Baldur's Gate 3 cross-platform mod support coming
Keeping game in good 'elf.
Baldur's Gate 3 will be getting official mod support down the line, including cross-platform support for consoles.
Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse described plans for this official support as "robust", but did not yet give an exact date for when it will arrive - other than to say it was planned for sometime this year.
"We have a system but it needs to be tested and still requires work," Douse explained, noting that the team wanted to avoid any player frustration from game updates breaking mods.
Larian is excited about this official mod support for Baldur's Gate 3, Douse said, as the team loves its modding community and therefore wants to support everyone in it. "It's coming," Douse affirmed.
While work continues behind the scenes at Larian, the developer suggested keeping an eye on the Baldur's Gate 3 Discord for updates. I had a quick look here earlier, and came across more details from Larian's senior community strategist, WombatMedic.
Much like Douse, WombatMedic said how much Larian loves its modding community, and appreciates how frustrating it is when an update breaks any mods being used. They acknowledged Patch 6 had "seemingly introduced a range of issues".
"We want to continue making sure you're getting the best possible experience, which is why we frequently patch the game, although this does inevitably mean that each new patch or hotfix has the potential to become incompatible with your favourite mods. We know this sucks, we know you want to play with mods, and we want to make this right," WombatMedic wrote.
"We want the very best for you, which includes establishing a pipeline that lets mod authors release their mods across different platforms. Together with the platform holders, we are working on making this a reality, and are forming a team to support mod curation."
According to WombatMedic, Larian plans to offer modding support for "things like classes, UI, customisation, spells, and certain assets and game mechanics", saying this is "no small task". The team currently plans to introduce the "initial stages of modding support in our next big patch", which they said is still several months away.
"Frustrated as you might be now, we're keen to work with you on this - and have plans to reach out to popular mod authors to talk further and work together to avoid issues in the future," they closed.
Elsewhere in all things Larian, earlier this month the Baldur's Gate 3 team took the opportunity to address both the current state of the industry and the importance of player experience.
Speaking after the studio's Game of the Year win at the DICE awards, Douse said that while this is a "really human industry" it can also be very "bad sometimes at showing developers what they're worth". He then discussed the wave of layoffs that have affected so many people and game development studios over the past year.