Swen Vincke says fan mods 'shouldn't be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property' just hours before Wizards of the Coast retracts its BG3 Stardew mod takedown

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Karlach would hate all this.

Larian CEO Swen Vincke brandishes a sword at the camera and smiles.
(Image credit: Larian)

Earlier this month, we covered the release of Baldur's Village, a Stardew Valley mod adding more than 20 characters from Baldur's Gate 3 that earned Larian CEO Swen Vicke's stamp of approval. This morning, we reported how Wizards of the Coast seemingly decided that the best way to capitalize off that brand momentum was to scour the mod from the internet.

In a statement to PC Gamer, Wizards of the Coast now says the takedown was a mistake.

"The Baldur’s Village DMCA takedown was issued mistakenly—we are sorry about that," the WoTC spokesperson wrote. "We are in the process of fixing that now so fans and the Stardew community can continue to enjoy this great mod!"

(Image credit: Swen Vincke)

Larian, of course, has no say in matters involving the Baldur's Gate and Dungeons & Dragons licenses, which Vincke acknowledged back in 2024. "As for BG3 and its characters—they now belong to WoTC and I think they understand how important they are for the community," Vincke said at the time. "I trust that they'll be treated with respect."

Whether hounding free user-made mods with the threat of legal action (even if they call it a whoopsie later on) qualifies as respectful ownership is, at the end of the day, a call for WotC and Hasbro to make as license owners. But given that we're barely two years past WotC retreating from its proposed D&D license changes after shitting the proverbial community relations bed, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by the misfire.

Lincoln Carpenter
Lincoln Carpenter
News Writer

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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