Larian Studios Made Progress on Baldur's Gate 4 Before Opting Not to Move Forward

Larian Studios started work on Baldur's Gate 4 before deciding to move onto other things.

By Hannah Adkins

Larian Studios and particularly Baldur's Gate 3 fans have been coming to terms with the fact that the studio will not carry on the Baldur's Gate torch with a sequel to last year's game of the year, having instead moved onto development for two new games for other IPs that won't be Dungeons & Dragons. While there are still a lot of questions as to what those games will be, and certainly ongoing disappointment that Larian won't be the ones to continue the Baldur's Gate storyline, we do know the decision is ultimately because Larian's team was not overly excited by Baldur's Gate 4 ideas – apparently even at least one that they'd already begun work on. 

According to a new interview with Larian CEO Swen Vincke conducted by PC Gamer, the studio at one point had a "partially playable" Baldur's Gate 4, but ultimately didn't want to spend the next few years of their existence working on finishing the game – a decision that is ultimately understandable considering how much work went into making Baldur's Gate 3 the beloved powerhouse that it is. 

"So if something is super successful, obviously everyone's [asking] you, 'When are you going to make the next one?'", Vincke reveals during the interview. "And when you, as a developer, come out of this little miserable cave that you've been sitting in for many, many hours as you're finishing your thing, you're vulnerable. You tend to be prone to do the obvious thing, which was really just make an add-on, or a standalone add-on, or start working on a sequel, because it's the easiest route to take."

Initially, carrying on with the franchise took shape as an expansion, but ultimately moved onto what could've been a feel sequel. Rather quickly though, Larian realized continuing work on the project wasn't the right fit for their future, and Vincke specifically began to ask the difficult question – "[Do] we really want to do this for the next three years?" Ultimately, Vincke came to the conclusion that considering it would be years "doing the same thing," carrying on with the sequel didn't appeal to Larian.

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"We should be looking at how we can do stuff that we get excited about," he says. According to Vincke, he asked the team for their opinion, and the consensus was to move on. "It very rapidly turned, and I don't think, as developers, we ever felt better since we took that decision. Honestly, you really cannot explain or express it, how liberated we are."

As of now, we know that both new games Larian is developing are RPGs, and development on at least one seems to be ramping up ahead of Larian releasing another major patch to Baldur's Gate 3.

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