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 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.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
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