Baldur's Gate 3 was one of the biggest games of last year and a huge success for Larian Studios. Continued The adventure won't be: At the Game Developers Conference, Larian CEO Swen Vincke made this unmistakably clear. The Belgian team will even be completely different Dungeons & Dragons avert.
Of course, you're not completely done with Baldur's Gate 3 yet: there will continue to be patches that fix bugs and possibly also implement one or two additions. On one DLCHowever, you don't have to wait, which shows you even more of the fascinating game world. Instead, the future lies entirely with the brand Wizards of the Coast.
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Baldur's Gate 3: “We have done our job”
“Baldur's Gate will always have a place of honor in our hearts. We will always be proud of it, but we will not continue it,” said Swen Vincke in his talk at the Game Developers Conference Eurogamer reported. There will be neither an expansion nor an Baldur's Gate 4although that's what everyone would currently expect from the studio.
However, they have already experimented with DLCs in the past and “failed every time.” For this reason, we don't want to describe this path any further, because life is too short anyway and our own Ambitions too big. In addition, we are generally saying goodbye to Dungeons & Dragons, the license behind Baldur's Gate. “We're going to go our own way – we're going to break away from D&D and do something new.”
Vincke didn't go into the exact reasons why they didn't want to continue with the fantasy world. However, he points to Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast, the inventors: “It will be up to Wizards of the Coast – it's their IP – to find someone to carry the torch. We've done our job.” Where Larian is headingwill remain a secret for some time – However, Vincke has already hinted at this in the pastthat you have a new project more or less in the works.
Criticism of waves of layoffs: “Greed has ruined this thing”
Vincke also came across this during the Game Developers Conference countless layoffs to speak about things that have become public in the last few weeks and months. The Larian boss sees the problem primarily in the Greed of publishers who would only be tripping themselves up anyway. “I've been fighting publishers my whole life and I keep seeing the same, same, same mistakes, over and over again.” (via Eurogamer)
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For the avoidance of doubt – there are plenty of people in publishing I met who have their hearts in the right place. This message was for those who try to double their revenue year after year. You don't have to do that. Build more slowly and make your aim improving the state of… https://t.co/DTMmwst1qE
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) March 21, 2024
It would always just be about Quarterly profits and figures go. If they're bad, you'd fire them all, only to realize later that you need developers again, so you'll hire countless more employees again – a cycle that would go on forever. But that doesn't have to be the case, as Vincke explains.
“You can create reserves. Just slow down a little. Hold back on greed. Be persistent, take care of the people and don't constantly forego the expertise that has accumulated among the people that you always lose, so that the same cycle has to be run through again and again. This really makes me angry.”
On twitter confirmed He repeats his words, even if he makes it clear that they would by no means be aimed at all employees of a publisher. Only to those who would try to double their sales “year after year”. Because ultimately this leads to huge waves of layoffs like we are seeing most recently at Microsoft, Sony or Embracer noticed.