Larian has announced that it will not be sticking with Baldur's Gate 3 for an expansion or a sequel, but that doesn't mean we won't ever see our favourite party members again. This was just confirmed by Larian CEO Swen Vincke, making it clear that the studio doesn't own the characters it created, as they instead belong to the D&D rights holder, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wizards of the Coast.
Vincke confirms this while going over the specifics of Larian's decision to leave Baldur's Gate behind. It follows his initial announcement that there will be no Larian-developed Baldur's Gate 4, as the studio is instead working on a new game that has nothing to do with D&D.
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After addressing what Larian will do next, Vincke then gets to how this will affect the material the team created for Baldur's Gate. "As for BG3 and its characters - they now belong to WOTC and I think they understand how important they are for the community," says Vincke. "I trust that they’ll be treated with respect."
The fans, however, lack this faith in Wizards of the Coast. To put it milᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ🅷ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚdly.
While we have no idea what Wizards of the Coast will do with the characters, fans already fear the worst. For example, they worry that characters who belong to groups that are often seen as "inherently evil", like Astarion, Shadowheart, and Minthara, will get their most villainous endings made canon. They also worry about the characterisation of the gang in general, since they'll all be handled by new writers.
These fears don't stem from nowhere. Canon Baldur's Gate material - which Larian admittedly danced around rather than using in its own story - made unpopular changes to the cast of the original games, including making the customisable main character a generic fighter dude. Some also blame WotC for Viconia and Sarevok being villains in Baldur's Gate 3, even though it was possible for them to change their ways by the end of Baldur's Gate 2's expansion, Throne of Bhaal. Of course, that may have been Larian's decision, but with WotC owning the characters, many believe the publisher should have intervened.
There's also some general dissatisfaction with how WotC and its parent company, Hasbro, operate. Mass layoffs last December saw 1,100 workers lose their jobs at WotC, with Vincke commenting that there's "almost nobody left" at the company who worked with Larian to greenlight Baldur's Gate 3 in the first place. Following the most recent news, however, Vincke has clarified that WotC is not the reason why his studio is away from Baldur's Gate, calling the company "a great licensor" that "did 🥃their 🃏best".
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