Path: Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 13:54:01 +0000 From: Spalls Hurgenson Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: [Polygon] Larian Studios won’t make any more Baldur’s Gate games Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 09:54:01 -0400 Message-ID: References: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 46 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-0yNtUMwapyNfXo89sH3H1371PaozGN7i5JmhEjx8tfDFqd5zRQOBugK/bQU7bZtrL6Of8LbIThLx7iu!/GNeBlROGX9bNRZ7GCCGNZKuxAKPwk5Zfc0xbfLrCTR6zWjbMHQlS+CffbgVOWfjXdn6WKU= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 3134 On Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:26:28 +0100, kyonshi wrote: >On 3/22/2024 3:37 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote: >> On 3/22/2024 2:40 AM, kyonshi wrote: >>> Source: >>> https://www.polygon.com/24107939/baldurs-gate-3-larian-studios-no-more-dnd-wizards-of-the-coast >>> >> I was thinking nice things about Larian reading this.  Finally a company >> that wants to put out good, _new_ games, not just endlessly milk a cash >> cow.  Until this last paragraph.... >> >>> >>> However, Wizards of the Coast was hit with layoffs right before >>> Christmas 2023, massively impacting the D&D and Magic teams. This >>> includes the team that helped with Baldur’s Gate 3, according to Vincke. >> >> That made me think this was more corporate spin as the execs were >> thinking "Well, shit, there goes our cash cow franchise...." >> > >Maybe WotC thinks they don't need that team anymore and that they can >replace them by AI. Seems to be their favorite idea lately. Larian has actually issued a statement saying that the reason for the departure is most definitively not bad blood between Larian and WOTC* and, honestly, I can see that. In fact, I seem to recall the developers saying - prior to the game's release - that there were no real plans for them turning their game into a franchise anyway; that for Larian "Baldur's Gate 3" was intended to be a one-and-done game. The company has never been averse to going off and doing their own thing, and has always professed to prefer to be in charge of their own destiny rather than beholden to an IP licensor or publisher. So this departure, rather than indicative of some breakdown in relations between WOTC, seems perfectly in tune with Larian. I'm not reading any more into it except that Larian likes to make their own games, and while BG3 was a profitable side-hustle, it was never intended to be their 'main gig'. * no mention of their relations with Hasbro, though ;-)