Blood Bowl 3 finally has a release date. Originally set to arrive in early 2021, developer Cyanide Studio went back to the drawing board after initial previews weren’t all that charitable. Our own Stacey Henley said, "Everything about Blood Bowl 3 offers a fun, easy-going time - apart from the gameplay itself."
That was 2021, however. Since then, Blood Bowl 3 held a second beta period where it took in loads of feedback from fans. By May of this year, Ben Sledge said that Blood Bowl 3 had "vastly improved" from early previews, noting better menus, a less confusing UI, the ability to turn off confusing icons, and the addition of a formation editor to allow managers to create preset plays.
The highlight of the latest edition of Blood Bowl 3, however, was the vastly improved customization options. Everything, from the players to the ball, can be tuned to the player's preferences. Except for creating a female player, unfortunately, but maybe that’ll be some free post-launch content.
The good news is that after more than a year of diligent work and addressing player concerns. Blood Bowl 3 is finally ready for the big time. It’ll first arrive on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on February 23, 2023. A Nintendo Switch version of the game is still planned, but it’s been delayed to an unspecified future date.
According to Nacon's press release, Blood Bowl 3 is based on the latest version of the venerable tabletop game. There will be 12 factions at launch, four of which debut in Blood Bowl for the first time (you can spot a few of them in the trailer above). Each faction and even the maps will have unique play characteristics, and the game will take into account the rise of esports with its own tournament system.
Cyanide promises more reveals in the three months it has before Blood Bowl 3’s launch, so stay tuned.