I mean, why wouldn't they go back to their own IP they have 100% control over?
The chance to make BG3 was obviously worth it, but Larian doesn't need DnD to make video games.
And honestly I'm happy they're not making bg4 next. But I hope a decade from now they do. These games aren't CoD, we dont need to crank out sequels immediately.
I haven't played a lot of Divinity but I will say the DnD character creator is much more interesting to me then the skill system in Divinity. I don't know if Divinity's skill systems gets better as it goes, but BG3 starts out with a lot of really interesting classes and choices.
I mean, why wouldn’t they go back to their own IP they have 100% control over?
A smart company would acknowledge that they needed the outside expertise to be so successful and not shoot themselves in the foot by assuming they wil get the same results in house. [Edit: I am saying WotC needs to acknowledge they need Larian's expertise]
I also like it when they let a game of this scooe with a lot of replayability stick around for years before cranking out the next one. That gives time for replays to experience the alternate choices and for modding to be added so the community can expand as well.
Edit: apparently I read this backwards as WotC taking 100% of their DnD Ip back from Larian. Probably misread it so due to the context of WotC taking control over the desktop setting.
They piggybacked off the success of dos2 which was a better game anyways. Sure, theyll lose the dnd fans that play solely for the familiar IP, but theyve gained enough name recognition to be massively successful on their own. Just keep making good games like From Soft & that's all they need.
Agree. DOS' elemental surface effects was cool, but having to deal with it all the time got old. Even more so with necrofire. I'm really hoping DOS3 learn something from BG3's more conservative usage of surface effects.
You mean they need WotC's expertise to handle D&D 5E properly? Or to make a good game?
As far as the former... I think that the partnership was a major factor in BG3's success, but I expect it has more to do with the D&D brand and BG nostalgia, than any virtues of the 5E system. Maybe WotC's contributions to worldbuilding and lore helped... Larian are of course good at that in their own right, but there's a whole Forgotten Realms canon to navigate. (I don't actually know what WotC contributed in that regard, mind you)
In the case of the latter... The Divinity system is pretty heckin good, and in many ways a better CRPG system than any edition of D&D. Larian ARE experts at making really solid CRPGs, after all. The Divinity series is perhaps the most successful ever, maybe now behind BG3... So returning to their own IP would not be shooting themselves in the foot by any stretch, IMO. More like trading one kind of overwhelming success for a different kind of overwhelming success.
Oh. I think OP meant Larian returning to their own IP (maybe Divinity). AFAICT, it was Larian's decision to not continue with the D&D IP, not WotC taking it back. But I might have that wrong.
Just saw your edits-- I see what's going on now :)
WotC were the ones who needed to contract an outside developer. Larian obviously needed their help to develop a D&D game specifically to get the details right, but they're quite capable of making a good game without them, that's how they got the licence in the first place.
I bought BG3 because Larian was doing it. I absolutely loved the Divinity games and knew they made quality products. It was cool to see a D&D game done so well but that was not the main selling point. I do hope that they revisit D&D one day to do a Ravenloft setting but I’m probably just dreaming.