Will Baldur's Gate 3 Get an Expansion? Swen Vincke Answers
Despite the great success of Baldur's Gate 3, the development of an expansion seems unlikely. This is because it would be extremely difficult due to, among other things, the specific mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons.
Release of Baldur's Gate III version 1.0 turned out to be a gigantic success. The game's activity record on Steam currently stands at 814,666 concurrent users, thanks to which the game managed to break into the top ten most popular games in the history of this platform. Not surprisingly, many hope that Larian will develop a comprehensive, equally polished expansion. Unfortunately, such a project would be much more complicated than it might seem.
- The head of Larian, Swen Vincke, informed in an interview with PCGamer that the team is not currently working on any expansions for Baldur's Gate 3.
- The developers do not completely rule out an expansion, but stress that developing one would be extremely difficult.
- The base game has a progression limit set at level 12. Dungeons & Dragons rules allow for progression up to level 20, but after level 12 characters gain almost godlike powers, which would make it very difficult to prepare campaigns for such characters.
- For example, such advanced characters can, among other things, visit the astral plane, predict the future or kill anything with less than 100 life points in one word. Implementing and properly balancing such powers in a computer RPG would be a huge challenge. That's why most games based on DnD license, as well as ready-made campaigns for the tabletop original, end at lavel 12.
- On top of that, Baldur's Gate 3's structure itself offers tremendous freedom, and the need to take into account all the players' previous decisions and their consequences would be very difficult to manage for the developers.
- Swen Vincke has not stated definitively that Larian will not develop an expansion for Baldur's Gate 3, but the problems he described are so great that it seems highly unlikely.
This is a bit sad, since the previous two installments in the series received great expansions: Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal, each of which provided a ton of fun. However, listening to the arguments of the head of Larian, it is not difficult to understand why BG3 may never receive any expansions.
Recall that version 1.0 of Baldur's Gate 3 was released on PC on August 3. PlayStation 5 console owners will wait until September 6 for their release. The developers are also working on an edition for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, but for now they are not ready to give a release date for it, as they have encountered considerable technical problems.
Larian's plans for the future
In an interview with PCGamer Swen Vincke also talked a bit about the future of Larian. He stated that the gigantic success of Baldur's Gate 3 will not change the team's plans. The developers continue to want to create RPGs with rich storylines and complex mechanics, which can also be played in multiplayer mode. This is what this team knows best, and they do not intend to deviate from this path.
From the developers' earlier statements, we know that after BG3 Larian intends to develop several smaller projects before it undertakes the creation of another super-production. In addition, the developers want to return to the Divinity brand.
