Wizards of the Coast has issued a DMCA Takedown notification to Stardew Valley fan mods that add Baldur’s Gate 3 character despite being publicly praised by Sven Winke, CEO of Larian Studios. And now Winke has responded to Takedown as well.
As reported by PC Gamer, the mod in question is entitled “Baldur’s Village” and incorporates Baldur’s Gate 3 character into Stardew Valley. The mod was released earlier this month and soon Winke praised it on Twitter, saying, “A lot of love has come into it – a great job!”
Unfortunately, a few weeks later, the mods were gone. Speaking to TC Gamer, Dungeons & Dragons and Baldur’s Gate Ip Holder Wizards of the Coast issued a DMCA takedown for the mod, according to a Nexus Mods spokesperson. “Hopefully this is an oversight from WOTC, and it’s often used external agencies to corner content, and they’ll revive their decisions,” the spokesman said. “Fingers crossed for the village of Baldur.”
Then, just today, Winke commented on this situation again on Twitter, reiterating support for mods, acknowledging that IP protection is difficult.
Securing your IP can be difficult, but I hope this will resolve. There are good ways to deal with this.
– Swen Vincke @where? (@laratlarian) March 31, 2025
“Free, high quality fan mods that highlight your character in other game genres prove that they are in a form of resonance and unique word of mouth,” he said. “They should not be treated like commercial ventures that infringe your property. Protecting your IP can be difficult, but I hope this will be resolved. There are good ways to deal with this.”
This could be part of a larger crackdown from the wizards on the coast around the gates of Baldur. As we learned at the Game Developers Conference earlier this month, we’re probably going to hear more about what the company plans for IP “in a fairly short order.” Or maybe it was a mistake that would be fixed soon. We contacted the Coast Wizard for comments.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at Passthecontroller. You can find her posts at Bluesky @Duckvalentine.bsky.social. Do you have any tips for the story? Send to [email protected].
