Larian Studios shifts focus from Baldur’s Gate 3 to Divinity, citing a lack of enthusiasm for the D&D style.

Larian Studios is a team that thrives on innovation and never settles for past achievements. Just two years after the phenomenal success of Baldur’s Gate 3, they’ve unveiled plans for a new Divinity game, making a significant impact at The Game Awards. With high expectations from fans, founder Swen Vincke expresses enthusiasm, especially since the team is no longer bound by the constraints of Dungeons and Dragons.

“Every game has its own identity and its own language that you have to talk to,” he shares when discussing the challenges of the upcoming Divinity title. “It took us some time to figure that out, but I think we’ve got it more or less now.”

Vincke acknowledges that managing a larger team brings its own set of challenges, making it more complex to ensure everyone is aligned compared to when Larian was focused on the Divinity: Original Sin series. “Our ambitions are high, so we want to innovate,” he explains. “That means we will encounter failures as we explore new ideas. We’ll see where that leads us.”

Despite the pressure of high expectations, Vincke remains optimistic, noting that the team is energized by their current project. The excitement surrounding Divinity has created a positive atmosphere at Larian, a stark contrast to previous projects.

“We’ll do our best, making the best game that we can,” he asserts. “We’re excited about what we’re creating, which is already a step in the right direction, as we weren’t feeling that way during our D&D work.”

While Baldur’s Gate 3 has significantly elevated Larian’s reputation, it also marked a shift in their approach as a studio. For the first time in decades, they stepped away from Divinity to tackle the challenge of continuing an established franchise within a broader universe.

The team had to adapt their systems and ideas to fit within the Dungeons and Dragons framework, which likely posed challenges since they previously had more creative freedom. However, any dissatisfaction is not reflected in the final product, and now the team has more creative freedom than ever for the next installment of Divinity. Talk about a critical hit.

Older Divinity titles are considered “a bit outdated,” according to Vincke, so there’s no need to revisit them before diving into the studio’s next RPG unless “you really want to know everything.”