Around two years ago, a wise council of sages, artificers, and mages from across the realm (a collection of people sometimes called a “game development studio”) met in an officious chamber to discuss how to finish Baldur’s Gate 3, a game that would go on to steal about 200 hours of my life—and gain one of PC Gamer’s highest review scores, period.
That’s according to Larian CEO and co-founder Swen Vincke himself, as per a recent post to Twitter. In it, Vincke shows the hallowed halls in which the game developer held a summit yesterday: “2 years ago we came to this exact place to discuss how to finish BG3. This time around it’s to discuss lift off. Spirits are high, morale is good, expecting a flooding any minute now.”
As for exactly what that game is, we’re only able to piece together a few scraps of knowledge from the dining room table: It’s not going to be another D&D game, and it’s going to be an RPG. One of two, in fact, since Larian Studios now has two huge projects on the back burner, which sounds like a lot, but is probably proportionate once you remember that their team is both worldwide and over 400 developers strong—very likely more after opening new doors in Warsaw.
One of those projects has a codename, “Excalibur”, but Larian’s still trying to hammer out exactly what it is, meaning it’s unlikely to be the same title whose first act Vincke believed he’d nailed earlier this year. Unless, of course, he chucked that in the recycling bin, though that’s unlikely since Vincke said to “Quote me when it’s revealed to see how much of today’s draft survives. I suspect a lot.”
Either way, I’m seriously excited. Baldur’s Gate 3 has already absorbed hundreds of hours of my time, once on its initial release, and once when its Honour Mode turned me into a power-gaming munchkin Bard. It was so good that it even helped shape the next iteration of D&D. I fully expect that Larian’s next title will be similarly disastrous to my productivity, and considering the studio’s track record, it very likely will.