Baldur’s Gate is probably the biggest name in the cRPG space, and it goes without saying that its upcoming revival with Baldur’s Gate 3 is something that millions are looking forward to with giddy anticipation. The fact that it’s being made by Larian Studios – developers of the excellent Divinity: Original Sin games – has only added to that excitement, and it seems the studio itself knows what a massive undertaking this is for them, in more ways than one.
Speaking recently in an interview with Eurogamer, Baldur’s Gate 3 executive producer David Walgrave spoke about the scope of the game’s development, saying that after Divinity: Original Sin 2, in order to do justice to Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios had to “exponentially grow” and “explode”. When asked if, in light of all that growth, Baldur’s Gate 3 would be classified as a AAA production, Walgrave said that that was indeed the case.
“I would call it a triple-A game,” he said. “It has a triple-A budget, has a triple-A team by now, and I think that is our aspiration.”
“We are still one hundred percent independent,” he added. “We don’t have anyone that we need to talk to. Apart from Wizards of the Coast, that still needs to agree on certain things that we do – but they did give us a creative carte blanche, almost – like certain things, we just need to check with them. But the relationship that we have with them is very good, and they’re not being difficult about anything.”
Walgrave also explained that the game’s production budget has been bolstered by cash injected by Stadia in exchange for the game having some exclusive features to take advantage of the streaming platform’s capabilities- though they have no say in the game’s actual development.
“We do get support from Stadia, but again there’s nothing that they can say about the game,” he said. “We have certain agreements and deadlines with Stadia, but that’s mostly about technical stuff. They want us to support a couple of typical Stadia features and we need to show that we do, and that’s basically it.”
“I really don’t think you can make Baldur’s Gate 3 without saying this is going to be a triple-A game,” he added later.”
Based on all that we’ve seen of the game so far, it definitely looks like a much bigger production than anything Larian Studios have made before- and before the year is out, we’re going to get to try out the game for ourselves, too, thanks to its early access launch.
There’s no word yet on when the full game will be out- but you probably shouldn’t expect launch on current-gen consoles.