‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ will not offer preloading before launch

Baldur’s Gate 3, one of the most anticipated games of this year, is a significantly sizable game and will apparently require 122GB of space.

However, players won’t be able to pre-load the game ahead of its launch.

• READ MORE: Everything you need to know about ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’

“Please note that your Early Access save games will not be compatible at launch; however, so much has changed that it’s really worth it to start afresh,” advised Larian Studios in a post to Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Steam listing. On August 3, the game will unlock at 5pm in Gent, Belgium (4pm BST), and the developer provided a guide to when that works out to be in the rest of the time zones.

“There will be no pre-loading of the game before then,” clarified the team. Furthermore, those who have purchased a PC copy of the game through Steam or GOG will also be given access to the Mac version of Baldur’s Gate 3, and this will arrive after the PC launch.

Cross-saves between PC, Mac and PlayStation 5 are compatible, permitting players to start their playthrough through their Steam account and then pick it up again in September. The game is Steam Deck compatible, too, and Larian Studios is hoping that Baldur’s Gate 3 is verified in the next few days.

An explainer from PC Gamer rationalised why Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t let its players pre-load the game, however useful that might be for people who have slower internet connections.

Steam encrypts the files for a game that is pre-loaded before its launch. But, because Baldur’s Gate 3 was in early access for three years, Steam lacks the functionality to encrypt the files that are already available. As previously mentioned, Larian Studios encouraged players to start anew with their playthroughs to make the most of all of the additions and changes over the early access period.

In other gaming news, sources close to Nintendo claimed that the development kits for the company’s next console have been sent to “key partner studios”.

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