One Year Later, Larian Reflects On Baldur's Gate 3's Success, Future Plans, And Canceling DLC: "Ever Since, We've Felt Better"
One Year Later, Larian Reflects On Baldur's Gate 3's Success, Future Plans, And Canceling DLC: "Ever Since, We've Felt Better"
A year after the release of Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios shares its thoughts on success, canceling its DLC, and working on its next game.
In March, Vincke announced the studio's plans to end its partnership with Wizards of the Coast, meaning Larian won't be making DLC or a sequel to their critical success. Several months after this announcement, Vincke says the folks at Larian have no regrets about the decision.
Genuinely sad to hear, as WotC has a ton of rich properties that a studio like Larian could have brought to vivid life. Would love to have a Larian treatment of the MtG Multiverse or a rendition of the Dragonlance series or setting.
Excited to see what they do next, but its a shame to see these companies part ways.
Considering that Vincke (or another person from Larian) has stated that everyone from WotC they worked with has now been laid off despite the huge success of BG3, I'm glad Larian are focusing on their own IP instead of bringing in money for WotC/Hasbro.
I mean considering the last mainstream headline I remember about WotC is them sending the Pinkertons to chase after a random streamer because they fucked up and sent him unrevealed cards for MtG, I think they are a really bad company and I pray for their downfall, so someone else picks up the IP and runs with it.
I mean the layoffs are bad as well but there's a non-exhaustive list of reasons to not like WotC and to not be associated with them.
everyone from WotC they worked with has now been laid off despite the huge success of BG3
Yesh. That's ugly.
I‘m happy they got out to work on something better and less restraining. There‘s already a lot in their Original Sins games that couldn‘t be brought over to BG3 but I‘d love to see return in future games and there‘s so much more to come on top of that.
It's a shame they never gonna bother with DLC, I had at least hoped that they'd add in the parts from the endgame that they scrapped. Supposedly there was an entire Upper City part which they scrapped. I think it included the vampire castle, which they moved and is why it's in such a weird spot in the Lower City now.
I had some really, really poor experiences with Act 3, and it was only later that I learned 90% of my issues were direct results of the Upper City being scrapped.
Karlach, Gortash, Wyll's father and Cazador are perhaps the biggest cases of this, with their stories feeling incomplete, buggy (at launch), and painfully linear relative to almost every other plot point in the game. In almost every case it's because a series of their events, triggers and event flags were placed in or tied to the upper city, and the events needed to be replaced, rewritten, and reflagged in something of a hurry.
Larian is a great studio, and they've made some of my favorite modern games, but they do this with every release. I'm a little disappointed that this is the one time they're not going back and "finishing" the final act a year later, the way they did with Original Sin 1 and 2. I won't quite say I've been burnt by the purchase, or that the game is currently unfinished or doesn't deserve the praise it gets, but seeing what the game could and should have been is a bad aftertaste after an otherwise mostly satisfying meal.
The Steam thread breaking down the cut content, for reference: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3812913565885064204/
That's fair.
I also can't blame them for ditching WotC ASAP. Their legacy properties feel like pump and dumps lately. Take a look at how many magic sets released in 2010 compared to today. Then their reportedly "backwards compatible" 5.5e isn't gonna be backwards compatible at all, and despite a decade of feedback, they still managed to fuck up more than one class completely. Bank of America dropped their ass for extreme product fatigue.
I wouldn't want to bet my company's future on WotC. I wouldn't want to bet my worst enemy's future on WotC's.
Completely agreed with all your points. Act 3 soured me on the game quite dramatically after being pretty high on it after the first two acts, and my only consolation (especially having also read that Steam page guide to cut content) was Larian's habit of releasing Definitive Editions of their games.
Or my favorite class, artificer. :/
The mod for artificer is excellent! It's a touch unbalanced, especially if you take the correct infusion, but overall I had a ton of fun with it last playthrough!
Do be aware that if you go Battle Smith, the "upgraded" robot you get in act 3 doesn't auto navigate well. We'd get across the map and he'd still be chilling at the blushing mermaid. The basic robot also struggles on navigation, but not nearly as badly
I really wish they were given more time for this game. It was amazing, but now that I know what they cut I keep feeling regret over not having so much more content.
There's so much Baldur's Gate 3 there already. If you never cut anything, the game is never "finished". I think they made the right call. I'd like to see what they've got in them next. Perhaps a CRPG with a Starfield-esque setting. Most CRPGs lean on the post-apocalypse sorts of settings.
True, I guess. But I know they had intentionally cut the story and change a few things as a result of that. I guess it's partly because I just want more.
I read somewhere they were working on dos3 and put it on hold when bg3 came up. If they go back and work on the dos series I'll be there for it!
I would have loved to see Larian take on the White Wolf IP and make a Vampire: the Masquerade game.
Are they still bringing modding to console? I’ve been waiting to complete act three for mod support. I want to mod back the Drow I killed.