How solid is Larian's ownership on the Baldur's gate license?

[Sistalis]

I was just wondering how solid is the ownership of Larian's ownership of the BG licence.

From some statements, it's not a given ( But I seriously hope they will) that Larian will make DLC or immediately work on BG4.

Right now the game is apparently making Hasbro (&WOTC) fists full of cash and the game is even being parodied in South Park :D

But if Larian takes too long to develop something (or a future promis to do so). I afraid some more tradition AAA studio (Ie EA or Microsoft) might demand Hasbro (&WOTC) to give them the BG4 license. Or does Larian have auto dibs on BG4 until they say "Nah we are good..."

Partially, I don't blame them if they just take the money and run ( Rather they end on a high note than make a lame sequel) . They make a great game and I'm happy for the price I paid.

But I'm curious where the future will lead. or Maybe they will stop the BG license all together and just make a new Forgotten Realms IP...

[LordOfTheBread]

Sindce this game sold over 20M copies I'd say pretty solid.

[Beytran70]

It depends on the actual contracts that were signed, but generally the actual IP holders (WotC in this instance) have final say on whether a license is kept after a certain period. It is possible that knowing Larian's reputation their agreement was for Larian to have the BG and appropriate D&D licenses through development and up through any patches or updates they wanted to make, possibly until a Definitive Edition is created.

As Lord of the Bread mentioned above, though, this game has blown away expectations, so I imagine that Hasbro and WotC are more than happy to give Larian the leeway they need to fix the game up right and do whatever they deem necessary. I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually pressuring Larian TO make DLCs and such just because of the moneymaking opportunities.

If anything, the worry I'd have is for Larian to finish and be unwilling to to DLC or such and for WotC to instead bring in another developer to do that instead, which could make the quality quite different.

[Quillithe]

I'm assuming the license may have just been for this game and maybe DLC, rather than a long term D&D video game license type of thing?

I'm sure WotC would love more from Larian though so I don't expect problems. If BG 4 comes out in the next 10 years I'd expect it to be a Larian game.

Past that who knows lol

[Beytran70]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'm assuming the license may have just been for this game and maybe DLC, rather than a long term D&D video game license type of thing?

I'm sure WotC would love more from Larian though so I don't expect problems. If BG 4 comes out in the next 10 years I'd expect it to be a Larian game.

Past that who knows lol

Yeah it's one of those things that is hard to really know for certain without actually seeing the agreements and such. Not to mention that Hasbro and WotC are American companies, but Larian is a European developer, so I'm not sure how that plays out in terms of what laws are having to be followed and such in that regard, since I know EU regulations are different.

[Sistalis]

Originally posted by Beytran70:

It depends on the actual contracts that were signed, but generally the actual IP holders (WotC in this instance) have final say on whether a license is kept after a certain period. It is possible that knowing Larian's reputation their agreement was for Larian to have the BG and appropriate D&D licenses through development and up through any patches or updates they wanted to make, possibly until a Definitive Edition is created.

As Lord of the Bread mentioned above, though, this game has blown away expectations, so I imagine that Hasbro and WotC are more than happy to give Larian the leeway they need to fix the game up right and do whatever they deem necessary. I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually pressuring Larian TO make DLCs and such just because of the moneymaking opportunities.

If anything, the worry I'd have is for Larian to finish and be unwilling to to DLC or such and for WotC to instead bring in another developer to do that instead, which could make the quality quite different.

Yeah, I know the incredible sales numbers and plus the good word of mouth should keep the BG license in Larian's pocket of a long time. ( I hope)

But these are corporations involved so to quote krusty the clown " They drove a dump truck full of money up to my house, I'm not made of stone!"

So I'm really hoping the Hasbro ~ Larian agreement stays strong!

[talemore]

You can sell license to many.
The industry says less titles is more cash.
Larian has ownership on their engine which means copying Baldurs gate 3 is going to be very easy to spot copyright violation.

I do not see any future for a Baldurs gate 4 title. They're not the same programmers who made DOS2 and you can see that they can't fix anything. They can't make the inventory working. They can't change much of the core mechanics. They're patching because the design of the game do not fit with their goal. The game do not want to work the way they want it to be working and as result they have to do things that no company wants. They're sending back their products on repair and have to hire people to repair the product.

[Ruffio]

Quite sure if they wanted to make a BG4, they would have to do a new round with WoTC to obtain a license for that. It's not like they obtained a free charter for anything Baldurs Gate.

[LArc7thHeaven]

Larian don't have the license, the license is hold by hasbro and granted to larian to create BG3. It's up to hasbro whether they continue dancing with larian or choose another partner

[Яeplicant]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Quite sure if they wanted to make a BG4, they would have to do a new round with WoTC to obtain a license for that. It's not like they obtained a free charter for anything Baldurs Gate.

Really depends on what was agreed upon them acquiring the license. Chances are - but somewhat unlikely due to Larian's DLC policy - that more stuff is coming our way.

However, they are already in the early stages of doing their next game at this point, which'll most likely be D:OS3. Or D:OS4, if you ask the wrong people who haven't figured out how to count properly.

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by Яeplicant:

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Quite sure if they wanted to make a BG4, they would have to do a new round with WoTC to obtain a license for that. It's not like they obtained a free charter for anything Baldurs Gate.

Really depends on what was agreed upon them acquiring the license. Chances are - but somewhat unlikely due to Larian's DLC policy - that more stuff is coming our way.

However, they are already in the early stages of doing their next game at this point, which'll most likely be D:OS3. Or D:OS4, if you ask the wrong people.

If Larian decide on make a DLC for BG3, their studio is big enough now to have a team work on that in addition to a new game.

[ULTRA]

They don't own ♥♥♥♥, but if there's going to be more video game Baldur's Gate content then WotC/Hasbro would be out of their minds to not put Larian on it given the press.

[hannibal_pjv]

WOTC owns D&D lisenses. So if Larian wants to make new DLC after their next game (takes about 5 years) They have to rebuy it from WOTC... And that would be somewhere 2035 until it would be ready... so don´t hold your breath...

[Captain Worthy]

Originally posted by LArc7thHeaven:

Larian don't have the license, the license is hold by hasbro and granted to larian to create BG3. It's up to hasbro whether they continue dancing with larian or choose another partner

Yes, Larian has 0% ownership on the license, they're just paying to rent it for a while. But like others have said, I'm sure WOTC is quite happy with what Larian has done with the license.

[Shells]

Luckily Larian doesn't own anything here. Unluckily Hasbro/WOTC most probably pay(s) more attention to money than to a good game, so they might favor Larian for a successor. Then again, since Larian is greedy, too, which one can see considering the flat/woke/casual design, they would rather make D:OS 4 and make more coin that way compared to doing D:OS 3.5 aka BG 4. So hopefully we can rejoice when David Gaider comes around the corner and says: 'Hey, let me write the story.' Yeah!