This week, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios and Dungeons and Dragons creator Wizards of the Coast launched a new saga involving BG3’s beloved band of flirty murderers. No, it’s not another Baldur’s Gate game; it’s the strange tale of a Stardew Valley mod that was approved by Larian before getting banned by Wizards then having its name cleared in the span of 24 hours.
Back in March, a mod called Baldur’s Village hit NexusMods, which added an entirely new explorable town to Stardew Valley, containing the main party and more characters from Baldur’s Gate 3. Work on Baldur’s Village is still far from finished, but it’s already a well-made mod that got plenty of attention, including from us here at Inverse. It’s so good, in fact, that even Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke responded, calling it “amazing work” on social media.
That’s where the story seemed to end, until this week. That’s when Wizards of the Coast issued a DMCA notice, which are commonly used by companies to force creators to stop distributing material that uses their intellectual property without permission. The takedown was widely reported when it came to light on March 31, and it once again caught the attention of Vincke.
“Free quality fan mods highlighting your characters in other game genres are proof your work resonates and a unique form of word of mouth,” he said on social media. “They shouldn't be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property.”
Within hours of the story coming to light, Wizards began working to retract the notice.
“The Baldur's Village DMCA takedown was issued mistakenly — we are sorry about that,” an unnamed Wizards spokesperson told PC Gamer. “We are in the process of fixing that now so fans and the Stardew community can continue to enjoy this great mod!"
It’s common for companies like Wizards to contract external agencies to issue copyright notices for them, which can often lead to overzealous enforcement that doesn’t take the context of a work into account. That’s what appears to have happened in this case, as NexusMods says the DMCA takedown notice was served by Reynolds Law PLLC, on behalf of Wizards. In a happy conclusion to the story, NexusMods now confirms that the notice has been retracted, and Baldur’s Village is available to download again.
Overreacting to fan projects is nothing new for the games industry. Nintendo is widely known as one of the most aggressive companies around in protecting its copyrights, frequently going after creators who make fan projects using its characters, and recently issuing takedown notices against YouTube channels playing emulated Nintendo games. Sony has also made headlines recently for demanding a modder cease work on a 60 frames per second patch for Bloodborne, and forcing the creator of Nightmare Kart (previously known as Bloodborne Kart) to scrape all references to Bloodborne from the now-released free game.
The takedown notice from Wizards is nothing new in that context, and it makes even more sense given that the company is already, unsurprisingly, working on a sequel to 2023’s biggest RPG. With work on a new Baldur’s Gate game underway, Wizards seems to be clearing the field of potential copyright infringement, which makes sense in a corporate sort of way, even if it’s disappointing to see a project as interesting as Baldur’s Village caught in the crossfire.
While Wizards’ now-retracted takedown notice is perfectly buttoned up legally, the whole saga does show the stark difference between an independent developer like Larian and Hasbro subsidiary Wizards. As Vincke points out, having fans excited enough about your game that they spend their free time programming mods and making other fan works, it’s a sign that your work has reached people and it could even help keep the game in the public consciousness for longer. As legally sound as takedown notices like this are, it’s hard to see how a kart racer or a life sim mod is going to materially hurt a massive corporation like Sony or Hasbro.
