Recent updates
1/27/25: Scuttlebutt on the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit is that the unintended early update to Patch 8 has already been yoinked and cannot be downloaded if you haven't grabbed it already. Meanwhile, Larian has released a guide to rolling back to Patch 7 if you were affected by the bug—saves on this version of Patch 8 are incompatible with Patch 7, and the build is "unsupported" according to Larian. Users on the subreddit who made it in describe it as unstable and prone to crashing.
Original story: As PC Gamer is wont to do, we've been posting a lot about how our device of choice has won the console war. I would like to unilaterally, with authority that I do not have (and have not asked for), state that we've lost. Catastrophically, because the PlayStation 5 has randomly received Patch 8 of Baldur's Gate 3 early and I'm volcanic with jealousy.
The only saving grace is that it's not, er, actually supposed to be this way. In an announcement made to the Baldur's Gate 3 Discord, a senior community manager by the name of Salo writes:
"No, the Patch 8 stress test hasn’t yet begun. Yes, PS5 players do currently have access to Patch 8."
This seems corroborated by, well, the internet—here's one player who's downloading it, here's another. Here's a PS5 player on the Discord server realising that they had, in fact, downloaded Patch 8 of the game with a: "Hexblade is new, right? Because that means that update 8 is in fact, out right now."
This has Larian, broadly-speaking, on high alert—Larian's Tumblr account (yes, it's official, no, I don't know why it's called John Larian and why the header image is like that) also shared what appears to be a Slack message titled: "Hello! Welcome to the patch-8-is-on-ps5-for-some-reason-help-help-ahhh task group."
I should note that, if you do happen to be on PS5, you probably shouldn't go gung ho on your saves just yet.
While Patch 8 might be out, it hasn't been stress tested yet, which means it's probably not exactly ready. Your saves might not be compatible when the full patch does finally arrive, and they certainly won't be compatible after you revert to Patch 7 given, well, the game'll be looking for a bunch of subclasses that aren't there. This is a warning that Larian itself echoes:
"While we work with our partners to understand what’s going on, please note that any new saves made while on Patch 8 will not be compatible with Patch 7," before asking: "How's your Monday going?"
It's going okay, Larian, thanks. I'm just thinking about where I'd put my hexblade in my party comp—if I had one. I'm not seething or coping, honest.
In all truth, I'm not convinced this state of affairs will last too long—it might, however, be a solid hint that Patch 8 is soaring through the pipeline and may very well be in our laps soon.
Alternatively, PS5 players are presently downloading a glitchy, horrifying mess. Either way, I'll update this article when Larian's done putting out its fires and has an explanation.
