You know, before answering the other question, there's something I want to say here which I think is important . A game is not a feature list. I look at D:OS and I can't believe how much we put in there - it's 5X the game we originally planned and I'm very proud of what my team accomplished with the few resources we had. What I'm the proudest of however that each feature that's there has sense, and isn't just something for the back of the box.
Whenever it came to deciding where we'd put our effort, we always prioritised according to what we thought would be the best for the game experience. If an existing area needed an extra iteration to make it more fun, we preferred that than just adding a region for the sake of quantity or feature boxes. It's a lot easier to make large boring areas than fun ones. If it came the improving the quality or importance of certain features in the game(e.g. perception or charisma) we preferred that over adding new things. Obviously that means that resources are used in a more focussed manner, but I think it benefited the game experience tremendously.
Tha said, we planned on 4 companions - 2 more will be added once we've taken some fresh air. The AI personalities are going to pop up when they're done which I expect to be fairly soon. As for the dungeons, that's really a non issue. The size and especially density of the world and dungeons that are there largely compensate. This was supposed to be a 40 hour game, it easily is a 60 to 100 hour game.
Swen, don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of Larian and Divinity: Original Sin and I value all the work you put in the game! It has become a really great and satisfying game and I honestly agree that a game is not a feature list and that the game as whole is so much more worth than its parts. A few minor missing things don't devalue what you have achieved with D:OS. You can and should be proud of yourself and your studio!
That being said, could you give any rough ETA on the additional companions? "After a bit of fresh air" could mean many things (but you've definitely deserve a few day off to regenrate and see your family again of course ;)). Do you think it's more a matter of days, weeks or months? In case you think that the third and forth companions should be ready in July for example I would wait a bit with playing D:OS but then again I probably wouldn't wait if they won't appear before August or even September. Any clarifcation/ETA would be very much appreciated, thanks.
I know that game development is a matter you cannot easily forecast. For example Larian couldn't know that Kirill would get ill during the development but they reacted in a great manner giving us even more great music for the game. Same is true for features. They increased the feature list and the scope of the game with almost every update during the early access phase. I think it's wrong to talk about "broken promises" here. Larian did their best to make the game as awesome as they could with the time, skill and money they had. And Swen already promised here that they will hand in the missing content later. You could just see that as another "inofficial release delay" if you think that these things are necessary or increase the fun you can have with the game. Another official delay obviously wasn't possible since Larian has made contracts with distributors and they have to stick to them.
Don't take it too serious, Swen. Most people still love you and your games. You've done a great job. I'm pretty much sure that you of all people would have been the gladdest person if you'd managed to include everything in the final release version.
And remember:
If nobody complains, nobody cares.
