The Divinity series is a role-playing video game created by Larian Studios. The first game in the series, called Divine Divinity, was released in 2002. The series gained more attention after the successful release of Divinity: Original Sin in 2014.

Main games

The development of Divine Divinity began as Divinity: The Sword of Lies. The game was based on Larian Studios' canceled project, The Lady, the Mage and the Knight, and was inspired by Diablo. According to Swen Vincke, the founder of the studio, the publisher hurried the development of Divine Divinity and released the game while Vincke was still on press tours promoting it. He did not know the game needed more work before its release. The game received mostly good reviews when it was released, and it sold well. However, the contract with the publisher meant Larian did not earn money from the game because it was not commercially successful enough. Larian nearly closed its doors after the game's release.

Vincke put the development team back together to create a sequel to Divine Divinity. The main goal for this release was to make money. The development was rushed again, with quests rewritten and features removed to meet the release date. The game received mixed reviews when it was released 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 project. Divinity II: Ego Draconis was released in 2009. The publishers rushed its development again because they were under pressure from the 2009 financial crisis. The game received mixed reviews. An updated version, The Dragon Knight Saga, was released in 2010 by Focus Home Interactive. The Dragon Knight Saga received mostly good reviews, a big improvement over Ego Draconis.

Using funds 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 role-playing game because few similar games existed on the market. However, many staff members were reassigned to finish Dragon Commander, which was not profitable for the company. As the studio worked on the game, they wanted to expand its scope but ran out of money. A studio member said Original Sin was a very important project for Larian. A crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter was launched on March 27, 2013, to raise additional funds. The campaign succeeded by April 26, raising nearly $950,000, with other donations bringing the total to over $1,000,000 of the game's $4 million budget. 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 was published by Focus Home for consoles the following year.

After the success of Original Sin, Larian expanded its team to about 130 people to create a sequel. The studio returned to Kickstarter to raise more money for the game's development. Even though the company 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 next year. The game received critical praise and was considered one of the best role-playing games ever made.

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

Spin-offs

After several negative experiences with publishers, the team chose to seek funding directly from venture capitalists to support the game's development. Dragon Commander is a spin-off game that introduced expanded dragon combat from Divinity II. It is a real-time strategy game and received mixed reviews from critics. According to Vincke, Dragon Commander was not a financially successful game.

A spin-off sequel to Original Sin II, titled Divinity: Fallen Heroes, was announced in March 2019 through a trailer. It would have been co-developed by Larian Studios and Logic Artists. The game would have used the same engine as Original Sin II and allowed players to influence the story. It would have been considered a spin-off because it shifted focus from exploration, RPG elements, and interactions with non-player characters (NPCs) to a shorter experience where turns alternated between all player units and all enemy units (instead of the individual initiative mechanic in Original Sin II). Other features would have included parties of six characters (up from Divinity II's limit of four), guns and gunpowder as weapons, and a new element called Sulfurium. Two-player cooperative play would have been included, with both players controlling three characters.

Fallen Heroes was planned to take place two years after the end of the previous game and follow the Original Sin II ending in which the Godwoken purges all Source from Rivellon. It would have featured eight main playable protagonists, including the six pre-made playable characters from Original Sin II—Beast, Fane, Ifan, Lohse, the Red Prince (now named the Red Emperor), and Sebille—as well as Malady, a key non-playable character from the first game. The story would have followed the characters in a world without Source, except for the player's party, whose ship, the Lady Vengeance, was preserved from the Source purge by Malady. The characters would have fought against the Bloodless (an undead-like force destroying Rivellon) while traveling across the map in the Lady Vengeance.

Originally planned for release in November 2019 on multiple platforms, the project was indefinitely delayed on October 15, just one month before its scheduled release. Larian Studios stated the game required "far greater development time and resources than are available now to bring it to fruition." After years of no updates, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke confirmed in a July 14, 2023, interview with GamesRadar+ that Fallen Heroes had been canceled, saying, "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 canceled "quite far" into development.