Swen Vincke accepted an award in Malaysia today and made a comment about their plans for upcoming games and what fans of the studio can expect. On stage at the SEA Game Awards 2024, Larian Studios received a Special Recognition Award, where Vincke said, “We need to work hard on the next game so we can be back here in five years.” Immediately after their acceptance speech on stage, they spoke to IGN in a quick interview. This means that the next game to be released by them would be released in 2029. However, they did state to IGN that the statement was a joke. “They’re big games and it takes time, so don’t hold us to a date.”
To help produce Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios opened multiple development studios around the world to keep up with its “following the sun” concept of 24-hour game development. Teams can seamlessly hand off their work to the next time zone, speeding up development without the need for crunching to meet goals. Larian Studios had development studios in Kuala Lumpur, Barcelona, Dublin, Guildford, Quebec, Warsaw, and Ghent.
While they continue to make updates for Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian is continuing to make new content and has announced that they are working on more than one game. At least one of them is seemingly shaping up to be a brand new title rather than an entry to the revered Divinity series or Baldur’s Gate. It’s already been previously confirmed that they aren’t making another Baldur’s Gate game in an interview with Vincke. That isn’t to say there wasn’t any development made for Baldur’s Gate 4, and the content that was made was said to be enjoyable. However, Vincke said that creating a game like BG3 made them “vulnerable” and wanted to step away from the franchise, leading Wizards of the Coast to consider another developer for the title.
Admittedly, producing any game after Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be a mammoth task for the team, as there will always be the question of whether it will perform as well. “Expectations are incredibly high, so I told the team, ‘Just follow your gut, and we’ll see where we end up,” says Vincke. “It’s OK to fail – failure has always been in the DNA of the studio; failing is part of creativity, and we have to remember that. I’m happy that we’re out of the circus now, and we can focus on what we’re doing.”
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