Baldur's Gate 3 - Will be in Early Access

Morrandir said:

I think it's safe to say that a developer that doesn't do EA is finacially stable. In general that's not true the other way round.

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This. A developer with financial problems will surely release into EA to have a chance of getting cashflow and *perhaps* the means to finish the game. A developer with secure funding will probably still release into EA as a means of getting feedback and expand the number of "beta testers". I would say it's often pretty obvious which one is which, since many games that go into EA are nowhere close to feature complete, and I suspect that if a developer has the financial stability to wait until it is they will. Otherwise they risk getting much less sales in the end because of blowback from disappointed buyers. That's my take anyway.

There are plenty of studios who don't have the revenue streams from their back catalog and such to operate while developing a game for 2-5 years, so in that sense, yeah. But I wouldn't call that financial problems. If they are so out of money that they can't pay their people during development, things like that, THAT would be financial difficulties.

Studios with big-pocketed publishers operate the same way, but they get that money from those develpers during the process (which is why publishers have historically been able to tell those developers to release unfinished games)… EA is like crowd funding, except that you have access to early builds. I don't like playing unfinished games, but I don't consider EA to be any more ominous than a Kickstarter campaign, and I consider it to be a reality for those not at EA, BGS, etc.

I really can't imagine playing this when it is an early access title. I want to experience when it is really done.

I always struggle with this. If a game I am excited about I am always too eager to look at it. The down side is when it is released a lot of the new game smell is gone.

I had this issue with Pathfinder Kingmaker. I went through the first part in Beta like 3 times. When the actual game was released I was a little burnt. I still played but it wasn't until much later, when I played again after they added Tieflings, that I had what I consider my real play through and really experienced the game.

Whether I do EA will depend on self-control I guess ... and how bored I am at the time.

Larian does this to make the game better, I think, just from their recent history. That is one of their strengths, they pay attention to fan feedback and make changes.

I don't do early access games but at the same time I will gladly listen to what those who are playing them say, and what their early impressions are regarding the game. I want to hear what the mechanics of the game are like, what sucks about the game, and what is good or even great about the game.

I'll happily play a game like Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire or Rimworld in early access, especially if they are mostly complete. But never a heavily story based game like Baldur's Gate.

Wait, there's going to be 5 more D&D games in the next 7 years?

Lucky Day said:

Wait, there's going to be 5 more D&D games in the next 7 years?

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More than that, if you count stuff like Realms Beyond and Solasta.

But most of the 5 they're referring to here will likely be terrible action games, like the new Dark Alliance.

Let's see one good game worth playing first, then we'll count the chickens

There usually are chickens in Larian’s games, so that should be doable, although a challenge to make sure you’ve counted them all

I do early access for survival games all the time, but I prefer release versions for crpgs. In fact, it is really rare for survival games to ever get fully released. 7 days to die is from 2013 and it's still in EA, The Long Dark, Road to Eden, SCUM, Solace Crafting, etc. All of these are in EA or not feature complete after years of development.

I don't really care for Larian's stuff since Div2, so EA for BG3 doesn't bother me at all. While I will eventually get the game, it might be a few years down the road after all patches, dlc, etc. I like single-character, single-player games.