Larian says half of one percent of Baldur's Gate 3 players have managed to finish the game without recruiting a single companion, and accounting for those possibilities is part of what made designing the game and writing its dialogue so challenging.
"We are chasing that feeling of absolute freedom," lead systems designer Nick Pechenin tells GQ. "I just got the numbers today that half of a percent of all players reached the final fight without having ever recruited any companions. There are no achievements for it. The game never suggests that this is a good idea, but our dialogue needed to support that."
Players have been testing the boundaries of the RPG's reactivity for months now, discovering that Baldur's Gate 3 features several fully-voiced NPCs who almost nobody will ever meet. Larian wrote, recorded, and implemented dialog for things as obscure as completing one particular quest while having a single companion parked in a camp miles away, and it's just that combination of production values and attention to detail that's made Baldur's Gate 3 a breakout hit in a well-worn genre.
The devs have been revealing quite a few player stats recently, including a controversial breakdown of the most popular romances and origin characters in Baldur's Gate 3. There are also details on the vanishingly tiny number of players who've finished Honour Mode, a feat that's pushing even Tactician veterans to their limits.
Baldur's Gate 3 boss Swen Vincke accepted the GOTY in plate armor, but somehow managed to forget to announce the game's surprise Xbox launch in the process.
