After working on Baldur's Gate 3 for six years and producing one of the most highly-rated games of all time, you might think Larian's Christmas party would involve nothing more than sitting back with some eggnog, congratulating each other on a job well done. But you would be wrong.
The RPG's latest update, Hotfix 14, rolled out in the early hours of this morning, which, according to a tweet by Larian's creative content manager, Ben Maltz-Jones, was also the very same time said Christmas party was in full swing.
Team building is doing a hotfix together at the Christmas party https://t.co/qQWKhc3H1a pic.twitter.com/fRhiSweUN3December 15, 2023
"Team building is doing a hotfix together at the Christmas party," Maltz-Jones said and shared a photo of himself and Larian's senior community manager, Salomé Moreira García, both sporting some seriously trendy party outfits, huddled around a mobile phone, presumably gearing up to push go on the hotfix.
"Now we are the ones giving 'loool never let me drink and have a phone, I will push a hotfix' energy", Moreira García joked in the comments.
As for the hotfix itself, according to a post on the official Baldur's Gate 3 website, it fixes several crashes, including one where bibberbangs would bring an explosive end to your game if someone in your party stood too close to one whilst you were trading in the Underdark. There are also a few fixes specifically related to the newly launched Xbox version, and it brings the feature-packed Patch 5 to Mac.
Amazingly, this isn't the only time Larian has released a patch right in the middle of an event it's attending. The previous hotfix arrived at the same time Baldur's Gate 3 was collecting a plethora of trophies at The Game Awards 2023, including the highly coveted Game of the Year Award. This was also when the RPG shadow dropped on Xbox, something which director Swen Vincke completely forgot to mention.
In what's been one of the most remarkable years for games, see the ones that impressed us the most in our best games 2023 guide.