Blood Bowl 3 will finally release in February next year
After several pandemic-induced delays
Blood Bowl 3 had originally intended to touchdown sometime in 2021, then slipped into 2022. Its release date has now been announced and it's a little later, still. The turn-based death sport will return on February 23rd, 2023. There's a brief release date trailer below.
If you're not familiar, Blood Bowl is like American football, but with Warhammer Fantasy orcs, and controlled like an XCOM skirmish. It's based on one of the older Games Workshop board games, and a faithful recreation. The previous two games from developer Cyanide have arguably been successful enough that you can credit them with Games Workshop's decision to start making new boards and minis for the game.
Big orc fan Jeremy Peel had a play of Blood Bowl 3 for us earlier this year, and found it another "fond, faithful adaptation" - although he was a little frustrated it didn't go further.
There’s no doubt that Blood Bowl remains a wonderful hybrid of sports and combat, chance and intention, slip-ups and audacious escapes. Yet with matches regularly running to an hour - many minutes of which are spent blocking opponents at the 50-yard line, over and over - it remains a gruelling game too. One in which newcomers devote a long time to losing, and in which advanced tactics are locked away behind a catalogue of punishing fundamentals, all of which must be mastered before meaningful decision-making becomes possible.
Perhaps the final game will take more risks than expected, or be so polished that conservatism won't matter. We'll find out in a few months.