Baldur’s Gate 3 Developers Larian Studios Reveal No Future Plans with the Franchise

During a panel at Game Developers Conference (GDC) yesterday, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke announced that the studio has no future plans for Baldur’s Gate 3. This means no expansions, no DLC, not even Baldur’s Gate 4. The plan for Larian Studios is to move away from Dungeons & Dragons completely to work on something brand new.

It is a shocker to say the least, considering how much of a success Baldur’s Gate 3 has been. After leaving early access in August 2023, it’s gone on to sell over 10 million copies, break Steam records for most concurrent players, and was just awarded Game of the Year by GDC themselves. Most of the time when lightning is caught in a bottle like this, a studio keeps on riding the edge of that lightning bolt until it withers into a spark and most of the audience moves on. Instead of coming up with ways to capitalize on the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian has their sights set on the future.

Later a Larian Studios confirmed the report to Kotaku, summarizing the mindset of the employees. “We’re going to move away from D&D, and we’re going to start making a new thing,” says Vincke. “It’s going to be up to Wizards of the Coast, because it’s their IP, to find somebody to take over the torch. We think we did our job and so, for us, it’s time to get a new puppy.”

Rest assured, Larian isn’t abandoning Baldur’s Gate 3 for the time being. Ever since the aforementioned August 2023 launch, Larian has gone on to add some major patches which even featured new content such as the playable epilogue party. There are also plans to introduce a cross-platform plan for mod support, says Michael Douse, who is Larian Studios’ director of publishing. After Larian gets out everything they have for Baldur’s Gate 3, it deserves a holiday before all hands are on deck for their next big project—which they’re probably already working on in secret.