Larian is finished with Baldur's Gate: 'We're going to move away from D&D and we're going to start making a new thing'

News
By Contributions from published

Larian boss Swen Vincke said the studio's ambitions are too big, and life is too short, to be making Baldur's Gate 3 expansions.

Swen Vincke
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Bad news for anyone hoping for a Baldur's Gate 3 expansion, Baldur's Gate 4, or anything else Dungeons and Dragons-related from Larian Studios: Speaking at GDC today, Larian CEO Swen Vincke said the company is finished with its D&D adventure and is now moving on to something new.

Vincke said in January that he's already at work formulating Larian's next game, which he warned "is not what you think." He didn't get into exactly which way it's not what we think, though, and as far as that goes I do think it will be an RPG—that's what Larian does, after all. But it won't be Baldur's Gate.

"We are a company of big ideas. We are not a company that's made to create DLCs or expansions," Vincke said during his GDC address. "We tried that actually, a few times. It failed every single time. It's not our thing. Life is too short. Our ambitions are very large.

"And so like Gustav, Baldur's Gate will always have a warm spot in our heart. We'll forever be proud of it but we're not going to continue in it. We're not going to make new expansions which everybody is expecting. We're not going to make Baldur's Gate 4 which everybody is expecting us to do. We're going to move on. We're going to move away from D&D and we're going to start making a new thing."

Gustav was Vincke's dog, sometimes called Tav for short, who sadly died in February. Gustav was also the namesake of Larian's internal codename for Baldur's Gate 3, before it was revealed to the public.

(Image credit: Swen Vincke (Twitter))

This isn't to say that the Baldur's Gate saga is over: No doubt inspired by the runaway success of Baldur's Gate 3, Wizards of the Coast parent company Hasbro recently hinted that more D&D videogames are on the way, and earlier this month announced a new survival-life sim game set in the Forgotten Realms being made by Gameloft, the studio behind Disney Dreamlight Valley.

And there will surely be further updates and patches for Baldur's Gate 3—Larian is pretty good with that sort of thing. But beyond that, it's not Larian's problem anymore. "It's going to be up to Wizards of the Coast because it's their IP, to find somebody to take over the torch," Vincke said. "We did our job and for us it's time to get a new puppy.'"

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

With contributions from