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

[Lyric Suite]

The largest draw for the crowd is "look you can fuck a bear".

I doubt it to be honest. People who genuinely care for that stuff to the point it's a factor for buying or playing a game aren't likely to actually care about games in the first place.

I think a lot of the success of BG3 was driven by the DOS games and the pull the Baldur's Gate name actually still has.

 

[Swen]

Yeah, there is some brand recognition going with DnD and Baldur's Gate series, but the biggest draw for the crowd were Larian's Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2. No doubt about it.

The largest draw for the crowd is "look you can fuck a bear". Also the early access let people play the game's best part which lead people to have a misjudgement about the quality of the game.

Original Sin series is nowhere near as important as some people thinks.

Dos2 was the most successful crpg before BG3 and sold 7.5 million copies.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rp...-for-baldurs-gate-4-and-they-didnt-excite-us/

Baldur's Gate 3 lead says Larian "did start pushing around ideas for Baldur's Gate 4, and they didn't excite us"​

Narrative lead Adam Smith tells GamesRadar+ about the atmosphere surrounding Baldur's Gate 4

A Baldur's Gate 3 developer says Larian tried "pushing around ideas for Baldur's Gate 4," but they "didn't excite" anyone.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Digital Dragons in Poland earlier this week, Baldur's Gate 3 narrative director Adam Smith addressed Larian's attempt at making another Baldur's Gate game. Just earlier this month, the studio announced it wouldn't be making Baldur's Gate 4, so if a new game in the series ever does materialize, it'll be made by another studio for publisher Wizards of the Coast.

"For us, we didn't have anything unfinished that we wanted to say, we wanted to move on to other worlds," Smith said about wrapping up Baldur's Gate 3. "And we tried, we did start pushing around ideas for Baldur's Gate 4, and they didn't excite us, we didn't have the fire. It feels like it should have been a harder decision than it was, but it wasn't," the narrative director continued.

"We came to the realization, 'do we have that fire?' And we didn't, so it was obvious - we don't do it. And it's great to work in a place where that's true, and you're not told 'yeah but it'll earn us this much money so therefore we're going to do it'. That was never a question," Smith continued. It's a sad reality that many studios often don't have complete autonomy over what they make, and when.

"One of the reasons we made [Baldur's Gate 3] was because it would be a game that we could say 'this is a story that we really care about. It's a setting that we really care about, it's characters that we really care about'. And we actually think we have something to say with them. And so I think we said it all. And we shouldn't say there's nothing else to say, but I don't think we want to say it," Smith added.

The Baldur's Gate 3 narrative director also addressed the scrapped DLC for the huge RPG. Earlier this year, Larian studio head Swen Vincke revealed Larian was looking into DLC for Baldur's Gate 3, but scrapped it simply because no one on the team was passionate about it. Vincke revealed he even had staff thank him for canceling the DLC after the decision was made.

"The DLC, again we discussed it, but it would have been very different. If it's just an excuse to play the greatest hits again, and show these characters again," Smith explained. "I know some people want further endings for them, but for us it was like 'no, we told the stories we wanted to tell'. That doesn't mean it shouldn't live in the imagination, but for us we did what we wanted to do, so we'd be forcing ourselves."

 

[kangaxx]

Scrapping the DLC was a good idea, not sure what they could have done with it.

I bet 'the powers that be' do something stupid like give BG4 to Owlcat, guaranteeing it'll be bloated by at least 40h and include an abominable 'estate management' mechanic. Doubt I'd bother playing it.

 

[roguefrog]

Owlcat is a first draft pick....if they can release a game in good shape. In other words their games are still in early-access condition on release so they need to fucking stay in early-access until it's fucking good enough...you fucks.

 

[Kleptocratic debt serf]

Honestly, moving on from BG3 was for the best... I am fairly certain they had already mentally checked out by the time they started developing act 3. They should only make 1 or 2 act games, given their track record with everything going to shit by act 3 and beyond.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Honestly, moving on from BG3 was for the best... I am fairly certain they had already mentally checked out by the time they started developing act 3. They should only make 1 or 2 act games, given their track record with everything going to shit by act 3 and beyond.

To be fair, this is true of most RPG devs. Look at Owlcats, for instance. Basically the point made above you.

 

[Cohesion]

Honestly, moving on from BG3 was for the best... I am fairly certain they had already mentally checked out by the time they started developing act 3. They should only make 1 or 2 act games, given their track record with everything going to shit by act 3 and beyond.

To be fair, this is true of most RPG devs. Look at Owlcats, for instance. Basically the point made above you.

We didn't have this problem before achievements/telemetry.

 

[Roguey]

We didn't have this problem before achievements/telemetry.

Games getting less interesting the longer they go on has been fairly common for decades. What's new is making the actual beginning fun, it was such a cliche about RPGs not getting fun until several hours in.

 

[Terra]

BG3 was the most overhyped and underdelivering product Larian's put out in years, DOS2 was markedly the better game (armour system aside). Could have had two more DOS2 tier titles in the span of time it took them to put out the mediocre BG3 so can't say I'm sorry to hear they aren't touching it moving forward. Small wonder DLC didn't excite Larian, the majority of Act3 was a poorly paced snoozefest where they were already phoning most of the content.

 

[Basshead]

Baldurs Gate and Diablo were pretty popular back then. Me and my friends all played the shit out of both. Even my dad and his buddies did. We would even borrow out the huge 6 cd case from time to time. The brands surely weren’t recognizable to the majority but I feel like nearly everyone into gaming knew or at least had heard of them. It was also a different time and most games didn’t break into the broader culture. People older than their 30s or early 40s at the time had grown up without computers and many never wanted to use them. The internet itself was still pretty new. I don’t get what the argument is. If you weren’t around to remember why even pipe in?

 

[Swen]

We didn't have this problem before achievements/telemetry.

Games getting less interesting the longer they go on has been fairly common for decades. What's new is making the actual beginning fun, it was such a cliche about RPGs not getting fun until several hours in.

Indeed and Larian games are fun and top tier rpg's hence BG3 winning GOTY and destroying the competition.

It also won GOTY here because JA3 is not an rpg

 

[Serus]

Owlcat is a first draft pick....if they can release a game in good shape. In other words their games are still in early-access condition on release so they need to fucking stay in early-access until it's fucking good enough...you fucks.

Owlcat's games need much more than that, unfortunately. If what you said was all they needed you could just wait for a year or so each time they make a game. They patch them somewhat later on. There many other issues. I'd start with ridiculous amounts of bad writing then proceed to removing mini-games then toning down/removing the woke s**t and last but definitely not least: learning encounter design and creating challenge without using ridiculously inflated numbers. I'm talking about Pathfinders here, i didn't play (yet?) Rogue Trader - perhaps they addressed some of those points.

 

[Serus]

We didn't have this problem before achievements/telemetry.

Games getting less interesting the longer they go on has been fairly common for decades. What's new is making the actual beginning fun, it was such a cliche about RPGs not getting fun until several hours in.

Indeed and Larian games are fun and top tier rpg's hence BG3 winning GOTY and destroying the competition.

It also won GOTY here because JA3 is not an rpg

YES! They also have the most animal sex of any mainstream game ever! Nothing can compare to that, CRPG or not.

Can't stop myself, i'm addicted. Is there a "Alcoholics Fun makers of bear sex in BG3 anonymous" somewhere?

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Yeah, there is some brand recognition going with DnD and Baldur's Gate series, but the biggest draw for the crowd were Larian's Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2. No doubt about it.

The largest draw for the crowd is "look you can fuck a bear". Also the early access let people play the game's best part which lead people to have a misjudgement about the quality of the game.

Original Sin series is nowhere near as important as some people thinks.

Dos2 was the most successful crpg before BG3 and sold 7.5 million copies.

According to some sources also Tyranny sold ~7 million.

 

[Infinitron]

^Absolutely not. I followed all the isometric RPG player counts and SteamSpy estimates back in the day. Tyranny sold quite poorly on release, worse than PoE2 Deadfire and that was considered a disappointment too.

 

[Skinwalker]

Can't wait for Debile Debility 3: Debilian Shit.

 

[KeAShizuku]

Like MGS5 this game will never get act 3.

 

[whydoibother]

Scrapping the DLC was a good idea, not sure what they could have done with it.

Every companion's epilogue is a good hook. What Jaheera was doing before we found her is a good hook. How the badguy triumverate was started and how Durge got kicked out is a good hook. The adventures of the thiefling caravan, before and after we met them, is a good hook.
There was stuff to show, the story has plenty open. I guess they were mechanically not interested, more than narratively. But, more likely, they didn't like the terms that Wizards set - both in terms of money and creative freedom.

 

[kangaxx]

Scrapping the DLC was a good idea, not sure what they could have done with it.

Every companion's epilogue is a good hook. What Jaheera was doing before we found her is a good hook. How the badguy triumverate was started and how Durge got kicked out is a good hook. The adventures of the thiefling caravan, before and after we met them, is a good hook.
There was stuff to show, the story has plenty open. I guess they were mechanically not interested, more than narratively. But, more likely, they didn't like the terms that Wizards set - both in terms of money and creative freedom.

You're right, I suppose I was blind to that because I didn't really enjoy the companions.