Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access release delayed into October

Baldur's Gate 3, which was scheduled to launch into Early Access a week from today on September 30, will need a little more time before it's ready to go. Larian Studios announced today that the release has been pushed back by a week, to October 6, in order to fix up some last-minute stability and localization issues.

"Our guiding principle for early access is that it's fine for there to be smaller bugs or a few things that are lacking polish, but it needs to offer a fun gameplay experience with as few crashes as possible," the studio said. 

"We're nearly there but we have a few unexpected delays, and we still have some stability issues we're sifting through. Because of the delays, our translations are also later than expected and we want to ensure localization for the announced early access languages is strong enough for our international fans to have a good time."

We have bad news, and good news. But first, the bad news! We're delaying to October 6, by a week. We'll be back later today with the romance & companionship update to pick you all up again. pic.twitter.com/j2NOEk4jAiSeptember 23, 2020

Larian expects that a week should be all it needs to ensure that everything is up to snuff, but also warned that the game hasn't been run through its "World Tester" tool. That process is now underway, "and the results are looking good but not perfect yet," suggesting that a longer delay is possible if things suddenly go south.

Even so, the studio is optimistic, or at least hopeful. "Early access is going to launch on October 6 on Stadia, Steam, and GOG," it said. "It is. It really is."

The early access release of Baldur's Gate will cost $60, whenever it arrives, making it Larian's most expensive PC game ever despite not being finished. This is why.