Baldur's Gate 4 was playable, but was ultimately abandoned by Larian

As Larian Studios, the makers of 2023's prestigious game of the year—Baldur's Gate 3—gear up for their new projects, studio CEO Swen Vincke has recently revealed more exclusive behind-the-scenes info on the game they're leaving behind.

A Follow-Up to BG3 Was Already “Playable” According to LarianBG3 DLC and BG4 Ultimately Discarded as Larian Moves On from Franchise

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, esteemed Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke revealed that they had a follow-up to Baldur's Gate 3 in development before deciding to move on to fresh projects. This follow-up to BG3 was already in a functional state and something fans would have embraced.

"It's something that you all would have appreciated, I think," Vincke said. "I'm convinced, actually. And we actually progressed pretty quickly, because the production machine was still running smoothly. You could already play portions. But you played it and you looked at it, and, like, you know, this is satisfactory." According to Vincke, however, after years of working on a Dungeons & Dragons-related title, the team was hesitant to spend even more time working on the IP. "I mean, we'll probably have to redo it numerous times. And do we really want to do this for the next three years?"

While Baldur's Gate 4 sounded like a promising idea, the prospect of spending additional years on the same type of project was not appealing to Vincke or the developers. Vincke shared that the studio felt it was time to chase their innovative ideas instead and make them come to life.

Morale Remains High at Larian Studios

"We should be looking at how we can do incredible stuff that we get super excited about," he said. After discussing it with his teams, the consensus was to move on. Following their success at The Game Awards 2023, Larian Studios took their next step and decided to move away from Baldur's Gate 3, declining to develop the sequel to the 2023 Game of the Year title.

"I don't think, as developers, we ever felt more fulfilled since we took that decision [to not make BG4]," Vincke said. "Honestly, you really cannot explain or express it, how empowered we are. So morale is super high, just because we're doing new stuff again."

"We'll carry on patching for a while and then we're all going to take a holiday and then we'll figure out what we do next," senior product manager Tom Butler said at the time. With the ideas for Baldur's Gate 4 and an expansion to Baldur's Gate 3 shelved altogether for the same reasons, Larian is now focused on their two upcoming, undisclosed projects, which Vincke said will be their most yet.

Before working on the illustrious Baldur’s Gate series, Larian Studios previously worked on the renowned Divinity series, which could be getting another installment now that Larian has stepped away from Dungeons & Dragons. Shortly before BG3’s release in August last year, Vincke said that a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin was "definitely on the horizon," but the team needed to work on Baldur’s Gate 3 first. Although the specifics of these projects remain unknown for now, Vincke mentioned that their next project for that series won’t be Divinity: Original Sin 3, saying that it will be distinct from what fans think it is.

Meanwhile, Baldur's Gate 3's last major patch is set to launch sometime in fall 2024, adding official mod support, cross-play, and new evil endings.