Josh Sawyer Says Early Access Would Not Have Saved Pillars of Eternity 2

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Obsidian Entertainment veteran Josh Sawyer does not believe Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire would have launched in a better state if it had followed the same early access path as Baldur’s Gate 3. While he admits Obsidian’s approach was not perfect, Sawyer says the core issues would likely have remained.

Both Pillars of Eternity games used backer betas, which gave early access to players who supported the projects. In a recent video on his YouTube channel Sawyer, who directed both titles, was asked if he would change anything about how those betas were handled.

Sawyer explained that the main goal of the betas was not fine-tuning balance. Instead, the team focused on the overall experience. Obsidian wanted feedback on how quests worked, how dialogue was shown, and what kinds of character builds players enjoyed. Balance, especially at higher difficulty levels, was not the top priority during that stage.

To reduce risk, Sawyer said the betas mostly used side content. This content would appear later in the game and was important, but not central to the main story. If its quality dipped during testing due to constant changes, it would not heavily affect how players viewed the final game. Despite these benefits, Sawyer admits there was a major problem. Pillars of Eternity 2 did not receive enough balance work for its harder difficulty modes, Veteran and Path of the Damned. He says this was a mistake on his part, caused by how time and resources were used late in development.

According to Sawyer, many systems needed tuning, but they did not get the attention they required. Obsidian patched these issues about two weeks after launch, but the team still had to catch up. While Sawyer does not see this as a disaster, he says he would have preferred to address it earlier. Sawyer also addressed comparisons to Baldur’s Gate 3, which spent nearly three years in early access with its opening act available to players. He said that even if Obsidian had focused on the start of the game instead, the same problems would likely have appeared later on.

As Sawyer explained, balance issues tend to grow as a game goes on. The deeper players get, the more systems and numbers interact, making problems harder to predict early. While some issues can be spotted in the early game, many only become clear much later. He also pointed out that Baldur’s Gate 3 faced similar criticism at launch, especially around the balance of its third act. Sawyer noted that this was likely because the early and mid-game received far more testing, while later content did not get the same level of attention.

In the end, Sawyer says he does not regret the backer beta model used for Pillars of Eternity. While it was not perfect, he does not believe it was a failure either. If given another chance, he would mainly change how resources were spent toward the end of development, rather than switching to a full early access release.