Summary
- Swen Vincke is asked why Larian doesn’t make DLC.
- He says that it’s “boring” and that there was no passion behind the DLC they were making for Baldur’s Gate 3.
- He adds that the team is much happier now that they’re working on new games.
Larian shocked us all in March of last year, as CEO Swen Vincke announced that the studio would not be making Baldur’s Gate 4. Many of us saw the sequel as a given, since Baldur’s Gate 3 was so successful, but the series had already changed hands once before, so it wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility. What was perhaps even more shocking was that Larian wouldn’t even be making DLC for its own game, something we’ve come to expect from every major release now.
Sitting down for an interview with GameSpot, Vincke was asked why Larian isn’t in the business of making DLC for its games, and the answer was simple: “It’s boring”. He expands on this, saying that the team want to focus on what they’re passionate about, and that just isn’t DLC.
Larian Is Happier Making New Games After Dropping Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC
“The honest answer is we try to be in the DLC business,” says Vincke. “We’ve talked about that with BG3, but it’s just… it’s no passion. Happy player, happy business. But you also need to have happy developer for a happy player. What we’re doing now makes developers way more happy”.
Of course, we do know that there had already been some work put into DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3 before it was cancelled. Here, Vincke explains the mood at the studio at this time.
“It was what we were supposed to do, right?” he says. “We got a huge game, huge hit. Like, oh, we got to make DLC this, and DLC that, and DLC there, and DLC there. The money’s going to pile up. We just nodded and said, ‘Yeah, we’ll make DLCs.
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“Then, the moment that we had some time to think, we realised… ‘What are you doing?’ So sometimes, progressive insight is not a bad thing. Sometimes you go down the wrong path and then you say ‘Oh, f**k it’.”
With all of that said, Baldur’s Gate 3 received plenty of support. New content was added to the end of the game, with the most expansive being the epilogue camp. This gave us some brand new conversations with companions, reacting to the choices that we made throughout the game and rounding off their stories. Patch 8 was billed as the final major patch, so it definitely seems that Larian is moving on now.
Larian Studios
- Date Founded
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1996
- Headquarters
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Ghent, Belgium
- Known For
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Baldur’s Gate