Larian CEO explains why the studio isn’t making Baldur’s Gate 4

At last week’s Game Developers Conference, Larian CEO Swen Vincke dropped some big news. The studio will not be making any DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3, nor will it be continuing ahead with Baldur’s Gate 4. 

On the surface, the decision seems incomprehensible. Almost any other studio in the world would be doing anything and everything in its power to continue the incredible success of Baldur’s Gate 3. You don’t typically see studios pull a complete 180 after winning Game of the Year awards and the adoration of fans everywhere.

In a recent interview with IGN, Vincke expanded on his comments from GDC and laid out why, from his perspective, leaving Baldur’s Gate behind is the move. Vincke said that after the overwhelmingly positive reception of the game, Larian started working on DLC and ideas for a sequel but quickly ran into a serious problem.

“You could see the team was doing it because everybody felt like we had to do it, but it wasn’t really coming from the heart, and we’re very much a studio all about being from the heart,” Vincke told IGN.

Part of the drain on the team’s enthusiasm, Vincke said, was that the studio had “all these ideas of new combat” to try out that were not compatible with Dungeon & Dragons 5E. When the team came back from a holiday break, Vincke made the call that it was time to move on. He’s since emphasized in a tweet that this move is entirely Larian’s choice and that, “[Wizards of the Coast] really did their best and have been a great licensor for us, letting us do our thing.”

What’s next for Larian? Vincke let some hints slip through in the IGN interview. He mentioned that the studio has concepts for two different games that it wants to pursue. He apparently pitched the ideas during the development of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Larian’s other big IP, Divinity: Original Sin, looms over the studio, and it’s easy to think fans would hope for a third entry in the series. For now, Vincke is keeping his cards close to his chest, but it doesn’t sound like Divinity is the only road ahead. Vincke told IGN “[the next project is] different than what you think it is, but it is still familiar enough for you to recognize that it’s something that we are making.”