Larian is done with Baldur’s Gate 3 and D&D, and won’t make Baldur’s Gate 4: “We’ll forever be proud of it but we’re not going to continue in it”
After creating arguably the greatest D&D RPG of all time, Larian Studios is closing the book on Baldur’s Gate 3 and moving on to something entirely different – no DLC, expansions, or sequels in sight.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was originally codenamed Project Gustav, named after CEO Swen Vincke’s dog. In perhaps the most heartbreaking game development metaphor I’ve ever heard, Vincke explained during a talk at the Game Developers Conference today that Gustav – the dog – passed away earlier this year.
“Like Gustav, Baldur’s Gate will always have a warm spot in our heart,” Vincke said (via PC Gamer). “We’ll forever be proud of it but we’re not going to continue in it. We’re not going to make new expansions which everybody is expecting. 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.”
I’d love to talk about what divine thing we’re working on but that would be announcing it and we’re not ready. Here’s another picture of project Gustav though. pic.twitter.com/f9sMf49YDxOctober 5, 2018
Following those quotes hitting the internet, Larian publishing director Michael ‘Cromwelp’ Douse said on Twitter that “we’ll continue to update BG3, we still have things lined up.” But it looks like those updates will be in line with the scope of the content that’s previously been added to the game rather than something with the scope of a proper DLC or expansion pack.
“We are a company of big ideas,” Vincke said in his GDC talk. “We are not a company that’s made to create DLCs or expansions. We tried that actually, a few times. It failed every single time. It’s not our thing. Life is too short. Our ambitions are very large.”
Vincke said that whatever’s next for D&D, “it’s going to be up to Wizards of the Coast because it’s their IP, to find somebody to take over the torch.” For its part, WotC owner Hasbro says Baldur’s Gate 3 “proved for us that people really wanted great D&D games,” and it’s already working on another one, but for Larian, Vincke says “we did our job and for us it’s time to get a new puppy.”
Vincke said earlier this year he’d “finally figured out” the first act of his next project.