Larian CEO, Swen Vincke said that Wizards of the Coast, owners of Dungeons & Dragons IP, had nothing to do with their departure from the Baldur’s Gate series.
Swen Vincke, during a talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), said that the studio is moving on from the Baldur’s Gate series to make something completely brand new. In the same interview, Vincke also said that there would be no expansions or DLC being made for the game. Baldur’s Gate 3 came out of early access in August 2023 to a resounding commercial and critical success with millions of active players during its launch month. The game also won many awards, including Game of The Year at The Game Awards in December 2023.
With such a successful game under Larian’s belt, you would think they would keep developing for the series, but instead, Larian is willing to take risks by tackling something else new entirely. Many people went to speculate online as to why the studio would not be making another game within the series. Most of the speculation was discussed on Reddit, where users believed the decision to leave the Baldur’s Gate series had to do with a falling out between Larian and Wizards of the Coast.
Vincke went on to Twitter (X) to address these theories on Reddit, claiming that “WOTC is not to blame for us taking a different direction.”
It’s not exactly surprising that people would feel this way about Wizards of the Coast. Only a few months ago, during the holidays, news came out about the Toy Company Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast, laying off over 1000 staff, including many workers for Wizards of the Coast, due to less than stellar toy sales in the year 2023. Vincke offered his condolences in a tweet following the news, pointing out that many of the workers who were part of the early discussions surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3 were not there anymore.
Overall, I respect the decision for Larian to move on from the Baldur’s Gate series and maybe the next game they’re developing is in the Divinity: Original Sin series. Time will tell and I look forward to seeing what they have in store for us.
