A full 20 years after the last game in the series, Baldur's Gate 3 (opens in new tab) is finally ready to launch in Early Access this week. Developed by Larian, the studio behind the excellent Divinity: Original Sin games, Baldur's Gate 3 builds on Divinity's strong RPG core with an updated ruleset that closely follows D&D 5th Edition. A lot has changed since the original games, but Larian aims to capture the familiar freedom of Baldur's Gate in its modern take.
Unfortunately, Baldur's Gate 3 isn't dropping all at once. It's starting out in Early Access with a full release coming a year or more down the road. Early Access starts tomorrow, but when exactly can you start playing?
When you can play Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access in your time zone
BG3 releases 10am PT Tuesday on Stadia, Steam (Mac/PC), and GoG.October 5, 2020
Larian has confirmed on Twitter that Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access will go live on Tuesday, October 6 at 10 AM PDT on Steam, GOG, and Google Stadia. As a last-minute surprise, Larian also confirmed that the Steam Mac version will be dropping at the same time. Here's that time converted to a few other regions:
- Pacific Daylight Time (US) - 10/6 at 10:00 AM
- Eastern Daylight Time (US) - 10/6 at 1:00 PM
- British Summer Time (UK) - 10/6 at 6:00 PM
- Australian Standard Time (AUS) - 10/7 at 4:00 AM
Here's a countdown timer that shows when that is in your local timezone. (opens in new tab)
If you don't see your timezone in the list above, head to the countdown timer link to see the release time automatically adjusted to your region. Because Baldur's Gate 3 is launching in Early Access on Steam, the game does not support pre-orders or pre-loading. That's a shame considering the game's 150GB storage requirement, but the current build is apparently about 80GB (opens in new tab).
Be sure to catch up on everything we know about Baldur's Gate 3 (opens in new tab) before diving into the game. Also check out our dedicated guides for Baldur's Gate 3 classes (opens in new tab) and Baldur's Gate 3 races (opens in new tab), both of which will see expansions throughout Early Access.
