Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a smash hit since its release, climbing the Steam charts and gaining critical and commercial acclaim, with many hailing it as one of the year’s best titles. With all the hype and excitement surrounding the game, it’s natural for players to wonder if Larian Studios intends to continue to add more content to its recent hit, including expansions.
In a recent interview, Larian Studio head Swen Vicke spoke about possible expansions, and explained the challenges and hurdles the team would have to overcome if they planned to develop an expansion. Simply put, it would be hard work, so don’t expect anything anytime soon.
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Larian Studio Boss Details the Design Challenges That Would Make Expansions “Very Hard” to Create
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Vicke discussed the possibility of expansions for Baldurs Gate 3. He was rather frank about the difficulties and challenges the studio would face if they decided to work on more content for the game.
Vicke explained that it would be quite a challenge for himself and the team to make content that goes beyond the current level 12 cap, as adventures and characters beyond that point become very powerful. In many cases, classes will get almost god-level abilities that we can imagine would be a nightmare to balance. Just consider spells like Wish and Power Word Kill, which in truth have the ability to unbalance or break a D&D game completely, and trying to make that balanced in a game like Baldurs Gate.
He goes on to say, “[Level 12-20] adventures require a different way of doing things, in terms of antagonists you’re going to have to deal with, which require a lot of development to do them properly,” and how trying to create an expansion and overcome those design challenges would be “much more than an expansion in terms of development effort.” He goes on to explain how the game’s multiple endings and choices players make would also add complications in developing an expansion, and if they were to do so, players would be waiting a long time.
Vicke didn’t outright say a Baldur’s Gate expansion wouldn’t happen, but his comments make it seem unlikely or a long way off. Given that the game has taken six years to release, it’s unsurprising that they aren’t thinking about expansions and all that work and likely want to take a break. With that said, they don’t plan to rest on their laurels, as they have said in recent interviews they do plan to return to the Divinity: Original Sin series in the future.
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While we won’t see an expansion anytime soon, the sheer size and potential for replayability with Baldurs Gates 3 will likely keep players busy for a very long time, so Larian Studios should enjoy the moment and take a well-earned rest before jumping into whatever project comes next.
