Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian had a “fallback” plan had the risks the team took with the RPG not paid off. CEO Swen Vincke told Eurogamer that Larian had “multiple fallback positions” in case things went south as it relates to the company’s hiring spree in recent years. For context, Larian had under 50 people on staff in 2014 and that figure has grown to 470 right now, an increase of more than 800% in a decade.
Vincke was asked if hiring so many people so quickly was sustainable, and if Larian would be able to keep these people on the payroll if it took longer than expected to release a game. Vincke said he felt OK about taking risks with Baldur’s Gate 3 because he had multiple backup plans, including his own personal financial investment.
“We built multiple fallback positions in case it was going to go wrong–before we started doing this. I have a minority investment, so I had that in my back pocket in case it was going to go wrong,” he said. “So this was my baseline, otherwise I wasn’t going to take the risks that we took with Baldur’s Gate 3, because it was too much of a risk. So that’s actually also why I did it, or part of the reasons I did it. So there’s that.”
Vincke also pointed out that Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t have a traditional release. The game’s first chapter was released back in 2020 via Steam Early Access. This gave Larian a window into how well the final product might sell upon its official release in 2023.
“So we can forecast, more or less, and function–if we don’t fuck up too much, there’s always a risk involved, right? I’m never gonna say there’s no risk–but you can forecast more or less where you’re gonna land, based on interest, based on Early Access sales,” he said. “So we could see where we are. And so we’re good for quite a number of years with where we are right now.”
In the end, it appears things turned out well for Larian, as Baldur’s Gate 3 was a critical and an apparent commercial success, too. Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast and D&D, earned $90 million from the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, and Larian is likely sharing in the success, too.
Larian is a private company, so its financials are not made public.
Despite the massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian is moving on from D&D for its next game. The studio will not make Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC or Baldur’s Gate 4, but will instead turn its attention to a new game that may help Larian lay the groundwork for an RPG that could “dwarf” Baldur’s Gate 3 in terms of size and scope.