Larian Studios’ weekly Baldur’s Gate 3 livestream was banned from YouTube and then TikTok mid-broadcast after an in-game sex scene played out on air, Polygon reports.
Senior communications developer Aoife Wilson has been streaming a heavily modded Dark Urge playthrough for the studio. In the latest episode her character reached the House of Hope and seduced Harleep, the incubus consort of the devil Raphael. The resulting scene played out while someone off-camera attempted, unsuccessfully, to cover the characters with a golden d20.
YouTube removed the stream, and TikTok followed shortly afterwards, leaving the broadcast running on a shrinking number of platforms. Polygon notes that both services have themselves faced criticism over explicit and sexualised advertising shown to their users.
True to form, we have just been banned on several platforms that we’re currently streaming to. Where are we even left now? Twitch. Fingers crossed.
Wilson took the removals in good humour, saying being too hot for TikTok and YouTube was something she would treat as a badge of honour. The stream remained viewable in full on X.
A recurring hazard in the House of Hope
The encounter has caused problems for players as well as for the studio. Last month a Baldur’s Gate 3 player lost an Honour Mode run to the same character, offering up their heart and soul to Harleep and dying in the process.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s romance and companion content has attracted attention since before launch, when a scene involving a druid in bear form became one of the game’s most widely discussed features. Polygon argues that the sheer breadth of interactions the game permits, up to and including a liaison with a sex demon, is a substantial part of why the game became as popular as it did.
Wilson streams the Dark Urge run every Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT. Whether the broadcast returns to YouTube and TikTok will not be clear until the next episode.
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