Wow, that comes as a surprise. After Baldur’s Gate III was supposed to be released on August 31st, Larian Studios got the dates for PC and PS5 mixed up.
In an unexpected move today, Larian Studios dropped Baldur’s Gate III’s originally planned release date – much to the delight of PC gamers, with a crying eye for PS5 gamers.
Accordingly, the PC version of the role-playing game will no longer appear on August 31st, but on August 3rd, almost a month earlier than originally planned. The PS5 version slipped back by around a week and will now only be released on September 6th. If and when the game will be released for Xbox is still uncertain. An Xbox version is said to be in production, but there are still no statements about a date.
One rationale for the PC preference could be that Larian Studios is trying to avoid releasing another RPG titan, namely Starfield, and later in the year things aren’t looking much better with potential competitors like Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, Spider-Man 2 and other titles.
Larian Studios’ justification reads, “Achieving a technical bar that surpasses our design ambitions [auf PS5] felt like the right move, while holding back the PC version when we knew we would be ready felt like a wrong move in such a busy launch period.”
Baldur’s Gate III has been in Early Access since 2020, and there’s a lot more waiting for players than they’ve seen so far. According to a press release, the Early Access version is only about a quarter of the game. So, similar to Divinity: Original Sin 2, Larian’s previous title, it could become a scale monster again. Or rather even bigger, namely a whopping four times as extensive.
“We’re at a point where we’re hitting 60FPS on PlayStation 5, which is remarkable given the scope and depth of Baldur’s Gate 3. The game features over 170 hours of cinematics – more than double the length of Game of Thrones and more than three times the amount of dialogue as the three Lord of the Rings novels combined.It’s a massive, immersive game that truly brings D&D to life, including multiplayer and split-screen co-op, on a scale which is about four times the size of our previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2.”
Larian will finally reveal the full extent of the massive RPG on July 7th as part of the Panel From Hell: Release Showcase live show.
After 20 years, Larian Studios is also returning to the city of Baldur’s Gate – with a complete next-gen reimagining.
