The success of Baldur’s Gate 3 proved to many players and other developers that Larian has done a lot right with their RPG. Despite the inspiring path, the creators of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 do not want to lose their own signature.
How does Baldur’s Gate 3 affect the makers of these games? The success of Baldur’s Gate 3, which cannot only be measured by the results of the Game Awards 2023, but also by the active community and the “extremely positive” rating of over 700,000 reviews on Steam, is undeniable. This is understood not only by enthusiastic fans, but also by other gaming studios, including CD Projekt Red, the creators of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
“Baldur’s Gate 3 has inspired us greatly,” says Michał Nowakowski, CEO of the studio, in a conversation with PCGamer, but explains that the greatest inspiration for future projects comes from their own house: “But I think we will continue to stick to what we did in Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk” (Source: PCGamer).
Here you can see the trailer for Baldur’s Gate 3:
Despite a different path, a quite similar attitude
What does the CEO praise about Larian’s roleplaying game? Even though the success of the game, according to Nowakowski, was an inspiration, it is not necessarily the direction in which CD Projekt Red’s games will evolve. However, this does not stem from pride, but from the recognition of authenticity, as he tells PCGamer:
We will definitely not develop a game like the one from Larian. That is the kind of game they can create. But a lot about how they interact with the world and what they do with it has certainly inspired us.
Why does this approach still resemble Larian’s attitude? Even though The Witcher received some offshoots like “Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales” or “Gwent: The Witcher Card Game,” CDPR has decided, according to Nowakowski, that “the internal team needs to focus on the important games instead of developing spin-offs.” This could, of course, still change, but they initially do not want to deviate from the current structure.
The creators of Baldur’s Gate 3 see it quite similarly. Swen Vincke, the head of Larian, stated himself, that they deliberately want to avoid the “boring” DLC business. Instead, they are already focusing on two new RPGs, which are causing quite a hype for the studio head himself.
The current approach of CDPR and Larian is therefore not so different.
Currently, CDPR is still developing The Witcher 4, for which they have already presented some visual impressions in a tech demo. It is also evident that they have learned from the release of their other gaming blockbuster – they want to avoid a similar launch catastrophe as that of the dystopian Cyberpunk RPG: After the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077, the developers are already warning about the launch of Witcher 4
