Baldur’s Gate 3 Dev Hid a Secret About the Game’s Release in Plain Sight

The Baldur’s Gate 3 release date (August 2023) had been hidden in plain sight all along, written on a whiskey bottle by none other than Larian Studios’ publishing director five years ago. Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the most successful games of 2023, and its development process took quite some time, including an early access period in 2020. However, Larian Studios had set a specific release date well in advance—and they managed to stick to it.

Right upon release, Baldur’s Gate 3 was highly praised by players and critics alike, and its popularity has steadily grown ever since. The game began its journey in late 2016 and early 2017 with early pre-production before being officially announced to the world in 2019. It entered Early Access in October 2020, allowing fans to contribute to shaping its narrative and intricate mechanics, and finally launched in August 2023 after nearly seven years of development. Larian built BG3 on the Divinity 4.0 engine and stuck to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, delivering a deep turn-based combat system, an impressively rich branching storytelling, fully voiced dialogue, and cooperative multiplayer. The result was a record-breaking game, with over 10 million copies sold.

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Nowhere during BG3’s long development journey did anyone stumble upon a crucial secret that Larian Studios’ publishing director, Michael Douse, had once scribbled on a whiskey bottle in a bar: the game’s release date. As revealed by Douse himself in a Twitter post, he was drunk in a bar before the pandemic even started, took a bottle of whiskey, wrote “Baldur’s Gate 3 release date on rear,” and left it hanging at the bar.

Larian Studios’ Publishing Director Hid BG3 Release Date on a Bar Bottle 5 Years Ago

Surprisingly, the BG3 release date was never leaked, with Douse admitting that “in retrospect, it’s funny and not a legal issue.” In a follow-up tweet, the developer playfully wrote that it’s nice to be back at the bar after “5 years drinking from the mythical bottle of secrets.” Notably, after revealing the secret, Douse also added, “Maybe I did it again? Who knows.” While it doesn’t say much, it could be taken as a small tease about Baldur’s Gate 3’s developer’s next project, and it might be worth keeping an eye out to see whether Douse has left notes for a new game hidden somewhere.

Nearly two years after the game’s release, Baldur’s Gate 3 launched Patch 8 in April, marking the its last big content update. The patch introduced 12 brand-new subclasses, Photo Mode, full cross-play support across PC, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation, and more for players to continue enjoying the highly acclaimed RPG.

Baldur’s Gate 3

9/10

Released

August 3, 2023

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

Engine

Divinity 4.0