Larian Studios wants to make Baldur’s Gate 3 the “benchmark” DnD 5e game – the one against which all other Dungeons & Dragons games are measured. The devs are well on the way to doing just that in Steam Early Access, and in a new interview, Larian CEO Swen Vincke explains just how much the studio has expanded to make that goal a reality.
Asked by PC Gamer how Baldur’s Gate 3 fits into the whole DnD franchise, Vincke says: “The benchmark incarnation of 5th Edition in a videogame. That’s what we’re trying to do. I think it’s already very good, and it’s still getting better.” Vincke notes that Larian is now nearly 400 people strong – ten times its size when developing Divinity: Original Sin – and the effort to make good on that ambition is a big part of why the studio has grown so rapidly.
“I would literally have a revolution inside of my company if I forced them to lower their aspirations, the things they want to do,” Vincke says. Many Larian developers are fans of the original games, and it’s important to the studio not to take shortcuts when it comes to making sure players aren’t railroaded down certain paths. “There were really lots of easy cuts that we could’ve done,” Vincke says. “But then it wouldn’t have been the game that it needs to be.”
Oh, and also, Vincke tells PC Gamer that gnomes will be joining the list of playable DnD races, too.
There are plenty of DnD videogames, but few since the 3.5 days have attempted to faithfully recreate ruleset of the tabletop game. Solasta replicates the DnD 5e rules, if not the official setting, but at its budget and scale, Baldur’s Gate 3 is in a class of its own.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently available in Steam Early Access. The devs expect it to launch in full sometime in 2023. For more RPG games to check out in the meantime, you can follow that link.
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