Baldur’s Gate 3 expansions would take a very long time, if Larian makes them at all

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a smashing success and even Larian Studios is surprised with how incredibly the game’s performing. While Larian was caught off guard by the popularity of the game, its CEO admitted the devs are open to making a BG3 expansion—but you shouldn’t expect it any time soon.

In an interview with PC Gamer on Aug. 7, Larian CEO Swen Vincke said the devs haven’t started working on an expansion, but they’re open to the idea. That said, he added it’s unlikely this will happen because it would be quite demanding to design a full-blown roleplaying game taking players from levels 12 to 20.

“[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. Which would make this much more than an expansion in terms of development effort. A lot of D&D adventures are sub-level 12 for precisely that reason. So it sounds like neat, easy expansion material until you start thinking about it and it’s not as easy as one would imagine,” Vincke said.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is set in the universe of Dungeons and Dragons, the iconic tabletop game. In the potential expansion, players could play through levels 13 to 20. In D&D, these levels reward god-like powers like astral projection, foresight, and Power Word Kill (which immediately executes any creature below 100 HP. This would likely be a big obstacle for the devs, with them having to balance the expansion while trying to stay faithful to the original game.

Another major obstacle in making an expansion for BG3 is the fact that the entire campaign is wrapped up at level 12, and it would be hard to continue plotlines without retconning them. So that’s why, if Larian does an expansion at all, you would have to wait a long time to actually get your hands on it.

Although Larian’s CEO didn’t give PC Gamer a definitive no about the potential expansion release, it’s quite possible it will never happen because there are simply too many issues and implications that need to be resolved. I, however, am looking to the future and instead of an expansion, I’m hoping for Baldur’s Gate 4. 

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