Larian CEO Swen Vincke says there were only two other RPG series he was interested in working on if he couldn't get Baldur's Gate: Fallout and Ultima
It's hard to overstate how big Baldur's Gate 3 is. It's a massive sales hit, it claimed all the awards, and it turned Larian, already a well-respected studio thanks to its outstanding Divinity: Original Sin games, into RPG royalty. I think it's fair to say that nobody could have predicted this, but in the latest issue of Edge (via GamesRadar), Larian CEO Swen Vincke said he had big ambitions for the studio, and that there were only three games he felt could make it happen.
The Divinity games are great, and they carry a lot of weight among dedicated RPG fans, but they don't have the brand recognition of Baldur's Gate, and more broadly, Dungeons and Dragons. Vincke felt that snagging the rights to work on an established property like that would work for Larian on a couple levels: «It would be great for attracting other people to the studio,» he said, and it would also—hopefully—elevate Larian into the big leagues.
«I felt like there was a glass ceiling that we wouldn't be able to break through unless we have triple-A production values, budget, marketing, all the triple-A things,» Vincke said. And only a few big-name games could make that happen.
«It would have been Ultima, it would have been Fallout, it would have been Baldur's Gate,» he said. «There was not a lot to choose from.»
Baldur's Gate was apparently Larian's first choice. Vincke said Larian's very first project, The Lady, The Mage, and The Knight—which was ultimately cancelled—was being developed around the same time as the original Baldur's Gate, and at one point a fan attempted to get the two studios talking. (This was a lot harder in the late '90s than it is today.) But the connection was kiboshed by Larian's publisher, which was worried that BioWare would discover valuable trade secrets.
«I should have been talking to these guys, but the relationship soured because of this intervention. That was a real pity,» Vincke said.
Vincke also talked about how close Larian came to not getting the Baldur's Gate
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