Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to defy expectations. After leading The Game Awards 2023 with eight nominations, the critically acclaimed RPG is back to shower fans with more goodness. Developer Larian Studios has announced a fancy physical edition of its game for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC early next year, and it’s shaping up to be an absolute steal.
At just US$79.99, the Baldur’s Gate 3: Deluxe Edition will treat fans to three CDs containing the title’s original soundtrack, a double-sided map, two fabric patches with the Flaming Fist and Mark of the Absolute designs, a minder flayer poster, and 32 stickers featuring various characters.
On consoles, the game will be playable on disc. The PS5 version sports two discs, while the Xbox iteration extends to a whopping three discs. A custom installer and Steam Key are included for the PC version.
The Baldur’s Gate 3: Deluxe Edition will be sold exclusively by and restocked on Larian’s own store, where pre-orders are now open. The studio notes that it’s not a Collector’s Edition, despite also packing the following digital goodies:
- Divinity Item Pack
- Bard Song Pack
- Exclusive Dice Skin
- Paintings from Rivellon
- Adventurer’s Pouch
- Digital OST
- Digital Artbook
- Digital Character Sheets
Considering how recent AAA titles can cost US$79.99 (sometimes, even more), the Deluxe Edition is truly a generous bundle. It seems this won’t be an one-off, either, for the studio is exploring a standard physical version of Baldur’s Gate 3 in the near future.
“This experiment is what we feel the future of physical media looks like, at least for us at Larian,” said Michael Douse, director of publishing at Larian, in a statement. “We spent the last few months learning how to do it from scratch and put everything we learned from the Collector’s Edition into what we hope is unbeatable value for what we’re considering our standard physical version going forward. If it works out, we’ll keep doing it this way. We understand the value of physical media, and while there are clearly increasingly significant challenges when it comes to the archiving of games, we truly believe it’s worth experimenting, even if it means a f**k-ton of discs.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on Mac, PS5, and Windows PC, with an Xbox Series X|S version slated for sometime in December. In the meantime, Larian has also teased its next big project, though details are still under wraps.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
