In a Steam community post and on their website, the team at Larian Studios put out Community Update #26, their first “Community Update” since November of last year. In it, they discussed their recent BAFTA awards, teased the game-changing Patch 7, and discussed the future of the studio itself. All with the requisite Larian flair.
The community post starts with a flex: last week, Baldur’s Gate 3 took home the Game of the Year award at the BAFTA game awards, as well as awards for Best Performer in a Supporting Role, Best Music, Best Narrative, and the Player’s Choice Award. As Larian is quick to point out (and rightfully so), this makes Baldur’s Gate 3 the first game in history to win Game of the Year at all 5 major award shows (BAFTA, The Golden Joysticks, The Game Awards, DICE, and Game Developers’ Choice).
This brief and well-earned celebration is followed by explaining what comes next for Baldur’s Gate 3. After introducing an incredible snippet from the newly-composed “March of Darkness” song, the community post then gave us fresh details about what to expect from the upcoming Patch 7. The next major update to the game, Patch 7 will add new endings to the game, as well as “begin to introduce” official modding tools and a slew of bug fixes. And, if previous patches are anything to go off, we can expect the list of those changes to take up the space of a short novel and to drastically improve the already-legendary Baldur’s Gate 3 experience.
To say nothing of the dark and wonderful implications that “official modding tools” will bring.
Teaser for one of the new “Evil” endings that Patch 7 will add
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: in order to bring this massive Patch to light, Larian indicated that they are planning to begin Closed Beta testing on PC at some point (which they will discuss “in the coming weeks”). This will be exciting for those selected to help iron out the massive new content, but does place Patch 7 on the timescale of months out, if even the Closed Beta is several weeks away.
In the same discussion of the future for Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian also hinted that they are working on Crossplay and Photo Mode, though they presented no indication of when those features might be added to the game. No matter how badly a certain gaming journalist wants to take the prettiest pictures.
At the end of the Community Update, Larian went into vague detail about their future, by way of looking at their past. After communicating their lengthy 28-year-long history, the community post revealed that the studio is currently working on 2 new projects, though they did not reveal anything about what those might be. This should come as no surprise, given that Larian recently also revealed that they were not planning on making Baldur’s Gate 4 and were moving on from the Dungeons and Dragons license going forward.
Still, this has us more excited than ever, knowing that there are not one but two games in the works from the incredible team at Larian. And not just us, apparently, as Larian CEO Swen Vincke had this to say at the end of the community post:
“I don’t know if we’re going to pull it off, but looking at our narrative, visual and gameplay plans, I think what we’re working on now will be our best work ever. I get excited like a kid watching the key imagery, want to show it to everyone now and grumble in frustration at having to wait until it’s actually all working. Yes, it’s hype but it’s hype because it really looks and feels good.”
Swen Vinke
As though we needed even more reasons to be excited for the future of Larian Studios! In any case, between awards, patches, and “new projects”, the future of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian Studios looks brighter than ever. We eagerly await whatever comes next.
You can read the Community Update on Steam here, or on Larian’s website here.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
