Baldur’s Gate 3 Lead Defends Stardew Valley Baldur’s Village Project Following DMCA Takedown

Summary

Wizards of the Coast has sent a DMCA takedown to the Baldur’s Village Stardew Valley project, forcing it to be removed from Nexus Mods.
Baldur’s Gate 3 lead Swen Vincke has criticized the move, saying that the game’s characters “shouldn’t be treated like commercial ventures”.
Nexus Mods is hopeful that the takedown was “an oversight”, and that the decision made by Wizards will be reversed.

Updated On April 1, 2025, at 6:30 am. Baldur’s Village is back up. It seems the DMCA takedown was issued by WotC mistakenly. “The Baldur’s Village DMCA takedown was issued mistakenly – we are sorry about that. We are in the process of fixing that now so fans and the Stardew community can continue to enjoy this great mod!” said a statement by Wizards of the Coast.

Original story follows below:

Baldur’s Gate 3 has a very passionate fanbase, and that passion often manifests itself in a variety of different ways, whether that be fan art, cosplay, or mod projects. It can even seep into entirely different games, as was seen recently in a project for Stardew Valley called Baldur’s Village, which placed the characters of Baldur’s Gate 3 into the farming sim.

It was an ambitious project that a lot of people loved, including none other than BG3 lead Swen Vincke himself, but it seems as though Wizards of the Coast has decided that everyone has had enough fun with its property and has taken its ball and gone back home. Earlier today, the project’s creator revealed that a DMCA takedown notice had been filed, and it’s no longer available to download.

Swen Vincke Isn’t Happy About Baldur’s Village’s DMCA Takedown

Unsurprisingly, given that he loved the idea of the mod to begin with, Swen Vincke himself has called out Wizards of the Coast’s decision to nuke the project from existence, arguing that Baldur’s Gate 3’s characters “shouldn’t be treated like commercial ventures” and that them appearing in other games can actually act as a “unique form of word of mouth”.

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To play devil’s advocate, Wizards of the Coast is most likely attempting to protect the Baldur’s Gate 3 IP from being used more maliciously, and even Vincke accepts that “protecting your IP can be tricky”. That being said, there are other companies out there that accept, and sometimes encourage, fan-made projects, so it’s not like there aren’t any workarounds.

Nexus Mods is hopeful that a deal can be struck with Wizards of the Coast that will allow Baldur’s Village to stay. Speaking with PC Gamer, the site says that “hopefully, this is an oversight from WotC, who often use external agencies to hunt down violating content” and that the decision will be reversed soon. My fingers are crossed for all the Stardew Valley fans out there that have dreamed of smooching Astarion.