Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition Delayed to November

Overhaul/Beamdog sent us an announcement delaying Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition to November, just days before the expected release:

Dear Friends of Baldur’s Gate,
When we first announced Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, You set fire to our servers and we were overwhelmed by the huge wave of support from the fans of the original game.
Once the fires had subsided, thousands of you posted suggestions and requests on our forums. Dozens of volunteers from all over the world helped us improve game play, squash bugs, and generally fine-tune the game. Even more came to help work on translations from English to more than 16 other languages.
Executing on our plan to make the best Baldur’s Gate possible and responding to that overwhelming feedback, we’ve added new characters, areas, and story, creating many new hours of game play. Yet the suggestions, fixes, and translations continue, and more volunteers keep joining.
After recently reviewing the game and then consulting with our partners, we've decided to ensure that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is the best possible product on launch. Thus, we have pushed back the release date of the game. Our release date is now November 30th, 2012.
To all who have pre-ordered, we ask for your patience as we move toward our final release date.We will be working on something a little extra for you. To all who have volunteered, we thank you for your dedication and support.
Trent Oster
President, Overhaul Games

By way of apology, they have a story snippet from staff writer Dave Gross and a voiceover audio sample.

More information.

Good idea, if you ask me. I was getting a bad vibe off this one. I forget the specifics, but T.O. there was recently saying in some interview how they were going to have to leave important stuff out of the Pc version and patch it in later. I could smell disaster all over this one. I wasn't going to buy it. Maybe I will if it's sounding better after the new time they've just bought themselves.

Not surprising. There were too few specifics (including UI screenshots) for this to be coming out next week or even next month.

Its been almost 15 years, I'd rather they take their time for this remake (if its sales will have any bearing on a future BG3).

I took next week off from work and planned to use some of that time off for BG. I planned my vacation with this release date in mind… With just days away to drop a bomb on the fans like that is a marketing blunder!

Maybe all the negative comments about the colors of the UI scared them? Why wait to the last minute to pull the plug and add over two months on? This apology is the same crap they been saying all along… I'm really angry!

I expect the avatars to be 100% redone. Make them look like Temple of Elemental Evil. I don't want to hear about extra added DLC to make up for this screw-up. A big FU to beamdog!

It's just business as usual company's love waiting till release to announce delays. Always pisses me off and you have to be a fool to believe it's due to bug testing.

Other games are coming out and they know they can't compete. That is the reason for most delay's.

I don't care if it is for improvements, I don't think I've ever seen a delay this close to release. I am among many who was planning on the date. Delay, fine, but this close to the date? Majorly tacky.

This release would drown in the news of Obsidian Kickstarter, Black mesa and FTL release and all that..probably good move.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
It's just business as usual company's love waiting till release to announce delays. Always pisses me off and you have to be a fool to believe it's due to bug testing.

Oh, I believe it is because of bug testing. Because that's what german print mag Gamestar criticized for their preview version of the game in this month's issue, based on a beta: Lots of bugs. They normally do not mention these things, if it is a minor thing. So my guess is, it's true. Maybe not the whole truth, but still true. Releasing an indie titel after Thanksgiving without any need also doesn't seem quite clever to me.

Originally Posted by Bry72
I don't care if it is for improvements, I don't think I've ever seen a delay this close to release. I am among many who was planning on the date. Delay, fine, but this close to the date? Majorly tacky.

I take it you're new to gaming?

Originally Posted by Avantenor
Oh, I believe it is because of bug testing. Because that's what german print mag Gamestar criticized for their preview version of the game in this month's issue, based on a beta: Lots of bugs.

What lots of bugs are we talking about? There are fan fixpacks for both BG games and add-ons that fix everything (only boots of speed bug in BG2 couldn't be fixed completely for Edwin because to fix that particular bug you'd have to mess with the exe itself). And I don't think that the new content is so huge that can produce more than a few bugs.

I bet the delay is somehow connected with porting the game to iOS.

Originally Posted by Paul
This release would drown in the news of Obsidian Kickstarter, Black mesa and FTL release and all that..probably good move.

You forgot Borderland 2, it release on Sept 18.

Originally Posted by joxer
What lots of bugs are we talking about? There are fan fixpacks for both BG games and add-ons that fix everything (only boots of speed bug in BG2 couldn't be fixed completely for Edwin because to fix that particular bug you'd have to mess with the exe itself). And I don't think that the new content is so huge that can produce more than a few bugs.

I bet the delay is somehow connected with porting the game to iOS.

I think you underestimate the changes they made to the game. They did quite some changes that affect the technical aspect and will mainly be recognized by modders. E.g. the UI is now modular. They also implemented several new code like zoom in, touchpad controls and new multiplayer code. That's more than using tutu to improve resolution and there is a good chance, that these changes cause bugs. Also Tutu wasn't build in a day, and I don't think they can use modder code on a commercial basis, for legal reasons.

Originally Posted by Avantenor
I don't think they can use modder code on a commercial basis, for legal reasons.

I've never worked on BG fixes but just SoA fixes, but I don't see any legal issues there, anyone can use or change anything freely without thinking on some legal reasons as long as it's improving the game. Trust me, all ppl who added a fix would agree on that. As it wasn't adding new stuff in the game, just fixing problems.

If you have all game data polished and 90% of your job is only to make engine changes in game graphics, 1% of other stuff (I/O devices) and 9% of new questlines, sorry but I don't think I underestimate anything.

If you cannot wait, the original is up on sale on Gog right now.

Hey, if they further clean up and polish the product, I'm all for it. Nothing kills interest in a decent game faster than a buggy release.

Originally Posted by rjshae
Hey, if they further clean up and polish the product, I'm all for it. Nothing kills interest in a decent game faster than a buggy release.

of course, but the issue here is how they did it. They collected pre order money and built hype only to pull the plug days away from release…

Was it some bug that all of the sudden popped up and they didn't have the time to fix? Maybe they got scared over all the negative feedback over the colors of the UI(personally, I'm fine with it, matches the original look)…

What this really means is that there isn't a release date now. November 30th means nothing. Playing with the fans like this isn't a very good way to jump the project off with.

I agree, the November 30th date means less than nothing, at this point. What it DOES mean is I have time to explore Torchlight II and X-com. So, thanks for that much, Beamdog ). Oh, and they saved me money because I was gonna send like 10 pizzas to their Edmonton office, since I live 4 blocks away. =p


-Carn

I think the UI changes could be polished a lot further - some of the photoshopped alternatives on their forums look a lot better. Anyway, here's Trent's reason from twitter.

We still had way too many open bugs for launch. We're not smart enough to pull off some marketing master plan

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I think the UI changes could be polished a lot further - some of the photoshopped alternatives on their forums look a lot better. Anyway, here's Trent's reason from twitter.

again, I just don't see why they waited to the last minute to decide that they still had way too many bugs to fix. It just sounds like a lot of bull…

I've heard that many people have contacted Beamdog inquiring about refunds. That cannot be a good thing.


-Carn