As developer Larian Studios bids farewell to Baldur’s Gate 3 following its final major patch earlier this month, studio head Swen Vincke has come forward to speak on the team’s attitude towards DLC, saying that the game did not receive any paid post-launch expansions as it was the “boring” option.
Speaking during an interview with GameSpot, Vincke covered a variety of topics related to the studio’s future, eventually turning to the subject of DLC and why Larian had chosen to refrain from creating paid expansions for Baldur’s Gate 3 despite its massive success.
“It’s boring, is really the honest answer.” Vincke explained, “We tried to be in the DLC business, talked about that with BG3… there’s just no passion… I mean, happy player, happy business, but you also need a happy developer for a happy player. What we’re doing now makes developers way more happy.”
Despite this, Vincke did admit that there was the internal expectation to expand upon Baldur’s Gate 3 at one point, before the studio ultimately dropped the idea. “We heard it’s what we were supposed to do, right? You’ve got a huge game, a huge hit, and you’ve gotta make DLC this and DLC that and DLC there… and money’s gonna pile up all high! And we just nodded and said, ‘Yeah we’ll make DLCs’, ” he added, “And then the moment that we had some time to think, we realised, ‘What are you doing?’. Progressive insight is not a bad thing, so sometimes you go down the wrong path and then say, ‘Oh f**k it’, and just change course.”
Based on his comments, it’s easy to see why Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian Studios as a whole are so beloved in the industry, serving as a firm reminder of the success a studio can achieve when it prioritises a gamer’s experience over greed and profits. This mindset makes it even more exciting to see what Larian has in store, and to that end, Vincke also offered a hint at what’s to come.
Now that Baldur’s Gate 3 has wrapped up, Vincke reveals that the studio is now “deep in the trenches on [its] next thing”, adding that the upcoming project is “shaping up quite well” and that it is “crazy-ambitious”. Although this is not a lot to go on, previous reports indicate that the studio is currently working on two RPG projects, neither of which is related to Baldur’s Gate or Dungeons & Dragons in general. One of the projects, codenamed Excalibur, is set to be an action RPG and a departure from the studio’s turn-based expertise, although news is scarce, so only time will tell what surprises are in store for the future. Whatever they are, a player-centric studio like Larian would surely make it work.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
