Baldur’s Gate 3 is a very big game, no doubt, but the sheer size of it will have more of an impact than normal on those picking up the game’s physical Deluxe Edition copy on Xbox Series X thanks to a disc count of four for the Xbox release.
That’s right, Baldur’s Gate 3 is taking us back to the days of Final Fantasy VIII and Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger with enough discs to make a full set of drink coasters.
Larian’s director of publishing, Michael Douse, confirmed the news in a series of posts on X, revealing that the game was only 500MB too big to go on three discs (which are presumably dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray discs and not BDXL/UHD discs) but that cutting content down enough to get to three didn’t make sense to the team. The physical release’s intended ship date of March 25th likely won’t happen on Xbox as a result.
Douse’s tweets read “The Xbox retail version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will indeed have 4 discs, since we’re 500mb over the limit for 3. Only option would have been to cut some content out but that didn’t make sense, so confirming 4.”
“It’s probable the wave 1 March 25 date will slip to first week of April because of this, but we’ll start shipping each SKU in order of readiness. PC first. No discs makes life easy. 4 discs, hard!”
It’s probable the wave 1 March 25 date will slip to first week of April because of this, but we’ll start shipping each SKU in order of readiness. PC first. No discs makes life easy. 4 discs, hard!
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) March 4, 2024
Here’s a reminder of what’s included in the game’s physical Deluxe Edition:
Baldur’s Gate 3 Physical Release:
Game Disc (PS5/Xbox Series X Only):
A retail copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 across 2 discs on PS5 and 3 4 discs on Xbox. Playable from the disc.
Poster:
Let your friends know the invasion is on with this big, beautiful, terrifying poster. (570 x 690 mm , 115g chalk paper)
Patches:
Flaming Fist or Mark of the Absolute. With both patches in the box, show your allegiance! (Size: 10cm)
Stickers:
32 x stickers
Map:
A double sided cloth map for your adventures. How else would you know where you are? (160 x 180mm, bookbinding cloth, 2 sides print).
Original Game Soundtrack:
3 CDs of adventuring anthems sure to get any party gathered, by our very own Bobby Slavov. )
Game Box:
Keep Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 company with this collectable box created in the style of the original series. (200 x 240 x 55mm, golden framing, matte foil, 1.5mm, foam insertion).
The Deluxe Edition of Baldur’s Gate 3 is exclusively available via Larian’s own online store for approximately $154.54 AUD including shipping, but it does ship to Australia which is nice.
