Baldur's Gate 3 director says he wants his next game out in five years

After the huge success of Baldur’s Gate 3 last year, many expected that developer Larian Studios would continue to work with the Dungeons & Dragons licence and do a sequel, or at least some downloadable content.

Surprisingly, the opposite happened, as Larian decided to walk away and vow never to work on a licensed game again – later confirming that they are developing two new titles of their own.

Larian still hasn’t said exactly what those projects are, but CEO Swen Vincke has revealed that they’re a long way off.

While accepting the Special Recognition Award at SEA Game Awards in Malaysia this week, Vincke said he hoped that their next game comes out in the next five years.

‘We need to work hard on the next game so we can be back here in five years,’ he said on stage, according to IGN.

Vincke then backtracked, when he told the publication, ‘It was just a joke. I don’t know, we’ll release it when it’s ready. They’re big games and it takes time, so don’t hold us to a date.’

If he was being at least halfway accurate though that means a release around 2028 or 2029.

It’s a long time to wait if Larian has become your favourite developer after Baldur’s Gate 3, especially as it seems to rule out them working on any kind of smaller title in the interim.

There are also delays to consider, which are quite common, not least with Baldur’s Gate 3, which was postponed by a year from its original release year of 2022.

As for exactly what the two titles the developer is working on could be, Larian did state earlier this year that they are their ‘own IPs’.

Vincke also said in an interview that sci-fi and fantasy were ‘always my two go-to things’, and revealed that whatever the next game is he’s had the idea in his mind ‘for some time now’.

One option is a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin 2, which Larian worked on before and is similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 and is also a highly acclaimed turn-based fantasy role-player.

Been a great morning! After 4 months of rewriting and rewriting and abandoning ideas and then revisiting them, finally figured out what act 1 on this thing I’ve been working on needs to be. Quote me when it’s revealed to see how much of today’s draft survives. I suspect a lot.

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) January 8, 2024

Even though the release of their next game is a long way off, Vincke said earlier this year that he had ‘finally figured out what act one’ was on the project he was working on, adding:

‘It’s not what you think and this is not an teaser for an announcement.’

This was three months before it was made clear that Larian was working on two of their own IPs, so it’s hard to say exactly what it might mean.

For now we just have to wait and see what Larian is cooking up, but whatever it is, thanks to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the developer has a lot more fans waiting for an annouceent than it used to.