Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Release Date Officially Set For September
Earlier this month, Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios announced that the highly anticipated game would miss its original early access launch window. Initially, Baldur's Gate 3 was set to launch in early access at some point in August – this month – but like it did with life in general, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a change of plans.
When Larian made that announcement, it said it would reveal a new release date during a livestream on August 18th and assured fans that Baldur's Gate 3 wouldn't miss its original early access target by much. August 18th, for those without a calendar handy, is today, and sure enough Larian has revealed a new early access launch date for Baldur's Gate 3.
According to Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, Baldur's Gate 3 will launch in early access on September 30th. During today's livestream (which is embedded above), Vincke suggested that if there's one wild card heading into this early access release, it's optimization, but it sounds like the folks at Larian are confident they can deliver the early access game on September 30th.
The panel, which was hosted by Geoff Keighley and comprised of Vincke, Dungeons and Dragons principal game designer Chris Perkins, and Larian Studios senior writer Adam Smith, also covered what players can expect in the early access version. Larian says that early access will comprise Act 1 of the game, with around 25 hours of self-contained content, 6 player classes, and 5 origin characters that can be recruited but aren't yet playable. The game's Steam page has also been updated with an FAQ about just what early access will entail.
Vincke was also clear that those who want the complete, polished Baldur's Gate 3 experience should wait until version 1.0 is released, as they won't get what they're looking for in early access. We don't know when the game will exit early access, but on Steam, Larian says that it anticipates version 1.0 being at least a year out from the EA launch – possibly longer. We'll let you know when Larian shares more, but for now, those of you ready to dive into early access will get your chance on September 30th.