Baldur's Gate 3 dev says it's not interested in being acquired, but finds speculation "flattering"
Following talk of Microsoft interest.
Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian has spoken a little about acquisitions following recent reports the studio had, at one time, been on Microsoft's consideration list for a potential buy-out, saying it has no plans to sell to anyone anytime soon.
Microsoft's watchlist for potential studio acquisitions first surfaced back in June during its court battle with US antitrust agency the Federal Trade Commision over its planned Activision Blizzard deal, with the likes of Sega, Bungie, CD Projekt Red, No Man's Sky studio Hello Games, Hitman developer IO Interactive, Pokémon Go creator Niantic, and Hades studio Supergiant Games all appearing on its 2021 "consideration set".
Also on there was Larian Studios - which has made the acclaimed likes of Divinity: Original Sin prior to today's eagerly awaited Baldur's Gate 3 - and, now, founder and CEO Swen Vincke has shared more of his thoughts on such acquisitions in an interview with Bloomberg.
Vincke - who still owns the majority of Larian's shares along with his wife - calls such attention "always flattering" but tells Bloomberg he has no plans to sell anytime soon. Vincke says a new owner might ultimately curtail creative choices in favour of maximised profits, whereas currently, "The strength of this company is that I'm very invested in the gameplay, and I also make the ultimate decisions. We can do things in service of the games we're making."
"I'm getting older," he added, "but I’m certainly not done yet."
Vincke also says that while Larian is yet to settle on its next project - or possibly even multiple projects - he's keen to turn his attention to something smaller and doesn't want to follow-up Baldur's Gate 3 with another game that takes six years to make.
What's next for Larian isn't likely to be of much immediate concern for fans of the studio, of course, given that its hugely anticipated - and simply just huge - Baldur's Gate 3 finally launches today on PC, with a release that's already garnering massively positive early feedback. A PlayStation 5 launch is up next, and Larian is also hoping to get the game onto Xbox Series X/S just as soon as its solved ongoing issues with split-screen co-op on Series S.
As for Eurogamer's thoughts on Baldur's Gate 3, our final opinion may still be some considerable way off, but you can read some of Robert Purchese's early impressions of its fascinatingly faithful recreation of Dungeons & Dragons right now.