Remember Baldur's Village, that charming Baldur's Gate 3 mod for Stardew Valley? It was the one that crammed all the best parts of Larian's opus in ConcernedApe's opus, letting you romance Shadowheart and Astarion but, like, on a farm this time.
It was a very cool thing that took at least a year to make, and when it finally released earlier this month it earned plaudits from none other than Larian CEO Swen Vincke, who praised the love that went into it and called it "Amazing work!"
Well, fun's over folks, because in a move that future generations of MBAs will surely call 'a PR masterstroke,' D&D (and BG3) license-holder Wizards of the Coast has swooped in to obliterate this heinous misuse of its intellectual property from the face of the Earth. A Nexus Mods spokesperson tells PC Gamer that WotC has made a DMCA takedown of Baldur's Village and, indeed, a peek at its page on the site just says it's been "under moderation review" since March 29.
"This is an incredibly creative cross-over to Stardew Valley that the community loves," says Nexus Mods, and Swen's endorsement "was nothing less than we would expect from the Larian CEO, who has been such a refreshing and visionary leader." Alas, that doesn't seem to have mattered much to WotC, but Nexus is staying optimistic: "Hopefully, this is an oversight from WotC, who often use external agencies to hunt down violating content, and they will revert their decision. Fingers crossed for Baldur's Village."
Which could certainly be the case, but I doubt fans will extend WotC the benefit of the doubt on this one. Between the long sequence of rakes it stepped on over the open gaming license back in 2023, its push to bring the worst videogame pre-order nonsense to your tabletop, that time it said it didn't use AI in a promo image before admitting it did, and any other gaffe you can name, the company isn't held in the warmest regard by D&D fans right now.
So the notion that it could have moved with violent, unthinking haste to protect some imagined threat to its copyright will be all too believable to fans who have little goodwill for the company and even less patience. Still, I reckon this one won't stick. Whether WotC did this intentionally or not, Baldur's Village has too dedicated a following—and nuking it is so bad a look—that I don't think any company would willingly endure the PR fallout that comes from destroying it. Especially when the mod can point at the CEO of the literal company that made BG3 in the first place and say 'He didn't have a problem with it.'
