Baldur’s Gate 3 recently received big new patch which adds the Barbarian class and two new subclasses, overhauls the HUD UI, introduces numerous new weapons, and much more. However, the road to launch is still a ways off. Larian Studios revealed in a recent press release that it expects the role-playing game to exit early access in 2023.
“Our internal goal post for release is a quality bar rather than a date. A ton of progress has been made towards that quality bar over the past year in Early Access, but we know many players are waiting for an actual date. That date will come when we’re even closer to meeting our goal, but right now our expectation is that Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released out of Early Access in 2023.”
Speaking to Eurogamer, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke revealed that, “We think we’re in our last year of development. We do still think we have a year of development ahead of us, so it’s unlikely it will be this year [2022]. But we are at the end, so we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now. We have a pretty concrete plan.”
He further noted that the development team is working on the last part of the game and that everything else is relatively done. However, there’s still plenty of bug fixing and polishing that has to be done. The “burndown chart” (which is defined as a “graphical representation of work left to do versus time”) is “burning down” for real as per Vincke. On the bright side, fans can expect more big updates this year.
Furthermore, in light of recent acquisitions – notably Microsoft acquiring Activision-Blizzard and Sony acquiring Bungie – Vincke confirmed that Larian Studios isn’t currently for sale. “No, not – at this moment, we’re fiercely going to stay our own course and continue doing our thing. We have a lot of plans, we have a lot of things that we’re working on actually, which will be announced at another date, so for the moment, you’re not going to see us move in any direction.” He also noted that there’s no current interest in NFTs. “It’s not really a take. We’re not doing it, so that’s basically it.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently available in early access for PC via Steam and Google Stadia. It initially launched in October 2020 and takes place 120 years after the events of the second game. The story concerns mind flayers and the player’s journey to rid themselves of an illithid tadpole that will slowly convert them into the same. Stay tuned for more details on subsequent updates in the coming months.