Former Rockstar technical director, Obbe Vermeij, has commended Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios for walking away from the hugely successful Dungeons & Dragons series, calling it a “bold move”.
Reflecting on the difficulties of moving on from critically-acclaimed properties – much like when he himself moved on from Rockstar North in 2009 after games like GTA 3, GTA 4, Vice City, and San Andreas – Vermeij spoke to Games Hub in a wide-ranging interview, intimating Larian had made a “risky” decision.
“It’s quite cool to see Larian Studios, who just did Baldur’s Gate 3, and they’ve said, ‘we don’t feel like Baldur’s Gate 4. We’re just gonna do another game’. And you know, good for them.
“But it’s a bold move. It’s not obvious. It’s very risky. It’s easier to just keep on doing what you’re doing.
“The reality is if you have a studio that has one mega successful game, it just doesn’t make sense to do any wild changes,” he added (thanks, TheGamer), suggesting that it was tempting to “put [whatever weird ideas you have] into GTA rather than just launching an entirely new game”.
ICYMI, Larian is set to host an AMA in the new year to follow up on its use of generative AI, following a huge backlash earlier this month. In a statement, Larian CEO Swen Vincke stated it would be “irresponsible for us not to evaluate new technologies” and the company’s successes “come from empowering people to work in their own way”.
It follows backlash against the company after Vincke told Bloomberg the studio is using generative AI, but its newly-revealed Divinity game won’t include any AI-generated content.
Vermeji is now working on Plentiful, a sandbox god game where you can sculpt the land, redirect rivers, and guide your people “through a perilous Stone Age”.