Larian Studios NV

Larian Studios is a Belgian game developer and publisher founded in 1996 and the only high profile developer in the country. They are located in Oudenaarde, near Gent, but have offices all over the world. They have released many software products such as educational titles and casino games, but specialize in role-playing games such as their original Divinity series and most recently also Baldur's Gate III. The company is led by the founder Swen Vincke.

Their first game was the real-time strategy title The L.E.D. Wars (1997). It was a project used for short-term finance to convince publishers of the large project they were working on: The Lady, the Mage and the Knight (LMK). That game was however cancelled in 1999 after disagreements with co-developer attic Entertainment Software.

In 2002 an isometric RPG was released as a second project: Divine Divinity, followed shortly by the sequel Beyond Divinity (2004).

Next, they created the PC2TV game KetnetKick (2004) where children could create content that was displayed on the national children's channel Ketnet. It was later also adapted as the BBC children's MMO Adventure Rock for the British market. In October 2008 an updated version called KetnetKick 2 was released based on the same concept. In 2009 GulliLand was created as a similar concept for the French Jeunesse TV.

In January 2010, the Divinity sequel Divinity II: Ego Draconis was released. That was their first title also to be released on a console platform.

In 2011, the company released five educational games for children aged seven to eleven to teach mathematics. They were released as five titles in the Monkey Tales series and later also adapted for international markets.

On 9 January 2012, founder Swen Vincke announced that all new Larian titles would be self-published, starting with Divinity: Dragon Commander in 2013.

The company has a studio in Saint Petersburg, Russia called Larian Studios Saint Petersburg, most likely since around 2014. It is based on the team of Elverils, LLC, but it is not clear if Larian acquired the studio or attracted members of the team to set up a new division. Elverils previously worked together with Larian. On 14th January 2015 a Canadian studio was established as Larian Québec Inc. and on 21st January of the same month Larian Studios Games Limited in Dublin, Ireland.

The company released Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition in 2015. Next Divinity: Original Sin II was released in 2016, an open world RPG and a sequel to the acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin. It was funded through a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising over $2 million.

In 2020, the studio launched Baldur's Gate III, a new entry in the long-running Dungeons & Dragons franchise. It was launched in Early Access with gradual content updates.

On 6th November 2019, a new development studio was established Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, called Larian GCL Sdn Bhd. The location was chosen specifically to establish a 24-hour cycle, passing work from Québec, Ireland, Belgium, Russia and Malaysia with different time zones.

On 17th February 2021, the company announced the acquisition of Turbulenz, based in Guildford, United Kingdom. It was renamed Larian Guilford and assists with the development of Baldur's Gate III.

On 2nd June 2021, Larian announced the establishment of a new office Larian Studios Spain in Barcelona, Spain, as a seventh studio, following the acquisition of BlitWorks, who previously ported Divinity: Original Sin II to Nintendo Switch and brought Baldur's Gate III to Stadia. The name BlitWorks remained for publishing activities, but the development team was rebranded.

On 3rd August 2023, Larian released the full version of Baldur's Gate III on Windows, with other platforms following by the end of that year. The game quickly received unanimous acclaim from players and critics, becoming one of the all-time highest-rated games on multiple score aggregators.