There was a brief surge of excitement a couple days ago when Larian Studios temporarily changed its handle on X from @larianstudios to @divinity. This was a big deal (or at least it appeared to be) because prior to hitting the big big time with Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian was known as the studio behind the very long-running Divinity series of mostly-RPGs—and the name change had an awful lot of fans thinking that maybe the studio was going back to its roots for its next big game.
Larian has made a clean break from Baldur’s Gate, but what it’s doing next remains a mystery: The studio apparently now has two new RPGs on the go, both of them big, but beyond that it’s steadfastly refused to say anything more. A new Divinity game certainly seems like a possibility—Divinity: Original Sin was in many ways Larian’s breakthrough game, and Original Sin 2 was an even bigger success (and claimed our Game of the Year Award for 2017, which isn’t nothing).
So, Divinity: Original Sin 3 then? Well, not so fast. Shortly after reports of the social media switcheroo started to gain traction, Larian director of publishing Michael Douse took a break from his day to throw cold water all over the whole thing.
“Unfortunately (depending on your perspective) this is just part of the process to take stock of what we own, and what we have and haven’t claimed when it comes to our IPs,” Douse posted on X. “Turns out it’s a good idea to own the @’s relating to IPs that are yours. For example, to prevent people scamming off the back of your brand, etc. Twitter are transferring a bunch to us, but inexplicably swapped out this one for the Larian account.
“I wish it were more exciting, but we are still working away on multiple projects and don’t expect any announcements any time soon. Especially not while I’m watching 1923 on Paramount+ at 1am. But soon if anyone @’s you from a Larian related account, at least you know it’ll be us scamming you and not someone else.”
You will note that Douse doesn’t explicitly state that Larian is not working on a new Divinity game, so the speculation can continue unabated if you’re really into it. Personally, I think it’s a good bet: Larian’s been around for nearly 30 years and apart from a couple diversions into niche European educational games, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the first non-Divinity title it’s put out since 1997. That’s serious commitment, and frankly I think it’d be more surprising if Larian didn’t go back to that well, especially now that it’s firmly established itself as a “we can do whatever the hell we want” kind of game studio.
In a separate message, Douse even held the door open to such a thing, writing that it’s “too early to tell” what Larian’s up to but that it has “many pots on the stove. We’ll see where the cooking takes us and when.”
“When” is a very big part of that statement. There’s no official time frame in place for the reveal of Larian’s next game but Vincke said in April that he hopes the studio will have something to show by 2030.
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