“You’ll be surprised”: Sven Vincke explained why Larian cut so many locations from Baldur’s Gate 3

Steam users spend an average of 100 hours on Baldur’s Gate 3, but before the release of the grand fantasy RPG, everything was not so obvious. At least for Larian Studios head Swen Vincke.

Image source: Steam (JooJღ)

In a new interview on BAFTA’s YouTube channel, the developer revealed one of the previously unknown facts about Baldur’s Gate 3. As it turned out, during production Vincke was afraid that the game would be too short.

There is only one moon tower in the second act of Baldur’s Gate 3, however, according to Vincke, there were originally two of them. Then the second one was turned into ruins for a long time, and in the end it was completely cut out: “The game was getting too big.”

Lunar Towers (Image source: HeyJoe-HUN-(SNAKE)PCRPGCommunity on Steam)

«You’ll be surprised, but we planned to make a lot more regions – initially I was afraid that [Baldur’s Gate 3] would be too short. I always have problems determining the length of the game,” Vincke admitted.

This aligns with Vincke’s previous statements about content being cut from Baldur’s Gate 3. The plans included the monastic community of Candlekeep (the starting place of the first BG), and the palace of Queen Vlaakith, and the astral plane, and even a visit to Hell.

In the rest of the interview, Vincke talked about his ideal genre (currently roguelike), favorite game of all time (Ultima VII) and career highlight (the release of Divinity: Original Sin), among other things.

Baldur’s Gate 3 left early access on August 3, 2023 on PC (Steam, GOG), and subsequently reached macOS, PS5, Xbox Series X and S. The project has earned more than 200 awards in the Game of the Year category, including the Hugo Award “