Not that long ago, Baldur’s Gate 3 was slated to hit early access this month. That’s no longer the case, what with the recent news that developer Larian Studios had to delay Baldur's Gate 3’s early access launch. The good news is that players won’t have much longer to wait, most likely.
Back when the delay was announced, Larian said it would reveal a new release date for BG3’s early access on August 18, and today the studio made good on that promise. During a “Panel From Hell” livestream this morning, it announced that it’s set to get the game out on September 30. That’s the current target, anyway. At this point, there’s still a possibility that the early access launch will be delayed even further.
“The asterisk is optimization. The game is coming out for both PC and Stadia, and we want to get the minimum specs fairly low so that a lot of people can start fooling around with it,” Larian CEO and Baldur's Gate 3 creative director Swen Vincke said. “Every single time that you optimize something, it's only then that you discover what the next thing is that you have to optimize.” Despite these potential hurdles, though, Vincke seemed confident in their odds, later stating that “we have a really good chance of hitting” the September 30 date.
Whenever it launches, BG3’s early access version will feature custom character creation, as well as five different “Origin” characters with established personalities and story paths. These characters are Astarion (Elf/Vampire Rogue), Gale (Human Wizard), Lae’zel (Githyanki Warrior), Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric), and Wyll (Human Warlock). Larian also stated in a news release that additional characters will be announced throughout the early access period.
From the sound of it, next month’s launch will be fairly large in scope. As Vincke outlined during the livestream, BG3’s early access will be roughly three times the size of the early access demo for Larian’s previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2. Here’s how the two compare:
- Number of combat encounters: 22 in DOS2 EA vs. 80 in BG3 EA
- Number of English dialogue lines: 17,600 in DOS2 EA vs. 45,980 in BG3 EA
- Number of characters: 142 in DOS2 EA vs. 596 in BG3 EA
- Number of spells/actions: 69 in DOS2 EA vs. 146 in BG3 EA
Perhaps the biggest remaining question is when the game might fully release. Vincke suggested that that’s still a ways off, saying that “we intend to stay [in early access] for awhile.” Similarly, the updated Steam page for BG3 states that it will be “at least one year” before it leaves early access.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently slated to hit early access on September 30 for PC and Stadia.
Source: Steam