Baldur's Gate Larian is moving away from D&D, no BG3 DLC or BG4

[Harthwain]

Larian doesn't need D&D, much like how Bioware didn't need them when they did Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

And now they're dead.

They are dead because of Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda. That's not the same as "they are dead, because they stopped doing DnD".

 

[Rhobar121]

Larian doesn't need D&D, much like how Bioware didn't need them when they did Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

And now they're dead.

They are dead because of Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda. That's not the same as "they are dead, because they stopped doing DnD".

It started much earlier with DA2.
Technically the last game that was a moderate success was Inquisition (in terms of money not quality) which came out in 2014 since then every game they have released has been a flop.
Andromeda sold so badly that EA canceled all DLC.
How they still exist after 10 years of constant failure is a mystery.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

They are dead because of Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda. That's not the same as "they are dead, because they stopped doing DnD".

They're dead because they thought their "talent" could compete against 40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding from many authors in both D&D and Star Wars. It couldn't and that became apparent as early as 2010, and obvious in 2012 when randos came up with a better ending to Mass Effect than the people who invented it. Managing one decent game per new franchise isn't hard, the cracks start showing in subsequent releases because they blow their wad upfront and have little more to say afterward.

 

[Harthwain]

They're dead because they thought their "talent" could compete against 40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding from many authors in both D&D and Star Wars.

How many successful DnD games are out there for "40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding" to be an argument, especially in recent years? Solasta and Baldur's Gate 3 is pretty much all that comes to mind. Comparing that to Divinity: Original Sin series I am not sold on your theory. Between DnD and Larian, I'd attribute the success to Larian rather than to DnD.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

How they still exist after 10 years of constant failure is a mystery.

A billion dollars from SW:ToR goes a long way.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

They're dead because they thought their "talent" could compete against 40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding from many authors in both D&D and Star Wars.

How many successful DnD games are out there for "40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding" to be an argument, especially in recent years? Solasta and Baldur's Gate 3 is pretty much all that comes to mind. Comparing that to Divinity: Original Sin series I am not sold on your theory. Between DnD and Larian, I'd attribute the success to Larian rather than to DnD.

The lack of investment in CRPGs also helps. There isnt much competition besides owlcat whose releases are so shamefully buggy and r*ssian they should pay their players to test it on release instead of charging money.

I really dont understand why game studios dont try this genre out more. The market is clearly there and any casual gamer can do a point and click turnbased game. If starfield was a CRPG it would have cost 1/10th the money and might have actually been good.

 

[Infinitron]

I think the bigger risk for Larian's next game is a radical genre shift - ie, sci-fi instead of fantasy. Lots of normies out there just want their next high fantasy RPG and will be meh about anything else.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Are they still going to use their Buggy(tm) Engine for the next game?

 

[scytheavatar]

They're dead because they thought their "talent" could compete against 40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding from many authors in both D&D and Star Wars.

How many successful DnD games are out there for "40+ years of collaborative work and worldbuilding" to be an argument, especially in recent years? Solasta and Baldur's Gate 3 is pretty much all that comes to mind. Comparing that to Divinity: Original Sin series I am not sold on your theory. Between DnD and Larian, I'd attribute the success to Larian rather than to DnD.

The lack of investment in CRPGs also helps. There isnt much competition besides owlcat whose releases are so shamefully buggy and r*ssian they should pay their players to test it on release instead of charging money.

I really dont understand why game studios dont try this genre out more. The market is clearly there and any casual gamer can do a point and click turnbased game. If starfield was a CRPG it would have cost 1/10th the money and might have actually been good.

The reality is that making a generic open world action game takes less effort than making a CRPG with branching narratives and robust systems. If Starfield was a CRPG it might not even be the 6/10 game that it ended up being.

 

[Konjad]

Are they still going to use their Buggy(tm) Engine for the next game?

I'm pretty certain they will, the engine seems great, superior to competition.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Are they still going to use their Buggy(tm) Engine for the next game?

I'm pretty certain they will, the engine seems great, superior to competition.

And buggy.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Are they still going to use their Buggy(tm) Engine for the next game?

I'm pretty certain they will, the engine seems great, superior to competition.

And buggy.

In comparison to what.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

I think the bigger risk for Larian's next game is a radical genre shift - ie, sci-fi instead of fantasy.

Not gonna happen. BG3 was part of a larger plan... else they'd never approached WOTC to make a sequel to one of the biggest D&D CRPGs. Clearly a business decision.

Up next: Ultima: Rereborn.

Still, I don’t think there’s any other route. To be able to fulfill the ambition of the “very big RPG that will dwarf them all”, we need to cash-rich enough to disappear from the planet for a couple of years, and focus on doing only that. We need to enter that development with plenty of RPG experience and technology, and we need to know that upon release, we’ll be able to recoup our investment so we don’t go down immediately afterwards because some publisher tells us “so long and thank you for all the fish”.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013100...to-the-very-big-rpg-that-will-dwarf-them-all/
https://web.archive.org/web/2012060...t/2012/05/17/the-grand-idea-behind-project-e/


Well either that or LOTR, Star Wars or Potter next. :D Imagine that they'd achieved this popularity with D&D -- an IP that flopped at the movies, which actually behemoth IP doesn't even do when the movie is total crap.

 

[Roguey]

I think the bigger risk for Larian's next game is a radical genre shift - ie, sci-fi instead of fantasy.

Not gonna happen. BG3 was part of a larger plan... else they'd never approached WOTC to make a sequel to one of the biggest D&D CRPGs. Clearly a business decision.

Up next: Ultima: Rereborn.

Still, I don’t think there’s any other route. To be able to fulfill the ambition of the “very big RPG that will dwarf them all”, we need to cash-rich enough to disappear from the planet for a couple of years, and focus on doing only that. We need to enter that development with plenty of RPG experience and technology, and we need to know that upon release, we’ll be able to recoup our investment so we don’t go down immediately afterwards because some publisher tells us “so long and thank you for all the fish”.

https://web.archive.org/web/2013100...to-the-very-big-rpg-that-will-dwarf-them-all/
https://web.archive.org/web/2012060...t/2012/05/17/the-grand-idea-behind-project-e/


Well either that or LOTR, Star Wars or Potter next. :D Imagine that they'd achieved this popularity with D&D -- an IP that flopped at the movies, which actually behemoth IP doesn't even do when the movie is total crap.

Swen says he has two games in mind instead of betting the farm on a single game again. One can be fantasy, one sci-fi.

 

[luj1]

I think the bigger risk for Larian's next game is a radical genre shift - ie, sci-fi instead of fantasy.

This is how videogame CEOs think nowadays, it is exactly why we have trash today. No one with balls.

 

[luj1]

Hoping they do a LED Wars RPG next (highly unlikely)

 

[Konjad]

Are they still going to use their Buggy(tm) Engine for the next game?

I'm pretty certain they will, the engine seems great, superior to competition.

And buggy.

In comparison to what.

Other engines don't have bugs, just look at the perfect Unity.

 

[Aarwolf]

they're going to have to come up with an entirely new IP that has to be a banger from go because people will inevitably compare it to their last game.

This sounds awfully like Lord of the Rings or Song of Fire and Ice. None of these IPs had a succesful video game based upon in last decade, and here comes Larian.

Are we ready for Legolas banging a pansexual demiqueer dragon?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Obviously it's going to be Original Sin 3.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I hope they give BG4 to Owlcat to troll them

Build autism but in BG4. Hmmmm

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I think scifi is a better fit for Larian. They are very "current year" minded.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/h...certainly-hope-that-its-not-another-25-years/

Hasbro wants to make another Baldur's Gate sequel but it's early days yet: 'We certainly hope that it's not another 25 years'​

Last month, Larian announced that it's going to "move away from D&D", and suddenly the future of Baldur's Gate seemed a lot murkier. The smash success of Baldur's Gate 3 has firmly revived the classic RPG series, but without Larian to continue to shepherd it, what can we actually expect from any possible sequels or spin-offs?

It's a question Hasbro, owner of Wizards of the Coast and by extension D&D, is in the process of figuring out an answer to. Following yet more success for Baldur's Gate 3 at the BAFTA awards, I talked to Eugene Evans, senior vice president of Digital Strategy and Licensing for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, about where the series goes from here. The good news is, a sequel is very much on the cards—but the company is still exploring its options when it comes to what that looks like and what developer might get to create it, and it could still be a long way off.

"We're now talking to lots of partners and being approached by a lot of partners who are embracing the challenge of, what does the future of the Baldur's Gate franchise look like?" says Evans. "So we certainly hope that it's not another 25 years, as it was from Baldur's Gate 2 to 3, before we answer that. But we're going to take our time and find the right partner, the right approach, and the right product that could represent the future of Baldur's Gate. We take that very, very seriously, as we do with all of our decisions around our portfolio. We don't rush into decisions as to who to partner with on products or what products we should be considering."

Of course it's not just the future of the series itself that's in question. Baldur's Gate 3 also introduced us to what are now some of the most beloved companion characters in RPG history, and there has understandably been some concerns among fans about what might happen to Shadowheart, Astarion, and the rest of the gang following Swen Vincke's confirmation that they're now owned by Wizards of the Coast, not Larian.

"Larian created a much loved cast of characters, who were even celebrated by their nominations, the voice actors behind them and the talent behind them was celebrated at the [BAFTAS]," he says. "And they are now essentially part of D&D canon."

So the question is, what happens to them from here?

"I think it's too early to express specifics and I think that there's a much bigger question about how we approach Baldur's Gate in the future," says Evans. "But I would like to think that all of those characters, for the sake of the fans, could potentially appear in future products."

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

The way this reads, Ubisoft is going to be making Baldur's Gate 4.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The way this reads, Ubisoft is going to be making Baldur's Gate 4.

EA's going to get it. nu-Baldur's Gate developed by nu-Bioware and the secret of the Biowhores' survival is revealed!

 

[Covenant]

'For the sake of the fans' indeed. I'm amazed he managed to get that out without bursting into laughter, or being struck by lightning.