Big news for Baldur’s Gate 3 fans: developer Larian has brought forward the PC release by a month, avoiding a potentially brutal clash with Bethesda’s behemoth Starfield.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was planned for launch on August 31, a day before Starfield’s effective September 1 release date. Now, the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 launches August 3, giving it a month head-start on Starfield.
The PlayStation 5 version, however, is delayed a week to September 6. The Xbox version is still without a release window, as is the Mac version.
In a community update, Larian said the new release date “means the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released at a time where you’ll have more time to play it”. That’s a thinly-veiled nod to players who were perhaps concerned about the prospect of choosing between Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield on PC when they were coming out a day after the other.
In an interview with IGN, Larian founder and creative director Swen Vincke refused to namecheck Starfield as the direct cause for the PC release date shift, instead speaking in general terms about wanting to find a slot within the busy release calendar.
"You've got Zelda, you've got Diablo 4, you've got Starfield, Final Fantasy... it's a really big year."
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“I know the comparison [to Starfield] is inevitable of course because it's coming out,” Vincke said. “But I don't know if you've looked at the rest of the year, it's a super busy period. I don't think we've had as busy a year as this in a long time. You've got Zelda, you've got Diablo 4, you've got Starfield, Final Fantasy, there's a bunch of others I'm not mentioning. It's a really big year.
“There's always going to be competition and games coming out at the same time, but we had this PC version we were sitting on and we were saying, there's a window there where players will be able to spend their time playing the games they want to play. They want to play Baldur's Gate 3. They want to play Starfield. They want to play Diablo. They want to play Final Fantasy. And there's only so much time they have in their busy gaming schedules.
“So we had to figure out, do we want to shove everything out at the same time because we are trying to get a simultaneous release, or not? We figured, it's there, they've been waiting for such a long time. We want it out. Because we've been sitting on this game for a long time, too. It's time to get it out.”
The PS5 version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is delayed slightly to help Larian hit the 60 frames per second performance goal it has for the sprawling role-playing game on console. It’s worth noting the 60fps goal for Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5 relates to single-player only. The framerate will be lower when played two-player split-screen co-op.
“Baldur’s Gate 3 is targeting 60fps and we’re close to achieving that on the platform but need a bit more extra time,” Larian said in its community update. “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.”
“We're very close to [60fps],” Vincke told IGN. “We figured, if we managed to do it, that would be great for players.”
That leaves the thorny issue of the Xbox version. Earlier this year, Larian raised eyebrows when it issued a statement explaining the lack of a release date for the Xbox Series X and S versions of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Larian said: “We’ve run into some technical issues in developing the Xbox port that have stopped us feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we’re certain we’ve found the right solutions – specifically, we’ve been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship.”
While there is no platform exclusivity preventing Larian from releasing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox alongside the PS5 version, this Microsoft requirement for splitscreen co-op to “work to the same standard” across Xbox Series X and S is. Unfortunately for Xbox owners, Larian requires more time to get splitscreen co-op running as well on the less powerful Xbox Series S. (IGN reveals how Microsoft engineers have been drafted in to help with Baldur's Gate 3's split-screen - and what it may mean for the future of the Xbox Series S - here.)
When pressed by IGN for a release window for the Xbox version, Vincke said Larian’s “ambition is definitely to get it ready for this year.
“Our teams have been working on this for quite some time, and they're pissed off themselves that they didn't manage to do it,” Vincke said. “I hope people understand, it's the reality of development. It exists. It's not necessarily what you want, but it exists.
“We want this game finished. It's ready. It needs to get out there. We want players to play it. We want as many players as possible to play it. So it's in our own best interest to bring it out on all platforms.
“We are doing everything we can, but we don't want to compromise as we're doing that. We want to make sure that when you get it in your hands it's something you say hey, this is really good, I want to play this with my buddies in multiplayer.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
