Baldur's Gate 3 got off to a great start and has captivated many players. The release of the add-on would have been very logical and they began to develop it, but Larian decided to cancel everything
The success of the full version of Baldur's Gate 3 was surprising for many. The developers themselves from Larian Studios did not expect that the large-scale role-playing game would be so popular.
Some players decided that after such an addition the conditional Baldur’s Gate 4 was only a matter of time. The developers themselves also thought about the next numbered part and even started developing DLC, but then postponed it because it was necessary to finalize the current Baldur's Gate 3 and the studio considered it wrong to switch to something new.
After the development of the add-on began, the authors of Baldur’s Gate 3 realized that they were not too interested in working on such a project. Larian boss Sven Vincke explained that it was due to the features of D&D:
“…we spent a lot of time converting the [D&D rules] system into a video game, and we wanted to do something new. There are many restrictions on creating D&D, and 5th edition is not easy to adapt to a video game. We had some new ideas for combat that we wanted to try out, but they weren't compatible…
It was obvious that the team was making [the Baldur's Gate 3 expansion] because everything they feel like we should do it, but it doesn't come from the heart, and we are a studio that works from the heart. This is what led us to problems, and this is also the reason for our success….”
As it turned out, the team shared the opinion of Sven Vincke:
“I thought [the developers] would be mad at me [for canceling the DLC development] because I just couldn't get it together. However, I saw so many happy faces that I didn't expect, and I realized that they shared the same feelings, so we were all on the same page. After that, so many developers came to me and said: “Thank God”…
[We weren't] against BG4 or DLC, but our hearts weren't in them. It was more of a chore than an exhilarating experience. Now we've got our excitement back [doing something new], and that's very important.”