Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios wasn't prepared for players to race through the RPG when it first launched out of early access, according to Karlach's voice actor Samantha Béart.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Béart discusses the expanded ending Karlach received in a post-launch update to Baldur's Gate 3. "I don't think we expected people to rush to the end as quickly as they did and put everything up on YouTube," they say.
At the time, Larian addressed criticism of Karlach's ending, stating it trimmed the epilogue "because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long." The developer also hinted it was "incorporating feedback" into origin characters' epilogues, but Béart ruled out the idea that the story content added for the fiery tiefling in Patch 2 was a result of player feedback, as they also reveal they were asked to work on the additional ending for the game "pretty much as soon as it was out." They add: "It was very much planned," clarifying that "fans had no influence" on them returning for it.
The extra time it took for Larian to add Karlach's new ending was a month, coincidentally the same amount of time that the developer chose to push Baldur's Gate 3 forwards in order to avoid competing with Starfield.
Baldur's Gate 3 is full of details that players are still discovering like endings with near-to-impossible odds, thanks to Larian continually updating the game with more content over the course of eight bulky patches. The studio is now moving away from Baldur's Gate 3 and working on two "very ambitious" RPGs, though says it's "too early to tell" if one of those will be a new Divinity game.
Baldur's Gate 3 currently reigns on our list of the best RPG games.
