Baldur's Gate 3 director agrees with No Rest for the Wicked lead that Early Access is "a positive thing" for games like their two RPGs – when it works

Baldur's Gate 3 is arguably one of the most successful games to start its journey on Steam in Early Access, and developers like Ori and the Blind Forest's Moon Studios have looked to it as an example of why such a release model works so well.

Thomas Mahler, CEO of Moon Studios – the very same team behind the recent chart-topper action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked – discusses as much in a recent online post responding to fans' concerns surrounding the choice to use the Early Access model.

He first cites Larian's own decision to launch Baldur's Gate 3 that same way in 2020. "You know that Baldur's Gate 3 was in Early Access for 3 years, right?"

Mahler continues: "It's true that a lot of developers are abusing the Early Access model, but games like BG3 and No Rest for the Wicked would probably never get made if it wouldn't be for Early Access because games like that are just too inherently complex and there needs to be a dedicated community that gives it a shot early on in order for the developers to work with that data."

It makes sense – and largely echoes what Larian has previously said. In fact, Baldur's Gate 3 director and Larian Studios lead Swen Vincke told us that new RPG Divinity will likely launch into Early Access first, too, as "you get something really cool out of that process."

Mahler notes this in his thread, too – as well as why Larian is probably using Early Access on Steam once again. "There's a reason why Larian already announced that they'll use Early Access again for their next game," he writes.

"It's not because they need the money, it's because games at this level of complexity aren't just something that you work on in solitude and can release if you only have like 100 people playing it during development. Just mathematically, that wouldn't be enough scale in order to find all the issues, given the complexity of the systems. Not to mention that it's impossible to judge how players would react to the delicate balance required."

He concludes, "I'd say just stick with developers that have a proven track record. If they've shipped multiple high-quality titles before and are doing an Early Access, it's probably for this exact reason."

Interestingly enough, perhaps thanks to the mention of Baldur's Gate 3, Mahler's thoughts caught the attention of Vincke himself, who leaves a reply in agreement with the fellow dev's post.

"100%," it reads. "Games that successfully come out of Early Access prove that when players and devs unite around something they genuinely care about, beautiful things happen. It's a positive thing. Even if there are negative examples, don't let those overshadow the good ones."

I'd say Vincke and Mahler are correct here – the model, when it works, tends to work pretty well. Gathering players' opinions early and using them to improve is usually good.

It's a simple way to involve players in the development process and ensure that the final game reflects what the game developers envisioned and what fans expect to get out of it – when it works, as Vincke implies, that is.

As Highguard continues to get trashed online, Baldur's Gate 3 boss Swen Vincke says "I don't like people s***ing on things" as "it's easy to destroy things, it's a lot harder to build them"