Official Baldur's Gate 3 Follow-Up Is A "Risk"

1 hour ago 14

Shadowheart holds an object in Baldur's Gate 3.

Published Sep 6, 2026, 12:00 AM EDT

Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work.

Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work.

Baldur's Gate 3 is widely considered to be one of the greatest RPGs ever made, a feat that is both remarkable and undoubtedly unnerving for Larian Studios, the team behind it. On the one hand, you've just created a game that will be, for decades to come, considered a triumph in game design and a constant in any respectable RPG fan's collection. On the other hand, you've created a game so unbelievably good, so ahead of the curve, and packed with so many phenomenal concepts, mechanics, and innovations, that it is nearly impossible to beat.

This has made the official follow-up to Baldur's Gate 3 a bit of a tricky game to develop. Sure, anything Larian develops will likely be excellent, as the studio has a near-perfect track record when it comes to delivering impressive RPGs that are frankly significantly better than anything the competition is making. However, expectations are extremely high, and fans will want to see if the developer can produce something either on the same level or even better than BG3. So, it is no surprise that the game has been branded a risk by senior figures in the gaming industry.

Karlach lighting a cigar with her thumb in Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3's success was always naturally going to have a major effect on whatever Larian chose to develop next. We now know that the next game from Larian is a new Divinity title, something that, while not entirely at odds with BG3's core design, will certainly prove to be a different experience on the whole. That, according to Mark Darrah, former BioWare developer, could end up being an issue, one that poses a significant risk to its success.

Speaking on the Examined Game podcast, Darrah compared his time at BioWare, and the way BioWare functions as a company, to Larian and its approach with Baldur's Gate 3. When asked about his feelings on how Larian should, or indeed could, ride the wave of success it is currently on, Darrah discussed how he believes that those who've exclusively played Baldur's Gate 3 and none of Larian's other games may be surprised and potentially even put off by Divinity.

"If I'm a Baldur's Gate person and the only Larian game I've ever played is Baldur's Gate 3, I think some people are going to look at that trailer and go 'what, what?' and it's not that it's not true to what Larian was, but it might not be true to what Larian is."

Darrah mused on the idea that Larian's community has shifted, and that fans of its Divinity-related works are no longer its exclusive audience. It now has the eyes and interest of D&D fans, of RPG enthusiasts, and even the wider gaming community who may have never touched a CRPG before. That change in community is where the risk comes from, and Darrah asks whether Larian's "core shift[ed] with Baldur's Gate 3. Did they take a big step, with meaning to or not, to a different place? And is that new place where they actually want to be now?"

It remains to be seen just how big of an impact the shift in audience and expectations affects Larian as a studio and Divinity as a project. One would assume that Larian is aware of its newfound status within the gaming industry and the impressive foothold it now has within the RPG genre. It could leverage that to create a product that appeals to its new audience but potentially alienates its former fans.

Alternatively, it could go in the opposite direction and deliver a very Larian-esque Divinity experience that is as far removed from BG3 as possible in an attempt to obfuscate the unflattering comparisons detractors will surely make. Of course, we're still a long way away from Divinity releasing, so Larian has plenty of opportunities to showcase exactly the kind of game it is attempting to make.

To be clear, Larian shouldn't necessarily have to cater to its new audience, either out of obligation or in an attempt to find success. It should focus on one project at a time and be the studio that project deserves and needs during that development period. One would hope that with Divinity, Larian creates something fans of that series will love, and, should it ever return to the world of Baldur's Gate, it would create something fans of BG3 would enjoy.