Yesterday's Bloomberg report about the new Divinity game first made headlines for the confirmation of the combat system (turn-based) and the ambition to deliver a bigger, better game than even the award-winning Baldur's Gate 3 in less time. Then, following the backlash against Larian's usage of AI for development assistance, Larian CEO Swen Vincke was forced to issue a clarifying statement.
The studio's founder, owner, and game director also participated in several other interviews just before (or after) The Game Awards 2025 event and the game's official announcement there, though. In the article published by IGN, Vincke admitted that one of the changes (albeit one that requires a lot of work) compared to previous Divinity titles will be the greatly enhanced worldbuilding.
We learned the value of having a solid universe behind you, for sure. One of the first things we started doing was saying, 'Okay, we're gonna put a lot of effort into making this universe feel tidy.' That's also why we are just calling it Divinity, right? There's never been a game that's just Divinity first, because there were all kinds of versions with different names. So this is actually going to be Divinity, which is going to have a proper universe backing it. We're building everything as you would expect, with lots of surprises, so that we can build on top of it. We learned that from BG, because we spent a lot of time delving through all kinds of DnD books, so that's probably one of the biggest takeaways from that development process.
[...] We really wanted to tidy up because the first Divinity games were made with little thought for universe-building, and it's only in Original Sin 2 that we started thinking more about it – but even then, not really 100% to what we did with Baldur's Gate 3. So now we're really thinking about it, and so that's a lot of work to make sure we get it right. Because it's the little things, right? I mean, what do people do when they go out to eat? What do they do when they go to sleep? What all of that has to be called out.
When I first spoke with my colleague Francesco De Meo about what I'd like to see in the new game after the trademark leak, I immediately told him that Larian would have to significantly step up its game in that specific area. While the setting of Rivellon does have potential, its current incarnation cannot be compared to established fantasy worlds like The Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, or Dragon Age, let alone Baldur's Gate 3's Forgotten Realms, which is by far the most popular Dungeons & Dragons setting and definitely aided BG3's enormous success.
It simply needs a lot more depth, texture, and lore to measure up to such intricately detailed settings. To that end, beyond just fleshing out the world a lot more in preparation for the upcoming game, Larian would do well to look into transmedia opportunities. Divinity: Original Sin got an official board game, but what the setting could really use is a few novels to make fans more attached to specific characters, events, and factions. An animated series could help, too, although that'd be a lot more expensive. As far as in-game features go, it would be nice to have a Codex-like feature that allows players to reference universe-specific terms, events, and people.
Overall, I am pleased that Larian correctly identified the importance of having a strong setting to build their next game upon. Based on what Vincke said, they're trying to finish Divinity quicker than Baldur's Gate 3's six-year timeframe, although that will be a tricky proposition given the size and quality ambition. Still, we'll continue to report on any major development updates. Stay tuned.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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