Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be one of the biggest launches of 2023, and that’s true in more than one way. Speaking to itmeJP, Larian boss Swen Vincke mentioned the game will weigh in at a hefty 122GB at launch — and you can’t preload any of it before the game officially releases.
If you, like us, are eagerly waiting those last few hours before Baldur’s Gate 3 launches at 8am ET / 11am PT / 4pm BST today, then be pre-warned that you’re not going to be playing the game immediately after it’s dropped onto Steam. The lack of any preloading options apparently comes down to a shortcoming with Steam’s servers, but the upshot is that you can only start downloading once the game is available. You can expect to see slightly slower speeds than usual too, as Steam’s download servers are sure to take a hit.
Larian is clearly aware of the issues that can crop up around launches of this magnitude, and have handily released a six point list you can complete before the game releases. If you’re planning on playing, we recommend taking a look at the full list, but it’s especially important you do if you took part in the game’s early access period, as top of the list is scrubbing your disk clean of any traces of the early access game, and even your save games (from within the game, too). Yes, we’re sorry, your existing characters can’t stay.
The advice to install the game on an SSD is pretty obvious, as 122GB is going to sit heavily on a standard HDD, and may well take ages to load, and heck, install too. And the last thing you want while downloading over 100GB of game files is for them to take a long time to install onto your drive.
Thankfully, none of these steps should be too difficult for most experienced gamers to complete, and will put you in good stead for when the game finally releases in a few hours time. Make sure to scrub those disks down, clear your computer of anything else running, and hover that finger over the "Install" button.