Baldur's Gate 3 makes a critical save against Starfield and is now launching nearly a month early

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"This means the PC version of Baldur's Gate 3 will be released at a time when you'll have more time to play it."

Baldur's Gate 3 bards
(Image credit: Larian)

In a June 29 update on Steam, Larian announced that upcoming mega-RPG Baldur's Gate 3 will be launching nearly a month earlier than initially planned: August 3 instead of its original August 31 date. The post also revealed that the PlayStation 5 version has been delayed a week to September 6.

Explaining the move, Larian stated that "This means the PC version of Baldur's Gate 3 will be released at a time when you'll have more time to play it." Presumably Larian was shaking in its boots at the September 1 early access launch of bedroom-programmed indie shooter, Fortune's Run. Just kidding man, don't make that face. Of course it's in order to duck Starfield.

Bethesda's mondo-sized, megahit-in-the-making RPG is set to launch September 6, and the proximity of the two has been giving RPG likers the word over a nervous flop sweat. Now with more than a month separating the two, that'll give us more breathing room to enjoy both—and Larian's launch is less likely to be eclipsed by the Starship that Todd built.

I'm so used to massive game delays, it's shocking to see a release of this profile get pushed up a whole month, but it makes more sense with the simultaneous delay of the PS5 version. I'm willing to bet that Baldur's Gate 3 on PC was on an August 3 trajectory for some time, with an extra month's wait to simu-launch with PS5 giving the team extra time to polish the game, and that the PS5 version's delay preceded the PC version's expediting.

As for that PS5 version though, sheesh, now it's stuck day-and-date with Starfield. The two games are on mutually-exclusive platforms, with Starfield only on Xbox/PC, but that's still a tough situation for Baldur's Gate 3's console version to launch into. As for Baldur's Gate 3 eventually coming to Xbox Series consoles, Larian is still leaving the door open, saying that it will "release it when it's ready."

Ted Litchfield
Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.