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[Draugoth]

After the resounding success of Baldur's Gate 3 Larian has unexpectedly expressed a desire to develop a smaller title next time.

Despite the widespread success of Baldur's Gate 3, Larian's CEO, Swen Vincke, has discussed plans for the studio's future in the wake of the significant early access hit. In a discussion with Bloomberg, Vincke mentions that while the studio's future is uncertain, the developers do know that they want to work on something smaller. No one at Larian wants to spend another six years developing a single game. At least, not yet.

It’s like making a movie — or many movies at the same time. We didn’t expect we’d need a lighting team, or a cinematics QA team or such a large audio team.

Baldur's Gate 3 is off to a cracking start, quickly becoming the second-biggest launch of 2023 so far. After its official release this Thursday, the role-playing title hit its peak concurrent player count of 700,000, according to SteamDB.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I think its the correct choice. No one wants to keep making massive productions like this all the time, its better to branch out a bit and make smaller projects with different teams, see what works and what doesn't, then once you have some more footing, make something big again.

 

[Luipadre]

Im fine with a 40-50 hour game from them if we dont have to wait 6 years for it

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

He wants it so small it can launch on a Series S

 

[Hendrick's]

Good. They have never done a more focused experience, but after BG3 they are ready.

 

[Robb]

As long as they keep up the quality/polish I don’t see any problem with that.

 

[Comandr]

I'm fine with waiting 6 or more years if each game is a huge game like BG3. Absolutely loving the game so far, feel like I've barely scratched the surface 30 hours in. Games should be about quality, not quantity. I hope BG3 is an overwhelming financial success to show that consumers will see and appreciate quality product and value.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Whatever they do, I'm in.

Must be EXHAUSTIVE to make BG3

 

[Gamerguy84]

Won't be getting this. No offense to D and D players but rolling die and point and click isn't my style.

I am shocked how this went viral though starting with bear sex.

Otherwise it looks like a good game for those into it. And if your into it your more than likely on PC.

 

[Labadal]

Not surprised. The burnout must be real.

I wouldn't say no to Divinity 3 (the action rpg).

 

[JimmyRustler]

Understandable. Game dev time shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 years. Imagine looking back 10 years and realizing you just made one game….

 

[Hudo]

Understandable. Game dev time shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 years. Imagine looking back 10 years and realizing you just made one game….

You know what, yes. I completely agree. I go even one step further: I think it is a sign of incompetent project management and idiotic development practices if you need 10 years to make one game.

 

[cartman414]

He wants it so small it can launch on a Series S

You're not thinking small enough. The next one needs to run on a Pi.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Sounds good. Give the team a break with a smaller game. You know the quality will be there regardless.

 

[M.W.]

Baldur's Fence

 

[Madonis]

It's all fair. If I had worked on the same monster of a game for 6 years, I'd also want to try a smaller project for 1-2 years before attempting anything on that scale again.

 

[RoboFu]

Bears in the Wood... by Larian Games

 

[Retrofluxed]

Understandable. Game dev time shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 years. Imagine looking back 10 years and realizing you just made one game….

Todd Howard says hold my beer.

 

[Skifi28]

An expansion is much smaller, right?

Come on Larian, the game is great and a huge success. You know you want to.

 

[Guilty_AI]

An expansion is much smaller, right?

Come on Larian, the game is great and a huge success. You know you want to.

They never did expansions for their games before, not to mention this would require recontracting the same people for VA and such, many of whom are rather expensive. Then somehow incorporate it into a game filled to the brim with story branches.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Todd Howard says hold my beer.

I don’t think Todd actually cares any more. He has done enough. I can easily imagine TESVI being his last game and therefore taking around 10 years.

 

[Skifi28]

They never did expansions for their games before, not to mention this would require recontracting the same people for VA and such, many of whom are rather expensive. Then somehow incorporate it into a game filled to the brim with story branches.

At least let me dream.

 

[Mokus]

I think it's for the better. Look what CD Projekt Red did with Cyberpunk 2077 after the very successful The Witcher 3.

 

[Icymanipulator]

I fully support them and this line of thinking.

Do a couple smaller projects, try something new, be creative. It will help them in the long run for whenever their next big project starts.

 

[Midnight Bliss]

They need to finally fess up and make a game about "booply-bear" at this point.

 

[Tumle]

I hope we get a dungeon master addition to the game, like in divinity 2, before they move on to the next project! Would love to be able to create and play my own scenarios in this engine with the d&d ruleset already implemented

 

[adamsapple]

Not surprising. BG3 has been in early access for 3 years before release and was in some kind of development for a while before that as well.

 

[amigastar]

Im fine with a 40-50 hour game from them if we dont have to wait 6 years for it

Totally agree, a smaller DOS compared to BG3 would be awesome (on the same level as DOS2)

 

[Hayabusabruh]

What is this game like? Why is it so popular. Watched a video and it seemed like pointing and clicking just to move. What am I missing?

 

[Guilty_AI]

I hope we get a dungeon master addition to the game, like in divinity 2, before they move on to the next project! Would love to be able to create and play my own scenarios in this engine with the d&d ruleset already implemented

They said it would be hard to do it in this game, not to mention WotC might have some hand in it as well.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I wish most other developers would try shorter, smaller projects. Not every game needs up be 100 hours or gigantic especially since there are literally dozens of games released on a daily basis imo. Not to mention the development time for most games is ludicrous now as well and length and size are one of the biggest contributing factors.

 

[Wildebeest]

They should make a game in a genre that isn't "niche" like a strandlike.

 

[Fbh]

Good.
One of the worst things to happen to gaming IMO is this expectation that the next game from a studio always needs to be as big or bigger than the previous one.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

well it better not be divinity 3 then

 

[alucard0712_rus]

Every Dev now saying this. And gamers I think bit tired of massive open worlds or big blockbusters. We also seen everything in graphics for next 10 years (path-tracing, nanite etc) so graphics it's not that important as they were before. IMO.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Doesn't this kind of validate that dev that was saying don't let BG3 increase your expectations for other developers?

 

[Kakax11]

Make a horror game, i'm sick of those $2 ones at Steam

 

[Laieon]

Every Dev now saying this. And gamers I think bit tired of massive open worlds or big blockbusters.

As I've said multiple times on this forum, I know I am (open worlds anyway, big blockbusters not so much - I don't mind 25-30 hour Spider-Man). My ideal game length is something like 20-30 hours.

I definitely appreciate massive epics, but I also don't mind studios taking a step back to create shorter experiences either. Take Ubisoft for example - I admittedly don't hate them nearly as much as many seem to (I actually liked Fenyx Rising more than BOTW), my favorite title from the studio to this day is still Valiant Hearts.

While I don't work in the industry myself, I have a couple friends who do, and I know they'd appreciate alternating between big titles and shorter ones. Sometimes you just have to breath.

 

[EDMIX]

I think it's for the better. Look what CD Projekt Red did with Cyberpunk 2077 after the very successful The Witcher 3.

Should be a lesson for the whole industry tbh. They are now out here spending years to make DLC with features that should have been in the game day 1.

So if Larian wants to take a step back for the next title and make something smaller, I don't blame them. I'd love a different setting and for them to try different things. For this game to even take 6 years and be this massive, this well praised and this well made is amazing.

Some developers literally have almost double that time and still fucking release games that are mess and then take even more years trying to correct it, all while trying to make the consumer pay for their mistakes.

So if they put BG3 out like this in 6 years, then to 4 years later release another solid title, they are basically schooling the industry and showing everyone how you actually continue positive growth and create within reason. If they pull that off, it means they literally were able to release a better game in less time and then make another game in the same fucking time frame some um..."developers" are taking to do just the dlc lol

Larian getting it done correct THE FIRST go around, no dlc or reboot needed lol A team this talented, folks need to let them grow in peace. Leave the cutting corners and cut content to others

 

[Tumle]

They said it would be hard to do it in this game, not to mention WotC might have some hand in it as well.

yea you are probably right.. also think WotC are coming out with there own tabletop thing..

 

[The artful mincer]

Well too bad, It will take another 6 years to get BG3 working on the Series S.

 

[Gorgon]

Doesn't this kind of validate that dev that was saying don't let BG3 increase your expectations for other developers?

No, because other developers of AAA titles take the same amount of time or more, have comparable or higher budgets, and still don't deliver a game that does half of what this one does.

 

[Gorgon]

Well too bad, It will take another 6 years to get BG3 working on the Series S.

That's their next small project.

 

[PonyStation4]

What is this game like? Why is it so popular. Watched a video and it seemed like pointing and clicking just to move. What am I missing?

It's a turn based RPG with a lot of decisions and many ways to tackle situations. It's popular because it's one of the best games ever made.

 

[Complistic]

I'm up for anything they want to make at this point, they've proven they have their shit together. Honestly there's a lot of wisdom in this quote opposed to the standard AAA studios over promising and under delivering.