The Divinity game series is created by Larian Studios. The first game in the series, named Divine Divinity, was released in 2002. The series became more widely known after the 2014 release of Divinity: Original Sin, which was both highly praised by critics and very successful in sales.

Main games

The game Divine Divinity began as Divinity: The Sword of Lies. It was based on a canceled project by Larian Studios called The Lady, the Mage and the Knight, and it was inspired by the game Diablo. According to Swen Vincke, the founder of the studio, the publisher pushed the development of Divine Divinity to release it quickly. At the time, Vincke was still on press tours promoting the game and did not know that the game needed more work before it was released. The game received mostly positive reviews and sold well. However, the contract with the publisher meant that Larian Studios did not earn money from the game because it was not commercially successful enough. After the release, the studio nearly closed its doors.

Vincke brought the development team back together to create a sequel to Divine Divinity. The main goal for this release was to make money. The development of the game was rushed again, with some quests rewritten and features removed to meet the release date. The game received mixed reviews and is considered one of the weaker games in the series.

The first two games in the series were 3D perspective role-playing games. The team wanted to create a 3D action role-playing game instead. They were impressed by the quality of Xbox 360 games and decided to make a game for that platform. Bethesda Game Studios allowed Larian to use their Gamebryo engine for the game. Divinity II: Ego Draconis was released in 2009. The publisher rushed the game's development again because they faced financial pressure during the 2009 economic crisis. The game received mixed reviews. An updated version, called The Dragon Knight Saga, was released in 2010 by Focus Home Interactive. This version received mostly positive reviews, which was an improvement over Ego Draconis.

Using money from venture capitalists, the team wanted to create a turn-based strategy game for Xbox Live Arcade. They saw an opportunity to make a 3D third-person view role-playing game because there were few similar games on the market. However, many staff members were reassigned to finish Dragon Commander, which was not profitable. As the studio worked on the game, they wanted to expand its scope but ran out of money. A studio member said that Original Sin was the most important project for Larian. A crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter started on March 27, 2013, to help fund the game. The campaign was successful, raising nearly $950,000 by April 26, with additional donations bringing the total to over $1,000,000 of the game's budget of about €4 million. The game was made by about 35 to 40 people. Original Sin received very positive reviews when it was released in 2014. An Enhanced Edition for the game was published by Focus Home in 2015 for consoles.

After the success of Original Sin, Larian expanded its team to about 130 people to create a sequel. The studio returned to Kickstarter to get more money for the game's development. Even though the studio was financially stable, they used crowdfunding again to gather community feedback and expand the game's scope. The Kickstarter campaign was very successful, raising over $2 million. The game was released as an early access title in 2016, with the full version coming the following year. The game received critical praise and was considered one of the best role-playing games ever made.

Larian Studios announced a new game called Divinity during The Game Awards 2025. CEO Swen Vincke described it as "our biggest, most ambitious RPG yet."

Spin-offs

After having bad experiences with publishers, the team decided to seek financial support directly from investors to fund the game's development. Dragon Commander is a new game based on Divinity II, which added more dragon battles. It is a real-time strategy game and received mixed opinions from critics. According to Vincke, Dragon Commander was not very profitable.

A new game called Divinity: Fallen Heroes, which would be a sequel to Original Sin II, was announced in March 2019 with a trailer. Larian Studios and Logic Artists would have worked together to create it. The game would have used the same technology as Original Sin II and allowed players to influence the story. It would have been considered a spin-off because it focused less on exploration, role-playing, and interactions with characters, and more on shorter battles where all player units and all enemy units took turns together, instead of individual turns as in Original Sin II. Other changes would have included allowing players to control six characters (up from four in Divinity II), using guns and gunpowder as weapons, and introducing a new element called Sulfurium. The game would have supported two-player cooperative play, with each player controlling three characters.

Fallen Heroes was planned to take place two years after the end of Original Sin II, following the story where the Godwoken removed all Source from Rivellon. It would have included eight main playable characters, such as the six from Original Sin II (Beast, Fane, Ifan, Lohse, the Red Prince [now the Red Emperor], and Sebille), as well as Malady, a key character from the first game. The story would have followed these characters in a world without Source, except for the player's group, whose ship, the Lady Vengeance, was saved by Malady. The characters would have fought against the Bloodless, an undead-like force, while traveling across the map in the Lady Vengeance.

Originally planned for release in November 2019 on multiple platforms, the game was paused indefinitely on October 15, 2019, just one month before its scheduled release. Larian Studios said the game needed "far greater development time and resources" than they had available. After years without updates, Swen Vincke, founder of Larian Studios, confirmed in a July 14, 2023, interview with GamesRadar+ that Fallen Heroes was cancelled, stating, "That didn't work out […] It's gone for good." In the same interview, he mentioned another unannounced Original Sin II spin-off, which he called "DOS2 with new mechanics," had also been cancelled "quite far" into development.