Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally getting mod support in its next big update, a feature that all but guarantees the longevity of Larian Studio’s award-winning role-playing masterpiece.
The seventh patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is set to hit in September, Larian confirmed Sunday. It will introduce an officially sanctioned toolkit that lets fans “change up visuals, animations, sounds, stats, and more to overhaul Baldur’s Gate 3 into the weird nightmare realm of your dreams.”
While Baldur’s Gate 3 already has its fair share of mods available online, official mod support means players won’t have to go through third-party platforms like Nexus Mods to download and install them. Official mod support also means player-created content would no longer be limited to the PC version of the game, according to Larian. Some mods, like one that helps you expand your party size to more than four characters, help make the game a better experience overall, and extend its shelf-life and popularity.
“We expect to roll out the support to the wider community and various platforms shortly after–including for Mac players, as well as PlayStation and Xbox consoles,” the developer wrote. “While not all PC mods will become available for consoles, we’ll be sure to publish guidelines to help you understand what kind of content will pass our necessary checks — without blocking any unsupported creative mods on PC — so that we can continue supporting the modding community both inside and outside our official pipeline.”
Console mod support has become more common over the last decade. Bethesda Game Studios was one of the first to embrace the possibility with Fallout 4 in 2015. The developer introduced the same feature when they re-released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016.
Mod support for Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently being tested in a close alpha that begins June 3, the developer said in their community post. Next month, about 1,000 creators will be invited to a beta for the official toolkit. Larian says players will be able to sign up for the upcoming beta test sometime soon. Players will still have access to mods not made through the official tools, according to Larian.
In addition to mod support, patch seven will include the addition of new, expanded endings for evil playthroughs, as well as the expected bug fixes for one of 2023’s best games.
For a game as gargantuan as Baldur’s Gate 3, the addition of mod support brings infinite possibilities for its future. Early on, players can expect meme-able outfits, waves of quality-of-life changes from crafty creators tweaking the core experience, and the inevitable debut of Thomas The Tank Engine as a playable party member. But the official tool kit also opens the door to more substantial additions like new quests, missions, characters, and even fan-made expansions. These additions can extend the game’s life long after Larian pivots all of their attention to their next project.
Larian Studios isn’t the only developer to hand fans the keys to their kingdom. Last month, nine years after The Witcher 3’s release, CD Projekt Red released the Redkit, the official modding toolkit for the seminal RPG. The Redkit lets players script new cutscenes, alter environments, and change the rules of its grim world, providing another excuse for players to reunite with Geralt of Rivia.
