Baldur's Gate 3 CEO says Larian was "fighting with embassies" to relocate developers after closing its Russian studio in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine
Jul. 14, 2024“The decision was instant: We can’t stay here”
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Baldur’s Gate 3CEO Swen Vincke says that Larian was “fighting with embassies and consulates” to relocate developers at the developer’s Russian studio after the invasion of Ukraine.
“The decision was instant: We can’t stay here.” Simply closing down the studio wasn’t enough, however, as Larian worked quickly to relocate its staff. “We needed to move people away because, as these things go, you can almost predict that eventually there’s going to be mobilization, and that meant that all of my team was going to go to war.”
More than 90% of the team working in the St. Petersburg studio were relocated to other studios, which meant that Larian “started fighting with embassies and consulates.”
Vincke points out that the decision to close the studio and move the staff was partly because they were needed them to finish the game. “In a machine as complicated as an RPG, where everything’s connected to everything, if you suddenly start ripping stuff out, the entire thing collapses,” he explains. “Because things that were supposed to be done are not being done.”
The fallout from the studio closure was “really, really hard,” Vincke says. “You could see the ripple effect of that lasting all through the end of development.” That means nearly 18 months of knock-on effect, which resulted in compromises and cuts being made in the final product. That “always happens,” Vincke acknowledges, but he points out that “it’s rare that you lose a studio in the middle of development.”
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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.
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