"We were afraid that people would say that it was just Divinity: Original Sin 2 with a skin on top of it. We want no one to think that when they see it," FAIL!
Look "Solasta: Crown of the magister" and you will see a game which is not called Baldur's Gate but which is much closer to it than Larian's Baldur's Gate 3. I would even add that the D&D spirit seems to me to be much more respected with Solasta than with BG3.
If Larian persists in this path, I fear that the name Baldur's Gate will end up turning against him and his game; when I can be convinced that if Larian had called it: DOS3, it would have been a real success.
Likewise, if players find that the name Baldur's Gate was only used to boost sales, it will clearly tarnish Larian's image.
Larian must be aware of where he is setting foot with the Baldur's Gate license. Baldur's Gate has become the property of the players; with their nostalgia, their wonder, their epic battles, their discoveries, their stories, their pain and their thousands of hours spent. All of this went far beyond the borders of Bioware, TSR (before WotC) and Black Isles Studios.
And so, it is the players who will now decide what is and what is not Baldur's Gate. This power has not been in the hands of a video game development studio for a long time. Nor is it in the hands of WotC.
There is a much greater chance that Larian will crash rather than succeed in this crazy bet. A little selfishly, however, I wish them success. Because that will mean that I will have found the feeling of having returned home and reliving emotions like those that I experienced on the greatest cRPGs of all time, that are Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. Fans of Baldur's Gate expect nothing less than that...
