Baldur’s Gate 3 has ‘About a year’ left in Early Access.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s 7th big patch is now available. It includes a new class and major UI overhauls. You can also throw objects at enemies. Fans are likely wondering when the final product will be released, considering that the RPG is currently in Early Access for nearly two years. Baldur’s Gate 3 will not be released in Early Access until 2023, according to the sounds of it.
Fanbyte was present at a panel interview where Swen Vincke, Baldur’s Gate 3 Director, was asked about Larian Studio’s current timeline for the RPG. While he stated that the development stage is almost complete, the team believes it still has approximately a year to develop the final product.
Vincke stated that while we are at the end of development, we will still release patches. We believe we still have about a year of development left. It’s not going to be at the 1.0 stage for the next few months, but burndown charts are going down rather than up.
Vincke stated that the studio’s primary focus is on Baldur’s Gate 3 meeting its internal quality standards before considering pulling the game from Early Access. This will require major changes, such as the UI modifications included with the seventh patch.
Vincke stated, “Quality is the ultimate decision point.” Vincke stated, “We want every aspect of the game to be at a certain quality.” We won’t release the game if it does not meet that standard. We are getting closer to meeting our internal benchmarks for the quality we want. You can see the new UI here. We are now comfortable with the UI. We weren’t comfortable with the UI before. We looked at many players and received a lot of feedback. This design was a result of all that we did. It was a hard task for the guys. […] Now you can say, “Okay, this is something I’m able to manage a level 10, or whatever party with lots of items without spending ages in my UI screens so I could concentrate on my gameplay.” So the burndown charts are starting to drop. This is a good thing.
Although this timeline doesn’t mean that potential features such as character import options or segments like the romantic scenes will be available until 2023, it does mean that the team still has at least one year to perfect everything before fans can start playing beyond the first act.
For more information on Baldur’s Gate 3, visit our most recent thoughts about the Early Access stage.
