Baldur's Gate 3 staff in Russia were relocated during development to prevent them being drafted into army to fight Ukraine, says CEO

[John Elden Ring]

via Eurogamer

The Covid pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine were the biggest setbacks in development of Baldur's Gate 3, said CEO Swen Vincke.

Speaking to Edge magazine, Vincke discussed how Larian closed a studio in St Petersburg, Russia, and was "fighting with embassies" to relocate staff.

I had already thought about what we were going to do if it actually happened," said Vincke. "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."

joint task force of the developer's studio operations, finance and legal teams was then set up to facilitate the move.

"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," said Vincke. "I'm super-proud of them for doing that."

As a result, over 90 percent of staff from the St Petersburg team were relocated to other Larian studios.

"That meant that we started fighting with embassies and consulates," said Vincke. "It was really complicated."

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