With the sheer popularity surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3, the game is ripe for an expansion — but if it ever happens, it won’t be made by its developer Larian Studios. During a panel at the Game Developers Conference on Thursday, Larian founder Swen Vincke revealed that the studio plans on moving away from Dungeons & Dragons games, as first reported by IGN.
“We’re not going to make new expansions, which everybody is expecting us to do. We’re not going to make Baldur’s Gate 4, which everybody is expecting us to do. We’re going to move on,” Vincke said. He added that Larian is also going to “move away from D&D” and start a new project.
As reported by IGN, Vincke said the studio originally considered making DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3, but it ended up walking back on the idea after realizing “it wasn’t really coming from the heart.”
Larian’s announcement is a bit of a surprise given the massive success it has seen with Baldur’s Gate 3, which swept the DICE Awards and sold over 10 million copies. But instead of moving forward with the franchise, Vincke said the studio is going to let Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast handle it from here.
“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 think we did our job and so, for us, it’s time to get a new puppy.” Last year, Wizards of the Coast parent company Hasbro laid off nearly all the employees on the Dungeons & Dragons team who helped Larian make Baldur’s Gate 3 happen.
The studio will continue patching Baldur’s Gate 3 for the time being and is still working on adding official mod support for the game on both PCs and consoles.
