Larian Studios Almost Missed Out On The Chance To Make Baldur’s Gate 3

When it comes to the video game industry, timing can be just as important as the development team and publisher working on the game itself. If you look back into gaming history as a whole, you’ll find numerous instances of people meeting at the “perfect moment” to create absolute greatness. One such encounter was that between Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast, the latter of whom offered Larian the chance to make Baldur’s Gate 3, a decision that would change many lives when the game was released in 2023. However, as CEO Swen Vincke noted in a recent interview…his team almost lost the chance to make the game for a reason you wouldn’t expect.

Vincke chatted with EDGE Magazine, which GamesRadar+ posted, about the now iconic RPG and how his team came to make it, and he revealed that because they were working on another RPG at the time of the early talks with Wizards of the Coast, they almost missed out on the contract to make the Game of the Year winner. Specifically, Wizards of the Coast required them to make a design pitch doc so they’d know how Larian would handle things.

Yet, because the crew was waist-deep in refining Divinity Original Sin 2, the team couldn’t put in the effort that they usually would for a task like this. Obviously, that created some serious problems that Vincke had to work out:

“We need to write something guys. Or we’re going to lose this deal.”

So, what did he do? He grabbed members of the team, and they spent an entire weekend trying to craft the document they needed to win over Wizards of the Coast. It wasn’t a smooth process, and that resulted in a rather unique interaction after the doc was sent:

“Wizards then sent it back with the corporate equivalent of ‘This is really shit’. And we said ‘We know, but we’re releasing a game – don’t ask us to make this now. Give us an extension.’ Luckily they understood, and so we got another chance.”

Think about that, okay? If they hadn’t gotten that extension, Baldur’s Gate 3 wouldn’t have come out, or it would’ve come out in an entirely different way. That means we wouldn’t have got now iconic characters like Astarion, Shadowheart, and, of course, Karlach. Some horrors just shouldn’t be spoken into the world.

Thankfully, all did work out, and Larian is now hard at work on its next project. See? Timing is everything.