Baldur’s Gate 3’s release date just got delayed and moved up at the same time

By Tomas Franzese June 29, 2023

The PC and PS5 versions of Baldur’s Gate 3 have gotten new release dates, leading to a weird situation where the game’s launch has been moved up and delayed at the same time.

Originally announced for Google Stadia in 2019, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a successor to BioWare’s classic Dungeons & Dragons RPG franchise and has been in early access on PC since October 2020. Its 1.0 PC release, as well as a PS5 port, were confirmed to launch on August 31 earlier this year, but that is no longer the case. In the latest community update, developer Larian Studios confirmed that Baldur’s Gate 3 launches for PC on August 3 and for PS5 on September 6.

Larian admits that “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,” moving its launch away from late August and early September heavy hitters like Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and Starfield. And now, the new PS5 release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 gives PlayStation players a console-exclusive RPG of their own (albeit a temporary one) on the day Starfield comes out.

New release date key art for Baldur's Gate 3 — Larian Studios

Still, the September 6 date is technically a delay, which Larian also explained its reasoning behind in the community update. “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,” it explained. “We don’t want to compromise on quality and feel it would be a shame to downscale to 30 fps 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.”

So to clarify, Baldur’s Gate 3 first launches on PC across Steam, GOG, and Nvidia GeForce Now on August 3. Then, a PS5 port comes out on September 6. Larian Studios also confirms that a Mac version is in the works and that it’s “optimistic” about Xbox works once it works through the kinks of getting it to run well on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

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Baldur’s Gate 3: PS5 release dates, file size, preorder, and early access

A party of heroes stands on a cliff in Baldur's Gate 3.

If you've been patiently waiting for Baldur's Gate 3 to arrive on PlayStation 5 while PC players got an early start, you won't have to wait much longer, unlike Xbox players. By now you don't need us to tell you just how amazing this game has shaped up to be, and are more than likely already prepared with your choice of character and just waiting for the green light to finally dive into this massive CRPG. But if your excitement has gotten the better of you and you don't know exactly when Baldur's Gate 3 will be ready to play, how to preload, or even if you can get in on the game a little early, we've got you covered.
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Baldur's Gate 3 will come out for all PS5 players officially on September 6 at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET. Anyone who purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition gets 72 hours of early access, meaning you can start playing on September 3 instead.
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Laezel in Baldur's Gate 3

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Baldur’s Gate 3, a turn-based Dungeons & Dragons RPG currently on PC, is one of the year’s most-played games. It does have a cooperative mode, but it's entirely fulfilling as a single-player adventure. And those looking for more fantastic single-player adventure didn’t have a shortage of other games big and small to turn to once they beat that gigantic one.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 1 improves the game in over 1,000 ways

Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3.

Larian Studios released Patch No. 1 for Baldur's Gate 3 today, almost a month after launch and following several hotfixes. It brings over 1,000 gameplay improvements and bug fixes to the highly successful RPG.

Baldur's Gate 3 has been a massive success since its August 3 release on PC, but it definitely hasn't been free of bugs and some other weird quirks. Four hotfixes have addressed some of the most pressing issues, but these patches are much larger in scale when it comes to what they add and fix. Larian says Patch 1 is primarily focused on game balance and flow tweaks, as well as bug fixes. There's nothing too glamorous or game-changing, but it should make playing Baldur's Gate 3 an even smoother experience.
A couple of these fixes have to do with the game's romance system. A bug causing the conclusion to Shadowheart's romance to not activate properly has been fixed, and animations have been added so taller characters don't awkwardly kiss or hug shorter ones anymore. Fixes have been made in preventing bugs at the Morphic Pool, an issue where loot wouldn't appear on corpses in multiplayer, and some Game Over screens problematically appearing where they shouldn't have. There are way too many tweaks and bug fixes to list here, so we recommend going to the Baldur's Gate 3 website to check out the full list.
Unfortunately, game performance improvements aren't part of Patch 1, as Larian Studios is saving those for Patch 2. But it says that we "won’t be waiting long" for those. Baldur's Gate 3 is available now for PC, comes to PlayStation 5 on September 6, and will launch on Xbox Series X/S before the end of the year.