Baldur’s Gate 3 probably won’t be officially released until next year

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been available as an Early Access title on Steam and Stadia since October 2020, and that status doesn’t appear to be changing until next year. Developer Larian Studios says it expects the game to be officially released in 2023.

In a message on Steam, which is mainly intended to discuss new content such as the introduction of the new Barbarian class, Larian does not yet mention a concrete release date. The developer says the internal goal is to set the bar high and a date depends on that. According to Larian, a lot of work has already been done in the past year to achieve the desired quality. As soon as this is successful, a concrete release date will be announced.

Recently, Swen Vincke, the founder of Larian and creative director of Baldur’s Gate 3, said in an interview with Eurogamer that the game was unlikely to be released this year. According to Vincke, the team does see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and probably another year of development time is needed. It also involves completing the last part of the game; other parts are already largely completed. After that, a final phase will follow in which bugs are eliminated.

Patch 7 was released for Baldur’s Gate 3 on Tuesday. It adds the Barbarian class. Furthermore, the user interface has been renewed, players can throw weapons and improvise by using objects such as chairs as weapons. Improvements have also been made to the way light and dark environments are detected. The benefits of fighting in the shadows will now have a more precise effect. According to the makers, this makes sneaking around and the gameplay around staying hidden as much as possible much more fun.