This week, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Larian Studios' CEO Swen Vincke hinted that the Baldur's Gate 3 developer's "168澳洲幸运5开奖网:next big game" may be in development.
"This is a real honor, especially in a year with so many releases. Seeing our little 'niche rpg' make such waves is very motivating," Vincke at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Game Awards. "I wish I could tell you about our next big game𝐆 but this is really encouraging us to ensure it pushes many boundaries. I’m very excited about it."
At the 2023 Game Awards, Baldur's Gate 3 is up for Best Performance (for Astarion actor, Neil Newbon), Best Multiplayer Game, Best Score and Music, Best Narrative, Best Community Support, Best Role-Playing Game, Best Game Direction, and Game of the Year.
It's only natural to wonder: what will that game be? Before Baldur's Gate 3, this would have been an easy question to answer with confidence because Larian Studios had almost exclusively developed video games in one series. Though many players hadn't heard of the studio until 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Divinity: Original Sin 2 launched to widespread acclaim in 2017, DOS2 is the sixth game in the Divinity series.
There's a good chance you haven't heard of most of those games, so here's the full list: Divine Divinity (2002), Beyond Divinity (2004), Divinity 2 (2009), Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013), and Divinity: Original Sin (2014). The studio made a few other titles along the way, including its debut game, a 1997 sci-fi RTS called The L.E.D. Wars, plus a slew of educational titles. But, by and large, the Belgian studio was known (if it was known at all) for the Divinity series. If it was making a new game, there was a 15-year span during which it was safe to bet that it would have the word ‘Divinity’ somewhere in the title and that it would carve out further niches in the in-house universe Larian had been building for decades.
In 2023, things are a little different. Though Divinity: Original Sin 2 was successful and critically acclaimed, Larian's latest, Baldur's Gate 3, is one of the year's biggest hits and the odds-on favorite to sweep most game of the year awards. It's made a ton of money for Larian and Wizards of the Coast, and as word-of-mouth spreads further as more people play it and it wins more awards, it will continue to make a ton of money. It would be natural to expect Larian to dive headfirst into Baldur's Gate 4.
But, there are a few wrinkles complicating that expectation. For one, Larian has a lot invested in the Divinity universe. In addition to the six games I listed above, Larian has a Kickstarter-funded board game, simply titled Divinity Original Sin: The Board Game, that's based on the world and combat of DOS2. The long-gestating project is and shows that Larian is still invested in the series. Is it invested enough to dedicate six years to developing another Divinity game? Time will tell.
Time will also give us a better look at what Larian's studio structure will look like going forward. If Baldur's Gate 3 is any indicator, the Larian that ships the next game may be quite different than the Larian that made Baldur's Gate 3. between Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3, swelling from 150 employees to 450 to avoid compromising on its vision. That makes the studio , spread across six studios around the world.
Given Larian's growth, it seems quite possible that the options aren't limited to Divinity: Original Sin 3 or Baldur's Gate 4. The studio could develop both games at the same time, scaling up further to accommodate two simultaneous projects. It could also do something entirely different, setting aside the easy money to pursue a new IP. The wild success of Baldur's Gate 3 ensures that Larian will have its pick of some of the best developers currently working today, regardless of what the next project(s) is/are.
For now, it seems safe to expect some kind of DLC for Baldur's Gate 3. That might take the form of an expansion, or it might be a Definitive Edition that improves on the base game and adds some new content. Baldur's Gate 3 is good enough that I'll be there day one for whatever comes next. I expect most people who have played Baldur's Gate 3 feel the same.
