Larian aims to make Divinity in less time than Baldur's Gate 3, despite creating "things that you haven't seen in RPGs before"

For Larian Studios, Baldur's Gate 3 was absolutely worth the six turbulent years it spent crafting one of the best RPGs ever. Despite one of its studios shuttering in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a rocky, bug-plagued start to early access, BG3's success has set it up to do even bigger things in the future. First on the list, as we all now know, is Divinity, the third entry (even if it isn't Original Sin proper) in Larian's series that was revealed last week with the bold promise of it being even bigger than Baldur's Gate 3. However, Larian doesn't want to take another six years to get its next RPG in your hands, with the studio's CEO, Sven Vincke, saying that "three to four years" is its goal for its development cycle. It also sounds like early access is on the cards once again, so you might be playing Divinity even sooner than that.

I'd certainly place Divinity in my top three reveals at this year's Game Awards, and it'd probably be top two if it hadn't leaked beforehand… But even with the expectation that this would be Larian's next game, that trailer was still hugely surprising and impressive. The pledge of an even deeper experience than Baldur's Gate 3 is equal parts daunting and surprising, and in a new interview with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Vincke speaks to Larian's ambition with Divinity while also confirming it will be turn-based like its predecessors.

"This is going to be us unleashed, I think," he says. "It's a turn-based RPG featuring everything you've seen from us in the past, but it's brought to the next level."

On the topic of the game's narrative depth, Vincke tells Schreier: "The idea is that when you talk to fellow journalists about the game, you'll have completely different stories. We're doing a couple of things that you haven't seen in RPGs before, I think."

Exciting stuff, but that larger scope will (hopefully) not equate to a longer wait than we saw with BG3.

"I think three to four years is much healthier than six years," Vincke says. Schreier notes that one way in which Larian is accelerating things is by growing its team of writers significantly to create "storylines in parallel rather than in a linear fashion." Vincke also points to the fact that, now it's not making a D&D game, it can develop mechanics that are more natural fits for videogames, rather than having to spend time translating a lot of the Dungeons and Dragons experience.

He also says that, like Baldur's Gate 3, Larian will release Divinity in early access. The first publicly playable slice of BG3 came over two and a half years before its 1.0 release, and although Vincke doesn't talk to exactly how far in advance it'll begin early access for Divinity, he says it's unlikely to arrive in 2026.

Vincke also shares some intriguing insight into his company's use of AI - a hot topic, given remarks from a prominent Larian dev about craftsmanship in regards to the TGA teaser statue, and the views of Astarion actor Neil Newbon, who recently told us that generative AI is "robbing" performers of work and income.

Schreier writes that Larian has been "pushing hard on generative AI" to "flesh out PowerPoint presentations, develop concept art and write placeholder text. While Vincke acknowledges that there's been some pushback from employees, he assures that "everything [in Divinity] is human actors; we're writing everything ourselves."

I'm extremely excited to get a look at some proper gameplay, which with the way Larian is talking about early access and its overall timeframe goals, could possibly be shown next year if we're lucky. I really want to see these 'things we haven't seen before' realized - BG3 pushed boundaries for RPGs, and it looks like Divinity is primed to do the same.