[STEAM] 'If You Like Baldur's Gate 3, This Is Gonna Be Great' — Larian Boss Swen Vincke Reveals What to Expect From Divinity in First Interview Since The Game Awards Announcement

[Steam 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

After the mammoth success of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, many fans and the industry at large were eager to learn what developer Larian Studios would announce next, and we finally got that answer at The Game Awards 2025 with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is the next big RPG from Larian, and it looks to be just as sprawling in scope and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

as the developer's previous release.

Shortly after the reveal, IGN interviewed Swen Vincke, founder of Larian Studios and game director of Baldur's Gate 3. Along with sharing his thoughts on that viral tease for Divinity ahead of The Game Awards 2025, he also spoke about the lessons learned from the success of Baldur's Gate 3, and why it was important for Larian to return to the series that built the developer.

Be sure to check out

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for more, as well as

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. And if you’re wondering what all this Divinity business is about, check out

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

IGN: Firstly, were you surprised by how quickly fans kind of figured out what that mysterious statue was and that it tied in to you all?

Swen Vincke: With the speed with which they discovered the statue? Well, Geoff Keighley tweeted it, so we're not surprised by how it turned out after that. I mean, I actually thought we were gonna make it, that it wasn't gonna leak until the show. But yeah, bureaucracy was against us because it was too fast [and too close to the show]. Normally, it takes more time for something like that to be filed, and here they filed really, really fast.

IGN: After the success of Baldur's Gate 3, it seemed like you and the developers had a lot of options for what was next – especially continuing with that franchise. Firstly, was the plan to always return to the Divinity series right after BG3 was finished?

Swen Vincke: No, we were working on something else for Baldur's Gate originally, and I think we've talked about that publicly. Eventually, we were going to go back to the Divinity series, but before we did, we were going to take more time away from it, and then we changed our minds, honestly. Our hearts weren't into the thing that we were making before this, so it was an instant decision to say, 'Okay, we have to make Divinity now. So let's start doing it.' But when we did, it took us a little while to set everything up because we didn't have anything ready. So it was quite a flip, for sure.

IGN: How far along in development is Divinity right now?

Swen Vincke: We've been working on it for over two years in development. We're now in full production.

IGN: It can't be stated enough how massively successful Baldur's Gate 3 was for not just Larain Studios, but for how it renewed interest in the CRPG genre, the larger Dungeons and Dragons franchise, and also brought in new players for both of those. What were some key lessons you took away from that, and what do you plan to bring into the next Divinity?

Swen Vincke: One of the biggest lessons was the success of cinematics – and how we present the story and choices. Obviously, we did a lot of things differently in BG3 than we did with Divinity: Original Sin 2, and that game was much better, I think. But the fact that, when people started seeing choices cinematically, what an impact that has on players, how they bond with the characters, and the attractions and choices in the game. So I think that was probably my biggest takeaway from everything, yeah, for sure.

IGN: Does returning to the Divinity series feel different now following the success of BG3? Do you view this series differently now compared to how you felt about Divinity: Original Sin 2?

Swen Vincke: Yeah, in a way. We learned the value of having a solid universe behind you, for sure. One of the first things we started doing was saying, 'Okay, we're gonna put a lot of effort into making this universe feel tidy.' That's also why we are just calling it Divinity, right? There's never been a game that's just Divinity first, because there were all kinds of versions with different names. So this is actually going to be Divinity, which is going to have a proper universe backing it. We're building everything as you would expect, with lots of surprises, so that we can build on top of it. We learned that from BG, because we spent a lot of time delving through all kinds of DnD books, so that's probably one of the biggest takeaways from that development process.

IGN: Divinity is also entirely owned by Larian Studios. You all have intimate knowledge of the lore, and without working with other agencies.

Swen Vincke: Yeah, we also have the benefit of being able to do what we want with it, right? Other things do not bind us. I mean, D&D, for all its glory, is a ruleset that is made for tabletop role-playing games. Here, we have the benefit of making something that's actually a video game first. So it's very different, but I think people who enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3 are gonna love what we're doing with this.

IGN: There must be a great freedom in being able to bend and even break the rules of your systems however you please.

Swen Vincke: Yes, and we want you to break the systems in our games. That's our gameplay formula; we want you to break things.

IGN: That was a part of the fun of Baldur's Gate 3 for many people; you could come up with some wacky solutions to combat and quests. Would you say you're looking to elevate that even with Divinity?

Swen Vincke: Yes [Laughs]. But I can't talk about the game's mechanics yet. I think you want to discover this aspect by seeing it. It's one thing to talk about it, but when you're gonna see it in action, you're gonna say, 'Ah!,' you're gonna be nodding. I think if you like BG3, this is gonna be great.

IGN: Is the scope of this game ******* than Original Sin 2 and even Baldur's Gate 3?

Swen Vincke: Ah, smart question. I will say that it's ******* than BG3. I've actually never compared BG3 to Original Sin 2, so I don't know what the numbers are. I reckon BG3 is ******* for sure, yeah, but Original Sin 2 is pretty big as well. I can't compare Divinity to Original Sin 2 accurately, but I can say that it'll be ******* than BG3.

IGN: As you develop the Divinity universe further, do you feel more comfortable operating within this setting, and does it feel easier compared to BG3?

Swen Vincke: I mean, it actually feels a bit harder because we have to create the entire universe. We really wanted to tidy up because the first Divinity games were made with little thought for universe-building, and it's only in Original Sin 2 that we started thinking more about it – but even then, not really 100% to what we did with Baldur's Gate 3. So now we're really thinking about it, and so that's a lot of work to make sure we get it right. Because it's the little things, right? I mean, what do people do when they go out to eat? What do they do when they go to sleep? What all of that has to be called out. So there's a lot of stuff to consider.

IGN: Shifting to a development question, Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 used the early access release model. Will Divinity be planned with a similar release model, including early access?

Swen Vincke: Most likely, but I don't want to commit to it right now, because we don't know how the games industry will change. We're not ready to do anything in early access yet, but I think it's worked well for us in the past. We had the player community and their feedback, and that has made all of our games that were in early access much better. So yeah, I think we would very much like to do that again. But that said, we don't want too many people playing in early access, because we do need to 'cook' and it's still a ******* of development. So that might be a little bit problematic, but we'll see.

IGN: Given that Baldur's Gate 3 and Original Sin 2 were still very much structured in traditional CRPG gameplay, do you feel the need to switch things up with mechanics to go for something different?

Swen Vincke: Well, we certainly want to innovate, yeah. But there are some core pillars that we don't need to change. It's going to be a single-player game, and it's also going to be a cooperative multiplayer game. Obviously, all within our formula, and there's still plenty of room for innovation. So you will see. There will be more agency for sure, more freedom for sure, more shenanigans that you can do for sure. So, in the combination of all these things, that's the thing that will surprise people the most.

IGN: It feels like we're in this renaissance ******* for role-playing games in the wake of Baldur's Gate 3, especially the CRPG-style of video games. As a developer and an admirer of the genre, do you feel optimistic about where this genre of games is going, especially in how they tell stories?

Swen Vincke: Yeah, certainly for the genres of RPGs, I can't speak for other developers, but you see that there's way more interest and investment money available to put into RPGs. I mean, an RPG won the Game of the Year tonight at The Game Awards. We also have Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, which was also nominated tonight, along with Hades 2, which has a lot of RPG elements, even though it's a roguelite. So, I think it's… normal, yeah? Because I think it's one of the best genres out there.

IGN: On that note, did you play Expedition 33?

Swen Vincke: I haven't finished it yet, but it's really good. I took an interest in it very early on because the art style instantly appealed to me. So yeah, I think it's a remarkable achievement.

IGN: When it comes to working on the next Divinity game after BG3, is there a sense of pressure on yourselves to deliver?

Swen Vincke: Yeah, the pressure is high. Pressure is high. Yes, for sure. We feel the pressure on our shoulders, yeah, especially because we set high ambitions for ourselves. But I mean the opposite of that would be that we say, "Oh, you know what, we'll just make a lesser game." That wouldn't be very motivating at all.

IGN: Well, it seems like you're feeling great about the current vision for Divinity and feeling good about what's to come.

Swen Vincke: Oh, no, we're in the middle of development – there's always anxiety, for sure [Laughs]. These are complicated things to make, so it's not like, "Oh, let's make the game." No, it's a mess [to make games], but we'll be fine eventually. The team is good, we have trust, and we know that they know what they're doing, that eventually we're going to get what comes out of it. But if you were to go and look now, it's as messy as a building that is under construction, right?

Eventually, we will figure it out. We will learn the language of the game and how to write in it to start making poetry. Eventually, it gets really good, but it takes time. It takes iteration, and every single time you take an extra step, you learn more things about your game, and then you improve it. And that's just a process that takes time.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up