‘Baldur’s Gate III’ developers in Russia were relocated to prevent them being drafted into the army to fight in Ukraine.
Baldur’s Gate III developers in Russia were relocated to prevent them being drafted into the army to fight in Ukraine
Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke revealed the company was forced into a race against time to save their staff working at their St. Petersburg office from being sent off to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He told Edge magazine: “I had already thought about what we were going to do if it actually happened.
“So the decision was instant: we can't stay there. We needed to move people away because, as these things go, you can almost predict that eventually there's going to be a mobilisation, and that meant that all my team was going to go to war.”
Vincke explained a task force consisting of the developer’s studio operations, legal and finance teams were set up to oversee the move, which ultimately allowed over 90 per cent of the St. Petersburg staff to be evacuated.
He said: “They did an incredible job, worked day and night to be able to get every single person a tailored solution to get them out of there.
“I'm super-proud of them for doing that.”
While the relocation was successful, the Larian boss admitted the “complicated” situation had affected the game’s development.
He explained: “In a machine as complicated as an RPG (role-playing-game), where everything's connected to everything, if you suddenly start ripping stuff out, the entire thing collapses.
“Because things that were supposed to be done are not being done. It's not that they didn't try, but it was really, really hard. You could see the ripple effect of that lasting all through the end of development.”