Larian CEO Swen Vincke certainly surprised many Baldur’s Gate 3 fans when he revealed at GDC 2024 that, despite the incredible commercial success and critical acclaim, there would not be a sequel or a DLC, as the studio was moving on from Dungeons & Dragons altogether.
When the news first hit the Web, speculation arose that Wizards of the Coast, the owner of D&D and therefore Baldur’s Gate, was somehow to blame for the split. However, the Larian boss quickly set the record straight on Twitter, saying that they had nothing to do with it.
Reading the Reddit threads, I would like to clear up something. Wizards of the Coast is not to blame for us taking 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’s what’s best for Larian.
To be fair, Vincke did say a while ago that the people he worked with to make Baldur’s Gate 3 weren’t at Wizards of the Coast anymore following the layoffs ordered by parent company Hasbro. Even so, it doesn’t seem like there’s any bad blood between the two companies.
In a post-GDC 2024 interview, the Larian founder actually said that he and the team seriously considered making more Baldur’s Gate 3 content. However, at some point in late 2023, he realized that it wouldn’t be the right move for the company. As such, Larian is now back on their previous plan to make two ‘different games’ from what they’ve done before, although they’ll still be big and ambitious projects.
As for Wizards of the Coast, it remains to be seen if they will hand the reins of the Baldur’s Gate franchise to some other developer. VP and Head of Game Studios Dan Ayoub (who worked for Microsoft and then Certain Affinity before joining Wizards of the Coast) told Gamesradar that the success of the cRPG made by Larian proved people are eager to play great games based on Dungeons and Dragons.
Wizards of the Coast sent some mixed signals about the future D&D lineup these past few years. First, they canceled two games from Hidden Path and Otherside. More recently, though, they announced two new projects from Starbreeze and Resolution Games, the latter being a VR game. Moreover, the internal team Invoke Studios (formerly Tuque Games) is working on a new D&D game that Ayoub said would be unveiled in the near future.
