Larian lead says RAM shortage is affecting Divinity's development, calling for "a lot of optimization work in early access that we didn't necessarily want to do"

As Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur's Gate 3, cracks on with its work on the new Divinity game, CEO Swen Vincke reveals that the recent RAM shortage and spike in its cost might present a setback in the development of the team's upcoming title.

In a new interview with TheGamer, Vinckee explains that the ongoing RAM shortage (one that essentially boils down to AI model training) doesn't just have an effect on the gaming community – it also presents developers themselves with a problem. "Interestingly, another [issue Larian is facing] is really the price of RAM and the price of SSDs, and fuck, man – it's like, literally, we've never had it like this," admits the studio lead.

He continues, describing how the shortage and uptick in cost affect things for Larian. "It kind of ruins all of your projections that you had about it because normally, you know the curves and you can protect the hardware. It's gonna be an interesting one. It means that most likely, we already need to do a lot of optimization work in early access that we didn't necessarily want to do at that point in time. So it's challenging, but it's video games."

This makes sense – especially when you consider Vincke's assertion that Divinity will likely launch into early access first, much like Baldur's Gate 3 and past entries from the RPG series. According to the Larian boss, early access "causes extra development effort, but it leads to a better game, which is ultimately the goal of the entire exercise." It sounds as though the RAM debacle will only add to this "extra development effort," sadly.

Here's hoping it doesn't hinder things too much. Between this and the circulating controversy surrounding the supposed use of generative AI at Larian following Vincke's admission that the devs do employ the technology in the very early stages of a game's conception, things aren't exactly going smoothly for the RPG masterminds, it seems. Only time will tell how the shortage comes to a conclusion in the future, however.

Until then, I'll be counting down the days leading up to any sort of big Divinity release date reveal from Larian – there hasn't been too much said since the studio unveiled it at The Game Awards 2025, after all, and it's sure to be an absolutely massive title.

Baldur's Gate 3 director says "a lot has become lost in translation" since Divinity's announcement and the AI blowback that followed: "It would be irresponsible for us not to evaluate new technologies."