Swen Vincke says fan mods 'shouldn't be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property' just hours before Wizards of the Coast retracts its BG3 Stardew mod takedown
Earlier this month, we covered the release of Baldur's Village, a Stardew Valley mod adding more than 20 characters from Baldur's Gate 3 that earned Larian CEO Swen Vicke's stamp of approval. This morning, we reported how Wizards of the Coast seemingly decided that the best way to capitalize off that brand momentum was to scour the mod from the internet.
In a statement to PC Gamer, Wizards of the Coast now says the takedown was a mistake.
"The Baldur’s Village DMCA takedown was issued mistakenly—we are sorry about that," the WoTC spokesperson wrote. "We are in the process of fixing that now so fans and the Stardew community can continue to enjoy this great mod!"
We're not legal experts, but I believe in the business they call this "a whoopsie." A WotC whoopsie, if you will. The DMCA retraction follows just hours after Vincke once again weighed in on the crossover mod. "Free quality fan mods highlighting your characters in other game genres are proof your work resonates and a unique form of word of mouth," Vincke said on X. "Imho they shouldn't be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property."
In a follow-up tweet, Vincke said that "protecting your IP can be tricky but I do hope this gets settled. There are good ways of dealing with this."
Larian, of course, has no say in matters involving the Baldur's Gate and Dungeons & Dragons licenses, which Vincke acknowledged back in 2024. "As for BG3 and its characters—they now belong to WoTC and I think they understand how important they are for the community," Vincke said at the time. "I trust that they'll be treated with respect."
Whether hounding free user-made mods with the threat of legal action (even if they call it a whoopsie later on) qualifies as respectful ownership is, at the end of the day, a call for WotC and Hasbro to make as license owners. But given that we're barely two years past WotC retreating from its proposed D&D license changes after shitting the proverbial community relations bed, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by the misfire.