Larian Studios reveals the only sagas they would like to work on during an interview with their CEO, Swen Vincke. According to the studio head, there were only three licenses that met their expectations for the growth they sought in case they did not get permission from Wizards of the Coast to tackle BG3.

Larian Studios Had Two Backup RPG Franchises

The Belgian studio, already known for Divinity: Original Sin, had great ambitions for their next step. While working on new projects unrelated to the Dungeons & Dragons license, responsible for their great success in sales and reviews, Baldur’s Gate 3.

Talking to Edge magazine, Vincke explains that Divinity is a saga much loved by RPG fans, but it lacks the recognition that Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons and Dragons have; obtaining these rights allowed Larian to grow in several aspects, not just commercially: it would also attract new talent to the studio and hopefully, put Larian at the forefront of RPGs.

“I feel like there was a glass ceiling we couldn’t break unless we had AAA production values, budget, marketing, all that,” says Vincke about the limited list of candidates: it could be Ultima, Fallout, or Baldur’s Gate. “There wasn’t much else to choose from.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 was Larian’s first choice and as they say, the rest is history. However, the deal almost fell through because they had to present a document about the project, and at that moment they were finishing Divinity: Original Sin 2. “It was really bad. Wizards sent us a message equivalent to ‘this is absolute crap.’ We replied ‘we know, but we are launching a game, don’t ask us for this now. Give us time.’ Luckily they understood, and we had another chance.”

BG3 Kept Winning So Many Awards That It Affected Development

Vincke said that the team has to rotate development staff as some were dispatched to collect awards at various shows.

“It affects development – there’s a lot of them. This has been a real problem,” said Vincke, adding that when it was obvious Baldur’s Gate 3 would keep scooping awards, Larian would begin “rotating teams” to collect the gongs, noting “different people went to different award shows.”

Speaking of awards, Baldur’s Gate III recently added two more gongs to its already-swelling cabinet, having picked up awards for Best Game & Best Narrative at the 2024 Develop Star Awards last week in Brighton, UK.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will not have DLC or expansions. Larian has moved on and is developing two “ambitious RPGs” of which no details are known.

Be sure to check out other news Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 Will Be The Last Major Update and also Baldur’s Gate 3 Introduce Changes to Minthara – HotFix #22 And don’t forget to bookmark Baldur’s Gate 3 Wiki, as you most assuredly will need it!