Baldur's Gate 3 Announced, Coming From Divinity: Original Sin Studio

After what's been a long period of general inactivity, the ex-BioWare RPG series Baldur's Gate is back. Baldur's Gate III was officially announced during Google's E3 Stadia Connect stream, which was largely focused on nailing down details about the cloud stream service. Beyond new information about its price and release window, we also learned about many of Stadia's games--and they include Baldur's Gate III. However, the game is not a Stadia exclusive and will also be released on PC.

This announcement doesn't come as a complete surprise. The possibility of Baldur's Gate III came up recently when Larian Studios, the developer behind Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II, posted a teaser to its website involving the number three. What appeared to be a mistaken mention of Baldur's Gate in the metadata of the teaser seemed to imply the franchise was being resurrected, rather than this tease being for Divinity: Original Sin III. The official announcement was accompanied by a new trailer (which can be seen below).

In the trailer, a knight undergoes a horrifying transformation. His eyes darken, muscles and bones contort, and skin bloats into sludge as he slowly changes into a squid-like, Lovecraft-looking creature. It's a tad disturbing.

We got to chat with Larian ahead of the announcement, and you can check out the video above for a breakdown of the Baldur's Gate III trailer and a look at some Easter eggs. We also spoke with Larian about how Baldur's Gate aims to do what no RPG has before.

In a press release, Larian wrote, "Baldur's Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre and offer a rich narrative with unparalleled player freedom, high-stakes decisions, unique companion characters and memorable combat. It is Larian Studios' biggest production ever and will be playable together with friends or as a single-player adventure."

Like its predecessors, Baldur's Gate III will also be available for PC. Larian didn't provide a specific release date for Baldur's Gate III, but the studio did say it may not launch this year. We'll probably hear more at E3 2019, most likely during The PC Gaming Show.