Joining the Steam Early Access version of the game next month, Baldur's Gate 3 will also come to Early Access on Stadia beginning on September 30. Earlier this year, Larian Studios announced they would be taking the reigns of the long-dormant series from its previous owners at BioWare.
Following an earlier delay where the team did not commit to a new launch date, Larian said the best-case scenario would be that Baldur's Gate 3 arrived in August, but it's now set on the calendars for Steam and Stadia on September 30.
In Early Access on either platform, players can create their own characters or drop into the expansive world as one of five "Origin" heroes, including Astarion (Elf/Vampire Rogue), Gale (Human Wizard), Lae’zel (Githyanki Warrior), Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric), and Wyll (Human Warlock).
Though the Early Access version will only consist of Baldur's Gate 3's first act, the team at Larian clarified just how much that actually is, using the Early Access version of the massive Divinity Original Sin 2 as a yardstick. In total, Baldur's Gate 3's first act has nearly four times as many combat encounters (80 versus 22), while lines of dialog stack up to over 45,000 in BG3, compared to just over 17,000 in DOS2.
Simiilarly, while Divinity Original Sin 2 had 142 characters when it launched in Early Access, Baldur's Gate 3 has just shy of 600, with more than twice as many spells to cast too, 69 versus 146.
While the full release will come to other platforms later, the Early Access version is a big get for Stadia, which continues to struggle to find its footing in an games market only getting more crowded as streaming contenders such as Nvidia's GeForce Now and Xbox's Project xCloud go mass market alongside new console launches coming this fall including the Xbox Series X and PS5. This may be the boost Stadia needs to stay in contention as we approach its first anniversary this November.
