Baldur's Gate Larian is moving away from D&D, no BG3 DLC or BG4

[DeepOcean]

Hasbro is like Cthulhu, from 10 to 10 year cycles, it wakes up, remembers WOTC still exists, fires everybody and hire some new random salsage factory exec so a new cycle of retardation can begin. It was already dysfuctional before woke, it is even worse after woke. Working with it must be like dating a borderline woman.

Better cut loses than to be treated worse than chinese wage slaves with the added risk of waking up with your dick cut because some random exec thrown a hissy fit.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The only reason that amount of gay didn't really kill sales is because it was "Baldur's Gate", in my opinion. I'm pretty sure there's not a huge demand for that level of faggotry in gaming outside of the itch.io fur fag visual novels.

Wanna bet that people who played it because it's "lol that bear sex game lmao" outnumber people who played it because it's "baldur's gate" by the order of magnitude?

I'd take this bet, the number of people who saw that stream or the memes afterwards is very likely tiny compared to how many people bought it because "it's D&D".

(and according to the metrics Larian released a while ago, most people who romanced Halsin didn't even go for the bear scene)

 

[m_s0]

It's a smart business decision that is also a bit risky - and one that only a privately owned company that can (afford to) think in terms of playing the long game can make. If Larian was beholden to stockholders or whatnot a BG4 would've already been in the works with your usual glut of mediocre DLC for BG3 cooking on the side. That's the tried, true and safe option that you can stick in a powerpoint presentation. And since BG3 ended up being such a monstrous success that Larian is now a household name in the genre... their next game will be huge by default. Whether it's Divinity, or something entirely new these are the perfect circumstances for what they're doing, and there will be no licensors collecting cash for nothing (or for stepping out of the way). There's simply no longer any benefit to licensing IP, just liabilities and baggage.

Licensing may become beneficial in the future if they screw up their shot badly enough, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The challenge now in terms of the quality of their output the way I see it is that they've ascended from white noise Divinity writing to merely bland, barely serviceable writing in BG3. Now they need to make (at least) the same jump in terms of worldbuilding and lore for either the new setting or the next iteration of Divinity. I suspect they will fail there, as that's a more nebulous, complex issue than making sure a fairly bland setting has adequate writing for a bog-standard plot (and that it all hits a particular target demographic). To Larian's credit, they're clearly aware of all this, and they have been improving in that department. Glacially, but steadily.

Swen has balls, I respect that.

 

[Axioms]

Larian Studios Won't Make Baldur's Gate 3 DLC, Expansions, or Baldur's Gate 4​

The developer is moving away from D&D.​

By Alex Stedman

Updated: Mar 22, 2024 2:43 am

Posted: Mar 22, 2024 2:05 am


At a Game Developers Conference (GDC) panel today, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke dropped something of a bombshell by revealing that the developer isn't planning to release any expansions or DLC for Baldur's Gate 3, nor a Baldur's Gate 4.

Instead, Vincke said at the panel, Larian plans to move away from Dungeons & Dragons entirely and do something new, leaving the IP in publisher Wizards of the Coast's hands.
It's a big surprise, considering the massive success of Baldur's Gate 3, with many fans assuming that a DLC or expansion would be on the way. Larian has released several major free patches that have added, among other things, a playable epilogue party.
Larian has also commented about the possibility of doing a DLC in the past. Speaking to IGN at gamescom 2023, senior product manager at Larian Studios Tom Butler said they had "discussions" on doing more for Baldur's Gate 3, although they were focused on patches then.

"We'll carry on patching for a while and then we're all going to take a holiday and then we'll figure out what we do next," Butler said at the time. "But at the moment, we genuinely have discussions. We want to do more. We don't know what yet."

Beyond that, however, Larian has never officially said more Baldur's Gate 3 was on the way. As previously mentioned, though, plenty of new content has been added to the hit RPG since last year's August launch, and there's so much in the massive game already that the physical edition comes in at four disks. The developers are currently working on a "robust and cross-platform" mod support plan to accomodate additions from the community as well.

The first and second Baldur's Gate games were developed by BioWare. Before Baldur's Gate 3, Larian was best known for developing another RPG in the Divinity series.

It seems like Larian's next project could be another Divinity entry. In an interview with IGN shortly before the release of Baldur's Gate 3, Vincke said a Divinity: Original Sin sequel was "definitely" on the horizon, but the team needed to work through Baldur's Gate 3 first.

It's unclear if Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast, will look to another developer for a potential Baldur's Gate 4, but the property has no doubt been hugely successful for them. It was revealed last month that Hasbro has made a whopping $90 million off Baldur's Gate 3. In addition to the financial success, Baldur's Gate 3 has been a huge hit among fans and critics as well, winning the top prize at last year's Game Awards and getting a 10/10 from several outlets, including IGN.

Elsewhere at the panel, Vincke also showed off early versions of various characters, including a very different Astarion.

Unusually ballsy move from Sven and Larian here, since WOTC on their side has been extremely gracious and full of praises for Larian. This level of bridge burning seems unnecessary especially when Larian has been moving towards not announcing projects until they are cooked enough.

IGN talks about how they gave BG3 a 10, but I suspect that if they had had it reviewed by a different person it wouldn't have. Of course Leana Hafer gave it a 10. There was virtually no chance of any other result.

 

[mediocrepoet]

"You don't have to," Vincke went on. "You can make reserves. Just slow down a bit. Slow down on the greed. Be resilient, take care of the people, don't lose the institutional knowledge that's been built up in the people you lose every single time, so you have to go through the same cycle over and over and over. It really pisses me off."

Larian Started Work on Baldur's Gate 3 DLC, Then Canceled It: 'The Studio Was Elated'​

"It wasn't really coming from the heart," says director Swen Vincke.​

You guys don't need to like BG3 or Divinity or anything else Larian has done, but Swen is a true bro.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I hope they make a game that focuses more on turn-based strategy and combat, like the abandoned Divinity: Fallen Heroes, which seemed to go into this direction. It would be great for once if a rpg developer doesn't turn to shit after a couple of successful games.

 

[mindx2]

Ultima.... ...?




Regardless, Swen a.k.a. Larian have been the face of BG3 not Hasbro/D&D. They can leverage that (fame) toward whatever their next game will be. Also, if they go with their own IP they will reap more of the profit riding on said fame without any licensing fees.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

In what ways can they dwarf BG3?

Maybe it'll just be a game about dwarves.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Until the megalomaniac soyboys at Nexus remove them.

I still think playing a heavily gay themed game and modding out the gay is the equivalent of sucking a dick and claiming you're not gay because you didn't swallow.

A deeply closeted, maybe.

Speaking of sexual themes, they should really do Gloranta/RuneQuest IP rpg. I mean the world has a goddess of rape, worshipped by the broo (goatmen). Surely themes appealing to the Codexers' hearts.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Hhhmm, perhaps for their next game, Larian will combine the best elements of their previous ones.

Bear sex with elemental effects.

If you apply oil to druid ass first, and then follow up with the fire of your bear loins... you will get twice the werebear offspring.

 

[Herumor]

Ultima

What's a paladin?

 

[Morality Games]

Hasbro/WotC fucking up a good thing is one of the universal constants we can all depend on to know the cosmic balance is unfolding naturally.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Didn't really like bg3, but I just can't deny that Swen is an absolute gigachad.

 

[Desiderius]

Im wondering what are the odds of them doing something other than medieval high fantasy. Im fine if they do it again, but would be nice to see something else coming from them.

They haven't done high yet.

 

[Zeriel]

I seem to remember Sawyer talking about WOTC in 2005 for NWN 2 being much harder to work with than Lucasfilm for KOTOR 2.

Yep. And this was pre Woke WoTC. Is just a guess but I believe that the insane amount of ch 3 bugs and poor performance was thanks to them demanding Larian to hire incompetent diversity hires, as well the wokization of character creation.

I hope they give BG4 to Owlcat to troll them, but still expect something similar or bigger than BG3.

LOL. No. I hope that OwlCat adapts a retroclone next.

That wasn't something WOTC had to do. You're just scapegoating. It started with DIV:OS 2. They hired a bunch of game journos and dangerhair writers, the infiltration started before WOTC was ever on the horizon.

 

[Harthwain]

Im wondering what are the odds of them doing something other than medieval high fantasy. Im fine if they do it again, but would be nice to see something else coming from them.

Low. The first and last time Larian did a non-medieval high fantasy setting was in 1997 (The L.E.D. Wars RTS). Meanwhile they were doing medieval fantasy for more than 20 years.

 

[Morality Games]

Im wondering what are the odds of them doing something other than medieval high fantasy. Im fine if they do it again, but would be nice to see something else coming from them.

Low. The first and last time Larian did a non-medieval high fantasy setting was in 1997 (The L.E.D. Wars RTS). Meanwhile they were doing medieval fantasy for more than 20 years.

Probably because nothing else works well. Even Mass Effect lifetime sales were pretty barely generously average.

Even things that eventually seem to work (like Cyberpunk 2077) are awkward and problematic, the franchise was salvaged by a Netflix anime and almost two years of basically full-time production post release.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Indeed. Sometimes it's better to just chase dreams.

Next Larian game will be Bear Dating visual novel

The Bear-Dating Visual Novel will be WotC's attempt at cashing in on the success of BG3 without Larian as developer.

 

[Silverfish]

Make your money, bail and then do what you want. And all without stealing funds like Silicon Knights. All the usual jokes aside, extremely impressive.

 

[cvv]

So no new content means no Definitive Edition? Huh. I was 100% certain they'll wheel out one this year, just like they did with DOS 1 and 2. A chance to make Act 3 actually good.

I guess not.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I am sorry, but nothing Swen does matters in terms of real RPG history, the same way nothing Todd Howard did mattered, or post Baldur's Gate Bioware docs. He made good money for himself and his people, good for him, all the best. But none of Larian's recent games can be enjoyed by anyone past the mental age of 12.

Real RPG history has always happened in a completely unrelated way to these super popular "fast food" games.

 

[cvv]

But none of Larian's recent games can be enjoyed by anyone past the mental age of 12.

I'm sorry but DOS2 was our GOTY and the first game placed 2nd in 2014. As this is a forum full of mature prestigious RPG games you must be wrong.

 

[likash]

https://www.ign.com/articles/larian...ldurs-gate-3-dlc-expansions-or-baldurs-gate-4
No DLC nor sequel, they are going for something entirely new.

That's the right move since they won't be able to do something better. The timing for BG3 was just perfect.

 

[Harthwain]

Probably because nothing else works well. Even Mass Effect lifetime sales were pretty barely generously average.

Yeah. I guess more people feel comfy with generic fantasy so it is more popular than any sci-fi (even the popular ones).

 

[taxalot]

hey Swen make Ultima X.