Baldur's Gate 3 Director Dispels Rumors About Last-Minute Content Cuts Before Release

ign.com:

Datamining can provide an interesting window into a developer's intentions for a game. However, such info can be lead to inaccurate conclusions, as seems to be the case with Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaking with IGN, director Swen Vincke talked about the various content that has been unearthed by fans, including the removal of certain epilogues and cuts to the city of Baldur's Gate, saying that information found through datamining can be "misleading." He also dispelled rumors that content had been removed in order to make the earlier launch date.

"We had actually been locked in for quite some time on what was going to be in the game because these games are too large to make big decisions like that and cut things two weeks before release," Vincke says. "So you wouldn't do that. But I mean it's normal. And I guess it's also kind of a compliment, people wanting more content."

Vincke termed some of the cuts "editorial decisions" rather than "cut decisions" owing to their length. That includes Baldur's Gate's much-discussed Upper City, which seemingly had much more content than what was included in the final game.

"So when it comes to the city... we made a big city actually. When you hit that, you'll see there's really a lot to do," Vincke says. "But we noticed, and that was something that took us by surprise, there are people that are exploring the full city, which is what we intended. That's quite a lot of content. So we didn't want to repeat that ad nauseum so that it became too much because by then you already played for over a hundred hours."

The development team's main fear, Vincke says, is that cities "can actually become boring" due to being overwhelming. He says Larian also wanted to set up the grand finale in Baldur's Gate 3's