The long-awaited physical release of Baldur's Gate 3 may come with a whole lot of physical disks (with actual data on them!), and nowhere is this more likely to be true than on the Xbox Series S and X versions. According to a statement from Larian's director of publishing, the physical version of the game for Xbox consoles may come on as many as four physical disks.
Speaking originally on X (formerly Twitter), Larian's director of publishing, Michael Douse, explained the situation was "very dynamic".
"Apparently the Xbox retail version of BG3 is going to be 4 discs now
Might be 3 again"
Later, after Kotaku sought clarification through a direct message, Douse said "It’s definitely going to be at least three, but might be four, which is a problem. But a fun problem."
Games coming with multiple discs is a phenomenon that has largely died off, due to modern reliance on the internet. It used to be that large games, especially RPGs, would come on a number of different discs, and players would need to hotswap between them at the end of a disc. The original version of Final Fantasy VII came on three discs, while Final Fantasy VIII came on four. These days, games which are shipped on multiple discs tend to come with a data disk (or disks) which are purely for installing data to the console, and a main "play" disc. It's likely a multi-disc Baldur's Gate 3 will take that form.
The physical release of Baldur's Gate 3, the Deluxe Edition, was announced in November of 2023, and is expected to arrive this year. It's likely this was never a planned release, or if it was, it was expected to be a much smaller affair. After all, Larian likely had no idea how big a hit Baldur's Gate 3 would be when it launched last year. Despite being in something of a niche genre, Baldur's Gate 3 took the gaming world by storm, and is undoubtedly 2023's game of the year in more ways than one. With player counts on Steam still very high, it's likely the love for this game isn't going away any time soon.