keep scooping awards, Larian would begin “rotating teams” to collect the gongs, noting “different people went to different award shows.”
Speaking of awards, Baldur’s Gate III recently added two more gongs to its already-swelling cabinet, having picked up awards for Best Game & Best Narrative at the 2024 Develop Star Awards last week in Brighton, UK.Baldur’s Gate 3will not have DLC or expansions. Larian has moved on and is developing two “ambitious RPGs” of which no details are known.
Be sure to check out other newsBaldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 Will Be The Last Major Updateand alsoBaldur’s Gate 3 Introduce Changes to Minthara – HotFix #22And don’t forget to bookmarkBaldur’s Gate 3Wiki, as you most assuredly will need it!
