Baldur’s Gate 3 Can’t Be Pre-Installed Despite Massive 122GB Download

The long anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3 releases Aug 3, but some players might not be able to play it on release day thanks to a hefty 122GB download that can't be pre-installed.

“Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch on August 3rd at 5pm Gent time, or your non-Belgian timezone equivalent as shown above,” developer Larian Studios confirmed in a community update on the game’s Steam page. “There will be no pre-loading of the game before then.”

Larian Studios founder and CEO Swen Vincke had noted in an interview with itmeJP’s podcast last week that that the developer hoped the game’s pre-install situation would be clearer closer to launch, but had no idea how digital storefronts would handle the release.

Pre-loading for Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t be coming to the game because of its unique release cycle, according to PC Gamer. While the full game is dropping Aug 3 on PC, portions of the game have been available in early access since October 2020, meaning the certain parts of the game’s files can’t be retroactively encrypted so that it isn’t playable before its official release.

The Messenger has reached out to Larian Studios for comment on the status of the game’s release.

The news is particularly frustrating for gamers who don’t have the bandwidth to download such a large game within a reasonable amount of time. Some users in the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit are already saying their download could take days to complete once it starts.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released on PC Thursday morning at 8 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. EST. The game’s PlayStation 5 version will release Sept. 6 and will feature cross saves with the PC version. The game’s Xbox version has not yet received a release date, due to Larian still working to the game to run on the less powerful Series S.