In response to the news that Larian won't be making Baldur's Gate 4, Hasbro called the studio an "incredible partner" and teased more D&D games for the future.
"Larian has been an incredible partner, and together we are proud of the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Watch this space for more on some awesome D&D games we are bringing to life through Hasbro’s studios and our network of licensing partners. We have an unbeatable library of toy and game brands and many fantastic partners around the world,” Hasbro's spokesperson said.
Looks like Hasbro / Wizards (is there a distinction?) trying to control the narrative while Larian has been straight taking a dump on them since almost the initial release of the game.
Hasbro has been a shit company for the public of both MTG and D&D for years now. Even before the buyout, WotC was a shitty and greedy company, but Hasbro turned that dial up to 11 afterwards.
Here recently, they had all of those layoffs, but they were also trying to "de-open-source" the D&D 5e license agreement, which put most of the D&D community in a tailspin. The community revolted and fought back, and Hasbro/WotC caved. But, the fact that they tried something so brazen shows just how desperate for money they are.
Hasbro/WotC has also been making some terrible, terrible decisions with MTG, releasing way overpriced "anniversary" packs, messing with the frequency of standard rotations, putting out all of these pop culture media cards (LotR, Dr. Who, Warhammer 40K, etc.) with their Universes Beyond series, digging into older planes like Ravnica and Phyrexia waaaay too often, etc., etc, etc. Not to mention that they are finally at the point of porting older cards and formats from their extremely outdated MTGO client to MTG Arena, but their corporate greed is so great that they expected you to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to shift those card collections over there.
Now, they earn a profit from the biggest series they never created, and wonder why all of those other bad decisions didn't pay off.
Wizards is a subsidiary of Hasbro. Though it is their most profitable subsidiary by far.
And I don't think they've been shitting on them, after all, it was Larian's idea to make BG3. I think it's that they like WOTC's games but dislike the corporate greed of Hasbro.
Larian made comments after Hasbro laid off a bunch of Wizard staff that pretty much everyone they worked with had been fired. Probably doesn't sit too well seeing the people that you worked together for years with to make a huge success were fired as soon as the job was done. All to prop up other sides of Hasbro that aren't profitable.
Larian is independent for a reason. It allows them to actually be able to walk away from a lucrative deal when they don't agree with the practices of their partner. Why should they make more money and content for a company shitting on the people that made them what they are. BG3 is great because of Larian not Hasbro or DnD. Whatever they make next will be successful either way so why not make something they own.
Honestly adhering so closely to 5E means it inherits some of the same problems that the tabletop game has.
Many spells are objectively bad or have very narrow use cases. Powerful enemies are immune to so many status effects that it limits the options for characters that aren't mostly focused on dealing damage. Dual wielding is ineffective compared to just carrying around the biggest great sword you can find. Etc.
At least if you already know these quirks then you can work around them, but going back to play Divinity OS2 I think that Larian will be just fine without the D&D system/setting.
Larian is one of the best things to happen to Faerun in quite some time. Hasbro is hands down the worst thing to happen to both Faerun and D&D in, well, ever. Larian showed us what Faerun can be. Handing the reins back to Hasbro is understandable but I weep for Faerun.