Larian CEO Says Baldur’s Gate 4 Was “Playable” At One Point Before It Got Scrapped

Considering how Baldur’s Gate 3 has shaken up the industry with what it brought to the table, it’s only natural that we, being the players, would want more of it and the franchise it belongs to. Understanding this, Larian Studios took to the idea of making a Baldur’s Gate 3 sequel at one point, caving in and commencing work on more of that good stuff. 

And when you, as a developer, come out of this little miserable cave that you’ve been sitting in for many, many hours as you’re finishing your thing, you’re vulnerable. So you tend to be prone to do the obvious thing, which was really just make an add-on, or a standalone add-on, or start working on a sequel, because it’s the easiest route to take. And we actually started doing that,” says Swen Vincke, Larian’s CEO, in an interview with PC Gamer. 

Fast-forward sometime later, the idea did not stick. 

Larian made headway with Baldur’s Gate 3’s successor, getting it up to a somewhat playable state as well, but it wasn’t long before the developer started to question its ambitions and where it wanted to see itself in three years time. 

It’s something that you all would have liked, I think. I’m sure, actually. And we actually went pretty fast, because the production machine was still warm. You could already play stuff.” 

He continued, “But you played it and you looked and it, and, like, you know, this is OK. I mean, we’ll probably have to redo it 10 times. And do we really want to do this for the next three years?” 

Larian Is Done With The Baldur’s Gate IP

As sad as this really is, given that Larian is such a talented, and ambition-driven developer, you can’t expect the Belgium-based developer studio to sit down across its offices for another Baldur’s Gate game. “We’re not going to make Baldur’s Gate 4 which everybody is expecting us to do,” said Swen earlier this year. As of now, Larian is in pursuit of another adventure, and from what I’ve heard so far, it’s going to be its “best work yet.”

All the best to the amazing folks over at Larian who made Baldur’s Gate 3 happen, an exceptionally top-tier RPG that’s probably going down in the history books of gaming. eXputer rated it 5/5 in its review, praising the title’s excellent narrative, engaging combat, and remarkable build diversity.