Quite rarely we see a game being pushed earlier than its intended release date. In the case of Larian Studios much-awaited title, Baldur’s Gate III sees an August 3 release date, with the PlayStation 5 version getting a September 6 launch.
Read more from the game’s latest steam community update:
Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a game nearly 6 years in development. When Divinity: Original Sin 2 launched, we were 120 people, across a 3 year development. Now we’re 400. Since releasing in Early Access, we’ve been joined by nearly 2 million of you. Together, with your invaluable support, we’ve created a game that eclipses the depth & breadth of our previous RPGs.
- We’ve over doubled DOS2’s five races, bringing 11 to life in BG3 with 31 subraces.
- DOS2’s 10 ‘schools of spells’ is eclipsed by the 12 classes & 46 subclasses in BG3.
- You caused chaos with the 225 player spells & actions in DOS2, so just imagine the havoc you’re about to unleash upon Faerûn with the over 600 spells & actions, excluding upcasts, in BG3.
- Characters in DOS2 enjoyed 45 talents, against BG3’s 308 passive features, which are comparable to talents.
There’s a lot more where that came from, but this is already going to be a long one. We’ve been busy. We’ve grown, and so too has Baldur’s Gate 3. Let’s get into a little detail about what you can expect to see in the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase, just in time for the release of the game on August 3rd for PC, and September 6th for PS5
This means the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released at a time where you’ll have more time to play it.
The PlayStation 5 version will be released roughly a week later than its originally scheduled date of August 31st. Baldur’s Gate 3 is targeting 60 frames-per-second and we’re close to achieving that on the platform but need a bit more extra time. We don’t want to compromise on quality, and feel it would be a shame to downscale to 30fps or make other compromises to hit an arbitrary date.
We understand that folks may be disappointed with this but we’re close enough to reaching new heights for RPGs on the system that the benefits of a short delay outweigh the downsides of rushing the PS5 release and having to downscale. The full Mac version will also be released at a later date, and we’ll update you as soon as we have a target.
More on those new heights: Baldur’s Gate 3 has more cinematic dialogue than three times all three Lord of the Rings novels combined. It has 174 hours of cinematics, making it more than twice the length of every season of Game of Thrones combined.
All that content serves to give you a tremendous amount of choice and consequence, ensuring everyone’s adventure will be unique. And what’s more, you’ll be able to enjoy that content not only in single player, but also in online multiplayer or local co-op with split screen. At the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase, you’ll really get a first glimpse of how it all comes together.
We’ve said before that our goal is to bring our games to as many platforms as possible. We’re optimistic about Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series X, but in order to announce and release the game on Xbox, we need to ensure that the game is performing without compromise across the entire Xbox X|S ecosystem, in multiplayer and with split-screen. We already put a lot of effort into making it work and will continue to do so. Like with the PS5 version, we’ll release it when it’s ready. We’ll update you as soon as we can.
What do you think? It looks to be a very smart move from Larian Studios as not only it evades competing with Starfield, the earlier release date will please the fans who are eagerly awaiting the game since it was announced a few years back.
Baldur’s Gate III releases for the PC on August 3, with the PlayStation 5 following on September 6, 2023.
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