I suspect the other big consideration is the IP. When they made BG3, the IP had lain dormant for years and D&D wasn’t a priority for Hasbro.
Larian made a hugely successful game and Hasbro sat up and has started talking about how its going to push forward with the IP. The terms for BG4 are probably not as favourable for Larian (maybe they weren’t great for BG3). That may be worse revenue split and may also be much more direction and involvement of the IP holder restricting creativity.
Why would Larian expend all that creative effort again on someone else’s IP? They can chose what they do next and it will get attention as they are the studio behind the biggest game of 2023. Probably makes sense from the studios perspective not to do BG3, and go back to developing their own IP. And the industry is littered with failed studios screwed over by big publishers or IP holders - I think Larian are very sensible to move on.
I suspect the other big consideration is the IP. When they made BG3, the IP had lain dormant for years and D&D wasn’t a priority for Hasbro.
Larian made a hugely successful game and Hasbro sat up and has started talking about how its going to push forward with the IP. The terms for BG4 are probably not as favourable for Larian (maybe they weren’t great for BG3). That may be worse revenue split and may also be much more direction and involvement of the IP holder restricting creativity.
Why would Larian expend all that creative effort again on someone else’s IP? They can chose what they do next and it will get attention as they are the studio behind the biggest game of 2023. Probably makes sense from the studios perspective not to do BG3, and go back to developing their own IP. And the industry is littered with failed studios screwed over by big publishers or IP holders - I think Larian are very sensible to move on.
I for one am ready for some more Divinity, if they go that route.
They kind of did the same thing, briefly exploring the idea of continuing with a sequel to Original Sin 2, before they started development of BG3.
But something new would work for me, too.