D&D General No More Baldur's Gate From Larion: Team Is 'Elated'

Bad news for Baldur's Gate fans--It seems that Larion is out of the Baldur's Gate business. CEO Swen Vicke has announced that Baldur's Gate 3 is not getting any expansions, DLC, or a sequel. Patches and fixes will still continue, however, including cross-platform mod support.

"Because of all the success the obvious thing would have been to do a DLC, so we started on one. We started even thinking about BG4. But we hadn’t really had closure on BG3 yet and just to jump forward on something new felt wrong. We had also spent a whole bunch of time converting the system into a video game and we wanted to do new things. There are a lot of constraints on making D&D, and 5th Edition is not an easy system to put into a video game. We had all these ideas of new combat we wanted to try out and they were not compatible."

-Swen Vicke​

Vicke confirmed this at a talk at the Game Developers Conference, and said that Larion Studios wanted to make its own new content rather than license IP from another company.

He also clarified that a Baldur's Gate 4 was still possible, but that if it happened it would not be made by Larion. Larion is already working on its next big release.

According to IGN, Larion has started work on some BG3 DLC, but it was cancelled.

"You could see the team was doing it because everyone felt like we had to do it, but it wasn’t really coming from the heart, and we’re very much a studio from the heart. It’s what gotten us into misery and it’s also been the reasons for our success."

-Swen Vicke​

According to Vicke, when the BG3 team found out that they would not be making more Baldur's Gate content, they were 'elated'.

“I thought they were going to be angry at me because I just couldn’t muster the energy. I saw so many elated faces, which I didn’t expect, and I could tell they shared the same feelings, so we were all aligned with one another. And I’ve had so many developers come to me after and say, ‘Thank god.'"

-Swen Vicke​

​

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The actual AAA developers can shrug that off go to he next project.

No, they can't. You're seemingly unable to understand the difference between publishers and studios, and it's not worth arguing this with someone who doesn't get that.

 

[Zardnaar]

No, they can't. You're seemingly unable to understand the difference between publishers and studios, and it's not worth arguing this with someone who doesn't get that.

I'm aware and it that's not what I'm arguing. If you want to be nitpicky fine.

The big publishers own multiple Larian sized studios then. They can shrug off a 200-300 million dollar game tanking. Larians existence would be under threat in that scenario.

As it relates to WotC it probably do their designers want to spend 5+ years on BG related work for a company they don't lije on IP they don't own.

That'd WotC problem with D&D games. Anyone big enough isn't interested anyone talented enough would rather do their own thing.

Who's left? You're looking at Obsidian, Paradox Interactive, Witcher 3 studio.

 

[Rystefn]

1) There was an encounter with a dying Mind Flayer not long after you got off the ship - it's still there - but it had a bunch of fisherfolk around it, being mind controlled for no clear reason. In very early EA, there were only lose/lose outcomes to this. Whatever you did, something horrific happened, usually you having to kill all the fisherfolk, regardless of whether you stopped them being mind-controlled. And the companion characters had some pretty weird and callous comments about it. This left a pretty horrific impression, and not in a good way - it operated as a sort of mission statement - "Everyone is bad and everything will end badly", especially as it was essentially the first non-companion encounter outside the Nautiloid. Over the course of EA, they toned this down twice, first making it so there were some grey outcomes, but they required multiple DC15+ saves/checks to get (not easy at L1/2) - and at this point you couldn't save game in dialogue, note - but it was still pretty bad. Then by lowering the DCs but you still had a lot of rolls. Eventually they removed it, and put the fisherfolk down the map, but still had a pretty hostile encounter with them, then they removed that too, because it really wasn't serving any purpose.

This is factually incorrect. I was a day EA player and I very distinctly remember the first time I encountered this. The fishers around it were mind controlled to clear away rubble and dig it out, which is a very clear reason. You could absolutely just shoot the thing in the face with your bow, and they would all shake it off, be upset and confused by what was going on, then walk away. No muss, no fuss. The rest of your commentary is pretty overstated, in my opinion, but that's just a matter of opinion, so we can just have our different takes on how dark it was and the degree to which the companions were more of a pack of jerks back then compared to launch... but this is just flat out untrue.

On a different note: As someone who 100% agrees that DOS 1&2 had some seriously jank mechanics and a lot of setting issues, I also 100% agree with Vinke that they're better than the D&D 5e rules and the FR setting. Also lol @ at the idea that FR isn't just as edgelord grimderpy as Rivellon ever was. It's literally just a super-generic fantasy kitchen sink where everything is crappy and tragic, but with bright colors so for some reason, people don't seem to notice it. FFS, the author-insert great hero of the setting literally looked his own daughter in the eye and said "Might makes right, so do as I say, or I'll kill you." I'm barely even paraphrasing.

 

[Zardnaar]

This is factually incorrect. I was a day EA player and I very distinctly remember the first time I encountered this. The fishers around it were mind controlled to clear away rubble and dig it out, which is a very clear reason. You could absolutely just shoot the thing in the face with your bow, and they would all shake it off, be upset and confused by what was going on, then walk away. No muss, no fuss. The rest of your commentary is pretty overstated, in my opinion, but that's just a matter of opinion, so we can just have our different takes on how dark it was and the degree to which the companions were more of a pack of jerks back then compared to launch... but this is just flat out untrue.

On a different note: As someone who 100% agrees that DOS 1&2 had some seriously jank mechanics and a lot of setting issues, I also 100% agree with Vinke that they're better than the D&D 5e rules and the FR setting. Also lol @ at the idea that FR isn't just as edgelord grimderpy as Rivellon ever was. It's literally just a super-generic fantasy kitchen sink where everything is crappy and tragic, but with bright colors so for some reason, people don't seem to notice it. FFS, the author-insert great hero of the setting literally looked his own daughter in the eye and said "Might makes right, so do as I say, or I'll kill you." I'm barely even paraphrasing.

Grimdark or whatever is a matter of taste.

BG3 has gone places WotC won't and it's outsold 5E for example. While featuring sex/bdsm, nudity, slavery, domestic violence, mind control etc.

Consumers have spoken.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm fine with one-and-done, I've seen what happens with "franchises" that keep putting out content way past the due date.

Hopefully, someone new will take up the mantle for some new D&D game content, and they'll be able to tap into what made BG3 so good. In the meantime, I wish well for Larian & the studio in whatever endeavor they strike out on next.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Well, that's pretty unfortunate. I don't want them to feel they must make something they don't want to make. But I was hoping to see more from it.

Perhaps, with a bit of time put into other things, they'll feel like coming back. But perhaps not.

 

[Yaarel]

If you're mod-savvy, you can already find additional races, subclasses, spells, and magic items on Nexus for free. Once I finish my first playthrough (I'm currently in Act 3), I'm going to play a Shadar'Kai Hexblade.

I have never used mods.

Is it possible for a mod to create a DM mode? That can allow one to create adventures?

 

[Scribe]

Grimdark or whatever is a matter of taste.

BG3 has gone places WotC won't and it's outsold 5E for example. While featuring sex/bdsm, nudity, slavery, domestic violence, mind control etc.

Consumers have spoken.

Yeeeeeeeeeep.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have never used mods.

Is it possible for a mod to create a DM mode? That can allow one to create adventures?

Maaaaaybe? It would be a hell of a lot of work and even pretty simple mods are somewhat fragile with the current version of the game. Larion has said one of the things they want to add in what is presumably their last big patch is to create a much more stable framework for the mod community.

 

[Dire Bare]

This has been making the rounds today, following on the heels of a rant by Sven regarding publishers making rash decisions on staffing to improve quarterly results. Disappointing.

Larian Has Disappointing Update on Baldur's Gate 3 DLC and Sequel Plans

Larian Studios CEO Swen Vicke gives a disappointing update on the future of Baldur's Gate 3's DLC, expansions, and potential sequel.

gamerant.com

While I would have loved to see a Larian BG4 . . . I don't find the news disappointing at all. Refreshing, actually.

We're going to get another banger of a game from Larian, it just won't be a D&D game.

And there's a good chance we'll eventually see a BG4 . . . although I wouldn't want to be the studio following on the heels of Larian's masterpiece.