‘We can’t stay here’: Larian CEO opens up about relocating Russian developers otherwise, ‘all of my team was going to go to war’
Swen Vincke, the CEO of Larian Studios, has recently opened up about Baldur’s Gate 3’s development, giving fans an insight into what it was like in the years running up to the successful launch and also what the aftermath has been like, even saying that all the accolades became too much to handle towards the end.
During this discussion in the recent issue of Edge, Vincke also disclosed what it was like for the Larian Studio based in St Petersburg back in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, and how he had to quickly get involved to help the devs who worked there (via GamesRadar).
Development on Baldur’s Gate 3 was already well underway when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but the St Petersburg studio had to be closed immediately as Vincke had already prepared for what he thought was coming: “I had already thought about what we were going to do if it actually happened.”
But Vincke didn’t just rest after the studio was closed. “The decision was instant: We can’t stay here,” Vincke says. “We needed to move people away because, as these things go, you can almost predict that eventually there’s going to be mobilisation, and that meant that all of my team was going to go to war.”
The mission was to relocate as many developers as possible. Vincke continues to describe how he “started fighting with embassies and consulates” to try to get his team out. But it wasn’t just for their sake—Baldur’s Gate 3 was mid-development, and it needed devs working on it for every possible second.
“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,” Vincke says. “Because things that were supposed to be done are not being done.”
While 90% of the studio was eventually relocated, the closure was still impactful enough to cause changes 18 months later. “You could see the ripple effect, which resulted in compromises and cuts being made in the final product,” Vincke continues. “[That] always happens, [but] it’s rare that you lose a studio in the middle of development.”
We’ve seen the war in Ukraine affect numerous game studios and teams. Just last week, Indika publisher 11-bit Studios announced a $50,000 donation to “support Ukrainian kids” after a missile attack on Kyiv’s Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, the country’s largest Children’s hospital. While the Ukrainian developers behind the upcoming Stalker 2 have discussed what it’s like creating games while under attack.
