Such cynism. They wouldn't need to take creative risks if it was just about the money. Everything I have read about Sven and Larian Studios tells me it's not about the money, it's about creative freedom to make the sort of games they like. Money is of course part of the means to that ends, but money is not the ends, just the eans.
They went for BG3 and the Forgotten Realms (and some folks here seem to forget that BG is just a city in the Forgotten Realms, not the setting itself, the Forgotten Realms is the brand), because they are huge fans of D&D, BG, and the Forgotten Realms, they didn't need this IP, they have their own hugely profitable IP, they WANTED this IP for the love of it.
I respect their creative aspirations towards D&D and the Forgotten Realms but as others have pointed out you can't call it BG3 and act as if the millions of fans who have played the previous games are trying to stonewall your efforts at making a sequel out of pure spite. If the devs had truly wanted a clean break and an opportunity to play with the FR setting without any strings attached they could have spared themselves a lot of trouble by calling their game something else. Heck, maybe not BG3 but Baldur's Gate: Mindflayer Scourge or something in that vein. They can still change the name if they like. I know dealing with fans isn't easy but I'm absolutely certain they knew full well taking over Bioware et al.'s legacy would carry a lot of baggage. If they think series veterans are disrupting the creative process I am 100% in favor of a name change for the sake of the game's quality. Perhaps it would make their job easier.
