Larian Studios, developer of the popular Divinity: Original Sin series of RPGs, has both good and bad news about Baldur's Gate 3 to share with fans today. The good news comes in the form of new information regarding Baldur's Gate 3's "romance and companionship" features, which will be dropped after today. As for the bad news, Larian is confirming that Baldur's Gate 3 will unfortunately not be able to meet its previously announced launch date for Early Access.
Neither Larian fans nor Dungeons & Dragons fans should fret, though. Baldur's Gate 3's delay isn't severe. Prospective players will only have to wait a short while compared to the game's previous release date. Baldur's Gate 3 was originally set to launch in Early Access on September 30. With the delay, the game will now be available starting October 6. Larian will be launching Early Access on GOG, Steam, and Stadia. There are no updates regarding Baldur's Gate 3's possible console launch.
Two general reasons were provided to explain the delay by Larian. The first is just general technical issues. The team's had some "unexpected delays," and there are also some stability issues that Larian's trying to quash. Larian says that it's fine launching Baldur's Gate 3 with some bugs or some work-in-progress polish issues. However, it wants to minimize crashing and demands a fun gameplay experience.
Larian's second reason for the delay comes into contrast with that last expectation. Specifically, the translations for Baldur's Gate 3's currently announced supported languages are taking some extra time. Localization is necessary for international fans to enjoy the game, so Larian wasn't willing to budge and launch without full support for its currently announced Early Access languages.
All that Larian needs is an extra week to handle these problems, however. Larian says that the extra week will allow the studio to "triple check stability" and "triple check localization." The studio must have been precariously close to having everything done for the original release date, but fell just short. There's only so much that can be completed in a week, after all.
Larian has previously said that it doesn't want players to "feel pressured" to pick up Baldur's Gate 3 when it launches in Early Access. The game will still have a more formal launch sometime in the future when 100% of its content has been completed. The Early Access is to help Larian finish the game, as player-feedback matters significantly to the studio. Those who do buy the game early will have plenty to play, of course, as the Early Access features at least 25 hours of gameplay for a single playthrough.
Baldur's Gate 3 launches in Early Access on October 6 for PC and Stadia.