The Long Tease Finally Pays Off
Months of speculation around the desert statue ended tonight at The Game Awards, where Larian finally unveiled Divinity. The reveal confirmed what fans spent weeks convincing themselves was real, closing the book on the industry’s most overanalyzed chunk of sandstone.
The Many Wrong Guesses That Led Us Here
The Hellstone became gaming’s favorite Rorschach test. People swore it pointed to Diablo, God of War, Original Sin 3, then a surprise BG3 expansion. Larian had previously said that they wouldn’t be doing Divinity 3 after Baldur’s Gate 3 so that they could try new things, but maybe that was all smoke and mirrors.
What the Trailer Actually Shows
Larian opens Divinity with a fantasy festival. As dwarves, elves, and lizardmen dance and play, the chat was going wild with “Witcher 4?” “Elder Scrolls 6!”. Slowly, the festival takes a dark turn as a mask priest approaches a giant woodeen effigy; inside it, a man struggles as the chanting rises. A flame is lit and the people start hurling torches until the effigy roars to life. The man inside burns alive until his body bursts with demonic energy and the people flee. In the end, all that’s left is the hellstone.
What Comes Next
Geoff Keighley said after the reveal that Divinity will be Larian’s biggest game yet, even eclipsing Baldur’s Gate 3, but the studio has remained otherwise tight-lipped. There’s still no release window, no confirmed platforms, and no concrete details on how this new chapter fits into the wider Divinity timeline.
What we do know now, thanks to a quiet note buried in the latest Divinity: Original Sin 2 update FAQ, is that characters from previous Divinity games will appear in Divinity. That single confirmation reframes the project as far more of a direct sequel than Larian previously implied, suggesting a return to long-running story threads rather than a clean break from the past.
As for timing, Baldur’s Gate 3 spent roughly six to seven years in development, and Divinity appears even more ambitious. Even if they’ve learned the ropes of AAA development and have a larger team (which remains to be seen), we’re likely looking at five years minimum.