Larian has for some time now said that its “expectation” is that Baldur’s Gate 3 will go from early access to full release sometime in 2023. Now it’s official: In a new video released as part of today’s D&D Direct event, the studio said the big RPG epic will be out next year.
The video is largely a recap of progress made since Baldur’s Gate 3 was announced in 2019—in fact, it’s called “The Journey So Far”—dressed up in Larian’s now-traditional cosplay silliness. There’s no question the game has come a long way over the intervening years, a fact clearly visible in the before-and-after graphical comparisons.
But there is one interesting bit of news stashed away in there, which is the long-awaited confirmation that yes, 2023 is the year.
“By the Nine Hell, we’ve added a lot of great stuff already,” the tiefling narrating the video adventure says. “And there’s more where that came from. So join us in early access on our journey to Baldur’s Gate 3, or come along in 2023 when the game releases.”
The 2023 confirmation might be disappointing for especially optimistic fans who were tightly crossing fingers for an arrival in late ’22, but Larian generally isn’t known as a studio that rushes releases—in fact, it briefly delayed the early access release of Baldur’s Gate 3 at the last minute so it could work out some last-minute problems.