Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian, responded to My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way at Wembley by joking, "I think we'll add a parade to the next game." The line landed after Gerard paused the show during the second half, spotted a banner asking whether the band had ever played Baldur’s Gate 3, and replied he had only played Baldur’s Gate 1 because he “ran out of time.”

That moment matters because it was not a random fan interaction. It played out during My Chemical Romance’s third and final headline show at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night (July 11) as part of the huge ‘Long Live The Black Parade’ tour. Gerard told the crowd he assumed Baldur’s Gate 3 would be good, and he described the first game as “the closest thing at the time to playing Dungeons & Dragons.” The exchange then blew up on TikTok and other social media platforms, and within days Larian entered the conversation on X.

On July 13, 2026, Larian Studios posted: “Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, what do you mean you haven't played the critically-acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3” and followed it with a direct incentive: “There's a code with your name on it, if you fancy trying it.” The post specifically tags “@baldursgate3 code” and includes Vincke’s follow-up line about a future parade. For a studio CEO, this is a neat case study in modern attention loops: mass culture creates the moment, social platforms amplify it, and the brand owner turns it into an on-ramp.

This is also happening while Larian reshapes its own product pipeline. The source says Larian are currently developing two new games after deciding to scrap work on a Baldur’s Gate 3 sequel and expansion. One of the new projects is Divinity, revealed earlier this year, but it does not currently have a release date. In other words, the studio is simultaneously pivoting away from a direct expansion of the Baldur’s Gate 3 universe and trying to keep the conversation around its current IP portfolio and next bets alive.

If you are an operator or investor, the strategic angle is not the celebrity flex itself. It is the signal that Larian still has cultural gravity. Baldur’s Gate 3 is positioned in the post as “critically-acclaimed,” and Gerard’s “closest thing at the time to playing Dungeons & Dragons” description frames the game as an accessible bridge to tabletop energy. When a mainstream act like My Chemical Romance uses a stage pause to ask about a Dungeons and Dragons-style RPG, it suggests that the genre still has runway outside its core audience.

There is a second-order dynamic here that board members and exec teams tend to care about: brand partnerships and audience expansion do not require formal sponsorship deals to create momentum. A TikTok-driven feedback cycle can function like earned distribution, especially when the studio itself responds quickly with a playful, concrete offer. That offer, in this case, is “a code with your name on it,” aimed at turning curiosity into play. Even without any regulatory angle in the source, this kind of marketing interaction sits in a space where execs usually consider platform rules, platform moderation norms, and how quickly consumer-facing accounts can move from engagement to conversion without creating compliance headaches.

Meanwhile, the emotional context of the Wembley set also matters for how the moment is remembered. Elsewhere during the performance, Gerard paid tribute to “amazing” British Warhammer illustrator John Blanche who passed away last month, adding: “I want this really, really horrific, nasty, spooky song to go out to him,” before the band played debut album cut ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’. That matters because it explains the vibe: this is not just pop spectacle, it is memorialized fandom. When Larian then jokes about adding a parade, it lands in the same cultural register, playful but not detached.

For peers watching this, the headline lesson is simple: when your game intersects with live culture, you can harvest attention without begging for it. But the tougher lesson is internal. Larian is still choosing what not to build. By scrapping Baldur’s Gate 3 sequel and expansion work and switching to two new games, it is making a bet that the studio can sustain momentum through novelty while the franchise stays in the public imagination. Vincke’s parade line is funny, but it is also a reminder of the real stake: in games, the calendar moves faster than development cycles, and staying relevant requires both creative follow-through and a very modern understanding of where the audience already is.