Latest news with #LarianStudios
Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Baldur's Gate 3 gets an official expansion for Dungeons & Dragons
The Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game is getting its own Baldur's Gate 3 DLC, all about a certain fan favourite vampire. While Larian Studios continued to support Baldur's Gate 3 with some meaty post-launch patches, there never was, and never will be, a proper DLC expansion, as the game is effectively abandoned. Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, however, are fully aware of Baldur's Gate 3's popularity and are not going to want that cash cow to dry up, which is why they're planning to partner with a new, currently unnamed, studio for the inevitable Baldur's Gate 4. They also appear eager to use Baldur's Gate 3's success to draw more people into Dungeons & Dragons (the tabletop role-playing game Baldur's Gate 3 is based on) as evidenced by what, on paper, is essentially Baldur's Gate 3 DLC. For context, two new D&D books – Forgotten Realms: Heroes Of Faerûn and Forgotten Realms: Adventures In Faerûn – have been announced and they offer a bevy of new content, like new subclasses and new items. The books will launch on November 11 and currently cost $59.99 (about £45) and $74.99 (about £55), respectively, but there is of course a more expensive Ultimate Bundle for $159.99 (about £119) that throws in several extras. One of those extras, as explained on D&D Beyond, is a digital expansion called Astarion's Book Of Hungers and, as you can probably guess, is centred around everyone's favourite vampire party member from Baldur's Gate 3. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Aside from offering new pre-built D&D adventures that let you team up with Astarion before the events of Baldur's Gate 3 (complete with some new backstory for his favourite tavern), the expansion will come with new options for building vampire characters. The Ultimate Bundle also comes with two other digital expansions but it sounds like all three will be available as separate purchases, since individual prices are listed for them. More Trending So, if you're an Astarion fan and don't care about any of the other additions, you can simply fork over $14.99 (about £11) for his expansion when it arrives on November 11. Considering Baldur's Gate 4 is likely many years away, it wouldn't be surprising if Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast released more cross-promotional material like this, both to placate starving fans and attract new ones who may have exhausted themselves on Baldur's Gate 3. Although with how stuffed Baldur's Gate 3 is, especially after all the patches, it's hard to imagine you'll ever run out of things to do. Thanks to mods, it is entirely possible to craft your own custom campaigns (such as this one dubbed Path To Menzoberranzan that's in development), although such campaigns aren't supported by Larian's official mod toolkit for Baldur's Gate 3. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Baldur's Gate 3 devs reveal the weirdest and most bizarre fan stats MORE: Baldur's Gate 4 was playable before it was cancelled admits Larian Studios boss MORE: EA refused to let BioWare make a Dragon Age: Origins remake claims developer
Metro
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Baldur's Gate 3 devs reveal the weirdest and most bizarre fan stats
For the second anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios has shared new player stats and a thank you from its CEO. This week marks the second anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3, the surprise smash hit of 2023, that managed to snatch that year's Game Of The Year award from the likes of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and the Resident Evil 4 remake. To honour the occasion, developer Larian Studios has shared some new player statistics. Rather than the usual stuff about player choices and preferences, though, Larian opted to focus on the community's more… niche proclivities. This includes the number of people who respected their companions' character classes, with one especially unpopular choice prompting Larian to question some players' well-being, asking, 'Are you folks doing okay?' According to the stats shared on X, only 350 players opted to respec the character of Minsc (an optional companion you can only encounter in Act 3) from his usual ranger class into a death domain cleric. If you've played Baldur's Gate 3, you're probably just as baffled as Larian is, since this class simply doesn't suit Minsc from either a gameplay or character perspective, especially since it involves necromancy – a far cry from the ranger class that's all about nature and bonding with (living) animals. The death domain cleric class is more associated with Shadowheart, since she already starts the game as a regular cleric. Larian's stats reflect this, with Shadowheart being the most respecced companion in the game, at 4,890,005 times, and usually as a death domain cleric, if not a life domain cleric. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Fans are also baffled by other obscure player achievements. For instance, the fact that 598 players adopted a baby with companion character Wyll. However, their shock is more due to the fact that they didn't even know this was an option. 'Wait what? You can adopt a child with Wyll????' writes one baffled fan on Reddit. This has prompted several others to explain how to achieve this, followed by some admitting they now plan to pull this off for themselves. 'And now I need to try that,' writes one, 'How am I supposed to stop playing Baldur's Gate 3 if there are still things I need to try?' Other fans are more shocked by the stats for the game's Honour Mode. For context, Honour Mode is an extra-hard difficulty level that includes permadeath and a single save slot. So, if you die, the game ends, and you have to start over from the very beginning. The fact that some players have managed to beat the game on Honour Mode isn't itself surprising, but according to Larian, 4,647 players have achieved this with a level one character. 'How the f*** can you beat honour mode as a level one ????' reads the top comment on Reddit, with a fellow fan replying with, 'I'm certainly not going to find out.' More Trending It's definitely the kind of challenge you'd have to be a real masochist to attempt, although one fan suggests the strategy is to use 'many item exploits and tons of barrels.' Meanwhile, Larian CEO Swen Vincke shared his own message for the two-year anniversary, adding that it's thanks to the success of Baldur's Gate 3 that the team can work on 'our next crazy thing.' Exactly what Larian's next project is remains a secret. Beyond vague hints that it might be sci-fi, Vincke has offered no real information and only asked fans be patient: 'We're working hard to ensure you'll have plenty of fun. Like really – loads of it.' Larian is actually meant to be working on two new games, though neither is Baldur's Gate 4. Licence holders Hasbro and Wizards Of The Coast, however, absolutely want a sequel and have been speaking with other potential partners about it. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Baldur's Gate 4 was playable before it was cancelled admits Larian Studios boss MORE: Baldur's Gate 3 boss criticises 'boring' DLC and explains new five year plan MORE: 'Almost all video games should cost more' says Baldur's Gate 3 publisher
Geek Culture
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Larian Studios Celebrates 2nd Anniversary Of 'Baldur's Gate 3' With Obscure Player Stats
It's common for video games to reveal player stats as part of milestone celebrations, but Larian Studios has switched things up for the second anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3 . While the studio previously highlighted major figures like the top three character classes per race and the most popular romance options, alongside fun nuggets of information (including the number of pats received for each pet and the percentage of players who had sex with Halsin's bear form), the focus is on obscure findings this time, which is as bizarre as it's in character. These achievements range from the percentage of players who defeated 20 opponents while drunk (2.07 percent) and defeating Gortash in Wyrm's Rock without activating any traps (3.87 percent, with more nimble-footed Steam players coming in at 4.37 percent) to 598 adventurers who adopted a child with Wyll. Elsewhere, 350 players re-specced Minsc into a Death Domain Cleric, and 6.24 percent managed to knock the dragon out of the sky midfight. There are also more general numbers — 1.1 million players have completed Baldur's Gate 3 in Tactician Mode, one of its highest difficulty settings, followed by almost half a million players in Honour Mode, which builds on Tactician Mode by adding tougher bosses, stricter rules, a single save slot, and more. Of the list, 4,647 players beat Honour Mode using only a Level 1 character, with 31,180 completing it as a Jack of All Trades. Here's a quick look at the stats: Additionally, Larian Studios celebrated 265 million mod downloads since last September's release of Patch 7 that introduced new evil endings cinematics, split-screen improvements, official modding tools, new Honour Mode Legendary Actions, and more. The RPG received its final major patch in April this year, rounding out an exceptional run with 12 new subclasses, cross-play, and a photo mode. Despite the overwhelming critical acclaim, studio head Swen Vincke confirmed that there are no DLC plans for the Dungeons & Dragons -inspired adventure, saying that it was the 'boring' option. 'It's boring, is really the honest answer,' he explained, 'We tried to be in the DLC business, talked about that with BG3 … there's just no passion… I mean, happy player, happy business, but you also need a happy developer for a happy player. What we're doing now makes developers way more happy.' Now that Baldur's Gate 3 has wrapped up, the team is 'deep in the trenches on [its] next thing', adding that the upcoming title is 'shaping up quite well' and that it is 'crazy-ambitious'. Details remain under wraps, but previous reports indicate that two RPG projects are in the works, and neither will be related to Baldur's Gate or Dungeons & Dragons in general. One of them, codenamed Excalibur , is set to be a departure from the studio's turn-based expertise, however. Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really. Baldur's Gate 3 Dungeons & Dragons Larian Studios
Gizmodo
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
A Quarter of a Million People Have Experienced ‘Baldur's Gate 3' by Giving Withers Big Naturals
The brilliance of Baldur's Gate 3 is that it takes a seemingly linear story and makes it damn near infinite. On the surface, it's a game about a player recruiting friends to try and get a parasite out of their brain. But each and every decision the player makes beyond that sends massive ripples across the game. Every choice branches off on a new path, then a new path, and by the end, you realize you can play through the game over and over and never experience the exact same things twice. Larian Studios officially released Baldur's Gate 3 two years ago today, August 4, and to celebrate its birthday, the company just released a mountain of incredibly specific, nerdy, and weird stats. (Much as it did last year.) One, for example, is that once players were allowed to modify the game in their own ways, over 250,000 people downloaded a mod that allowed one of the key figures in your party, Withers, to have large, natural breasts. Why? Who cares! It just made the game more fun for people when they talked to Withers to see that Withers had a massive rack. You can see all the birthday stats on this blog page, but here are a few others. There are many, many more stats too if you head over to this post. Writing about it makes me want to dive back into my own game, where I have about 50 save points that can take me into new directions with my player, a short, stocky, grey-haired rogue. Then you remember that's just a molecule in the mountain of the game, considering all the different characters you can create. What are your best Baldur's Gate 3 memories? Are you one of the lucky 250,000? Let us know below. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Express Tribune
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Baldur's Gate 3 publisher criticices Randy Pitchford's $80 Borderlands 4, calls it gross
Michael Douse, publishing director of Larian Studios, has criticised Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford over his recent remarks on the pricing of the upcoming Borderlands 4, calling them 'gross' amid ongoing cost-of-living concerns. Pitchford sparked backlash after suggesting that 'real fans' would 'find a way' to purchase Borderlands 4 even if it launched at an $80 price point — a significant increase compared to typical game costs. He cited paying $80 for a Sega Genesis game 30 years ago as justification, a claim many see as out of touch with current economic realities. Douse, whose studio developed Baldur's Gate 3, called Pitchford's comment 'gross.' on social media: 'Inflation exists (we give inflation bumps for example to employees) and price increases can make sense, but saying 'real fans will find a way' is gross because it assumes your game is more important during a cost of living crisis than, for example, making it day to day.' He added: 'Real fans are people who love & understand what you do, keep track, and engage with your stuff regardless of how much they spend.' Inflation exists (we give inflation bumps for example to employees) and price increases can make sense, but saying "real fans will find a way" is gross because it assumes your game is more important during a cost of living crisis than, for example, making it day to day. — Very AFK (@Cromwelp) May 20, 2025 When asked whether Baldur's Gate 3 would ever have an $80 price tag, Douse said even if it did, 'we would probably not suggest people do whatever they can to buy it, lest they not be real fans.' Neither publisher 2K Games nor parent company Take-Two Interactive have confirmed the final price of Borderlands 4, due for release this September. However, Pitchford's comments have already stirred discontent among fans, with some resorting to review-bombing the Borderlands series on Steam amid concerns over new user agreements. The $80 price point, if confirmed, would place Borderlands 4 among the most expensive mainstream video games, prompting broader discussions about affordability and value in the gaming industry during challenging economic times.
