Baldur's Gate 3 bucks COVID-19 trend with some early access good news

Baldur's Gate 3 could very well turn out to be one of the biggest games of the year, but like most everyone else at the moment, the developers at Larian Studios are stuck at home, trying to continue their work amidst a pandemic. That, unsurprisingly, means that productivity has suffered to some extent as the Larian team adjusts to this new way of making games.

Larian Studios chief Swen Vincke sat down with The New York Times as part of a lengthy write up about the state of the video games industry. Even though game sales have gone up as many people are stuck at home and looking for ways to fill the time, The New York Times reports that this is a challenging time for many games developers who are in the middle of creating a new game, as working from home presents some unique challenges.

Though Vincke estimates that Larian's various teams are "operating at 70 to 80 percent of their normal productivity," there's some good news: Baldur's Gate 3 is still on track for its early access release in 2020. Thus far, the only kind of release date Larian has discussed is that early access one, and it's gone so far as saying that it'll be launching at some point this year.

First New York Times interview was not exactly about what I would've imagined, but it does bring some good news: While we're slowed down, development on BG3 keeps on progressing and we still expect EA this year https://t.co/BvT7qCQD2V

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) April 21, 2020

Still, the coronavirus outbreak could have a negative effect on Larian's development timeline. Even though Vincke suggests that things are progressing – albeit slowly – there are some things like motion capture that can't be done remotely. Vincke tells The New York Times that Larian is "hoping that eventually we're going to organize something," in regards to resuming work on motion capture and voice overs.

For now, though, Vincke indicates that development continues on the game. "First New York Times interview was not exactly about what I would've imagined, but it does bring some good news: While we're slowed down, development on BG3 keeps on progressing and we still expect EA this year," Vincke said in the tweet you see above. We'll keep an ear to the ground for more on Baldur's Gate 3, so stay tuned for that.