The bear sex scene in Baldur's Gate 3 was so 'upward' for the game that its animator showed it to his mum: 'She said, that's weird!'

Baldur's Gate 3 has a resounding, frightening, and bone-quakingly high level of popularity. Why? There are many reasons, including its rewarding RPG mechanics and its cast of interesting characters. It also received a historically high score in PC Gamer's Baldur's Gate 3 Review. It's mostly the bear sex.

Even before the game was released, BG3’s red-hot scene with the bear (the bear is actually a Halsin transmogrified, just in case you forgot) had already gone viral. It makes sense. Larian was so proud that it was a unique videogame romance scene, they wanted to show it. To everyone. Their mums included.

Matt Davis, a cinematic artist and bear-scene animator, revealed at a recent BG3 PAX Panel that he first showed the scene to his mother in a Panel From Hell pre-release video. "I remember her saying, 'That is weird!'" This is also probably what my mother would say if i tried to show her an artistically rendered scene of a fantasy guy getting down with a polar bear. Davis clarified, "I'm very supportive," she said. Mums are there to help.

Davis was apparently surprised to learn that the scene featured in BG3 pre-release marketing was a new one. "What made it even better: I didn't know that it would be shown at that Panel From Hell."

David recalled being at Larian's Dublin offices and watching the Panel From Hell on the day of the launch. Davis pointed to Adam Smith, the writing director, and said, "You were onstage and like, We've shown a romance scene, let's see another!'

Davis said that everyone else in the office was expecting something a little more sedate and polite, like Gale's romance. But that's not what they got. "I knew immediately... I turned [and] said, 'They are doing the ear'."

They were indeed doing the bear.

This turned out to be an exemplary marketing strategy. "It was a sign of a new momentum in the direction of the launch of the games," said Davis. "To see the reception after that was just - it was crazy." It was the first project I worked on that took off so well... I'm really pleased with how the community reacted to it.

They did. The bear scene went viral quickly, creating a steamy trail on social media. It also generated a lot of hype for final game. This virality was not even hindered by a TikTok banning. Swen Vincke, Larian's boss, said, "We were doing a Panel From Hell stream, and the bear scene just showed, and I saw a publishing team." They were super-excited, and yelling "We got banned on TikTok!"

Everyone loved it despite that. Or, at least, everyone who wasn't Larian loved it. Davis' coworkers were a bit perturbed when they saw him working on the scene.

Davis said that his desk was right next to the kitchen in the office where they were at the time. This led to some awkward encounters. Smith said, "I was going for a coffee and I saw things that I didn't expect to see."

Davis continued: "I had been working on it so long that I almost became numb to the whole thing. People walk by and ask, "What are doing?"

He was creating one of the most iconic scenes in BG3. The rest is, I suppose, history.