Baldur's Gate III - 20 August
 

They will try to. EA.

Yeah, I don't understand this. Isn't BG3 a AAA game with a publisher behind them? They're gonna early access a AAA game like BG? This might set a bad precedent for AAA publishers.

Ok, nevermind, it seems Larian is also publishing it. Hm, weird, that we're in an age where there's no big publisher that would take the risk for a Baldur's Gate game.

No it's not that. They don't want to.

As a developer, you want to be your own publisher if you have the wherewithal to do so. This isn't an "aw shucks, nobody wants our game" situation.

Well Larian's Swen Vincke does not have a good track record or opinion of publishers. He used to pen articles on his personal blog where he talked about this.

His company almost went bankrupt a few times due to publishers/difference of opinion.

I know it's ideal for a developer to not be involved with a publisher, if possible. I meant it more that it's telling of the times we're living in when a publisher doesn't even want to bother getting the IP themselves, and then finding a developer to build them the game, for them to keep the profits.

Or maybe I'm too naive and idealistic to think a big publisher would bother with such a game, when they can milk other games that also have microtransactions and lootboxes. :D

Don't disagree with you but this is becoming more common since Kickstarter. I remember complaining as well when it first happened. It's a win /win for both parties I guess.
True but Loot boxes are under fire world-wide now. Not a bad thing either.

Cool, I’ll be playing August 20th then. Not sure why the negativity surrounding early access. I like having the option of trying games out, especially if I’m really looking forward to it. Games with many different builds and a deep rule set are perfect for EA imo.

And if you don’t like trying it out or don’t want to be spoiled then wait until full release. Seems like a win win to me. Assuming it doesn’t stay in EA forever but i have no worries of that with Larian.

No issue with EA for small or studios that self-fund. I was initially under the impression that they also had a big publisher behind them. I imagined one would want to get behind a game like Baldur's Gate. I guess I was wrong to assume that. :D

The indie scene and the whole Kickstarter thing is born and has grown because the publishers were not going out of their comfort zone.
Many genre would have died if it was just for the publishers and they have been the villains of this industry until companies like EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft replace them.

And those became the Villains because they actually do as the Publishers used to do: finance studios, boss them in some direction according to some 'consumer study' or cut the money. The only difference is EA and co buy the studio instead of just financing them. That is why you have a Bioware doing Anthem shit now.

It's a damn good thing than the publishers don't get a say in everything.

Don't feel bad as I thought they had outside funding as well for it's development. Guess they don't are the publisher only paid so much out of their own pocket.
That's me as I hate playing EA games. Based on my last poll I'm not the only one.

Link - https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45230

Larian is starting to become a AAA studio all by themselves!

As for early access… kinda my antithesis these days. Especially with Larian's recent history of releasing enhanced/ultimate/definitive editions with some pretty substantive extras. I'll be waiting for the complete version for sure.

Why does it matter what size the studio is?

I will not be trying the early access version of this, but I will likely pick it up when it is fully released because….well, it's Baldur's Gate, derrr! Yeah I didn't care much for Original Sin two, so I'll be hoping it isn't like that.

I'm hoping that Larian brings the early access to GOG because that is where I would like to keep my baldur's gate collection.

I'm definitely waiting for full release. Too much of a story-based game to spoiler with early access.

I think the reputation of some smaller publishers has grown in recent times, with some offering much more reasonable deals and good relationships. I think it can make sense for a small indie to work with a publisher - who wants to spend time on marketing, trade shows, and social media campaigns? Urgh. Funnily enough, EA's indie publishing program offers about the best deal in the world - they invest in your game, take back only what they put in, and you keep 100% of the IP and the rest of the profit!

I think Larian have some sort of deal with Google Stadia for BG3, but Stadia is looking like a massive flop at this point.

Stadia is a disappointment and I don't like the fact it turned a failure.
I have no idea why it turned out to be borderline useless, maybe it was rushed to the market like Gothic3?

That platform was supposed to compete with phones and consoles (kill them basically) - but everything that could go wrong happened to it.
Here's hope nVidia's game streaming service won't repeat the same mistake(s).

Not surprised as every cloud gaming service has flopped. Still remember the PR campaigns calling it the future. Turns out its not and never will be anytime soon.