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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Spike Chunsoft has announced that the Japanese version of the new fantasy RPG "Baldur's Gate 3" developed by Larian Studios will be released for PS5 within 2023.

Baldur's Gate 3, which was officially released overseas on August 3, is the first new work in more than 20 years since the previous work "Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn". It became the "most rated PC game" on overseas review aggregation sites such as Metacritic and attracted attention.

The domestic version of Baldur's Gate 3, published by Spike Chunsoft, will be released on PS5. CERO is scheduled to be reviewed, and it is said that a package version and a download version will be developed (price is undecided). Also, Game*Spark has posted a PC version play report, so if you are interested in the details of this work, please check it out.

国内PS5版『バルダーズ・ゲート3』日本語収録で2023年内に発売決定！ スパイク・チュンソフトよりパッケージ版/DL版がリリース | Game*Spark - 国内・海外ゲーム情報サイト

高評価RPGが日本上陸！

www.gamespark.jp

 

[Synless]

Wait, the game isn’t releasing physically in the US? Dude, I’m not buying now. Fuck me that pisses me off.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Wait, the game isn’t releasing physically in the US? Dude, I’m not buying now. Fuck me that pisses me off.

Yep and it bums me out! Hopefully the Japanese release comes with EN localization as well so we can at least import it here in the West.

 

[Physiognomonics]

That's going to be a collector!

 

[GigaBowser]

No physical this is mind baffling dont they wants more sales?

 

[dotnotbot]

Lol all it took was one game (AW2) abandoning physical format and suddenly everyone follows. I didn't expect it to happen so fast.

 

[The Pleasure]

The double dragon gaiden game is physical yet baldurs gate 3 is digital only. Lol wut.

 

[Power Pro]

I'll never understand why Japan seems to get more, and better physical releases than the west. They got way better internet when I was there than any internet I had in the US. Plus, with living spaces being so small in Japan, you'd think digital would be more common in Japan...yet in the west, we're getting shafted on physical releases the most.

Sometimes I thought the excuse was that a lot of the games I wanted were Japanese produced titles, but as we are seeing here, this is happening even with western produced games, where Japan gets a physical copy but we don't.

 

[Woopah]

Further evidence that physical copies are still very very important in Japan (as well as other countries).

 

[FunkMiller]

No physical in the west is fucking stupid.

 

[Gandih42]

I'd definitely be down for a nice physical release for this one. Hope they'll up cashing out on that eventually, surely there are people in the west interested in a physical release for a game of this caliber.

 

[T-0800]

Wait so this explains why I don't see it listed anywhere. This is $120 on the Australian PStore. I'm not paying that.

 

[OCL]

They better release a physical copy in the west too, i'm définitif not buying a digital game on console especially an AAA

 

[Portugeezer]

Lol all it took was one game (AW2) abandoning physical format and suddenly everyone follows. I didn't expect it to happen so fast.

Alan Wake 2 can eat a dick because they have a big publisher.

With Larian self publishing, this is more expected but it still sucks. I'd prefer a physical copy of this game.

 

[coffinbirth]

Alan Wake 2 can eat a dick because they have a big publisher.

With Larian self publishing, this is more expected but it still sucks. I'd prefer a physical copy of this game.

 

[crackajack]

No physical in the west is fucking stupid.

The projected split is possibly already not big enough anymore to counter the extra work, profit sharing and small margins on physical. Might have underestimated the success in this case. I would be surprised if publishers did not already offer Larian a deal. No idea how fast that could be, but the window of oppurtunity is probably parallel with the PS5 launch.

 

[Zheph]

Yep and it bums me out! Hopefully the Japanese release comes with EN localization as well so we can at least import it here in the West.

Likely with some solid censorship tho

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Fuck... I want a physical release.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Likely with some solid censorship tho

Yeah, I was discussing about this with a friend of mine just now and he pointed out that the Cyberpunk 2077 console release in Japan was censored quite a fair bit...

 

[Zheph]

Yeah, I was discussing about this with a friend of mine just now and he pointed out that the Cyberpunk 2077 console release in Japan was censored quite a fair bit...

Yeah it's not gonna go down well with BG3 as you have plenty of gore and nudity

so I would recommend going digital this time around unless you really want to take a stand (despite the numbers proving that it won't matter)

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Can't ever see myself paying $70 for a digital game.

 

[Vandole]

Out of curiosity, what is the download size for the gamel? Are there any issues with the dwarfing the size of physical media and requiring a substantial download anyway? It's on my list of games to play 5 years from now, so I haven't paid too much attention to the details.

 

[Aenima]

Wait, the game isn’t releasing physically in the US? Dude, I’m not buying now. Fuck me that pisses me off.

Same. Last week was getting hyped to start playing this day 1. Then was shook that one of the biggest games of the year does not have a physical version for PS5. Now im playing Pillars of Eternity II instead (great game). Will leave BG3 to when i find it cheap.

 

[stn]

How the hell? Well, now I understand why I haven't been able to preorder it on Amazon. What a huge bummer.

 

[mrmustard]

Guess they are already happy with the sales then.

 

[KrisB]

Wait so this explains why I don't see it listed anywhere. This is $120 on the Australian PStore. I'm not paying that.

Yep I was worried this was going to be the case. I kept checking JB hi fi, ebgames, Harvey Norman over the last couple of weeks and was suspicious why there was no listing for it anywhere so close to release.

Now the only option is the laughable pricing on the PS store.

Out of curiosity, what is the download size for the gamel? Are there any issues with the dwarfing the size of physical media and requiring a substantial download anyway? It's on my list of games to play 5 years from now, so I haven't paid too much attention to the details.

90ish gig download with a 121GB install on PC, I don’t believe the PS5 install size has been confirmed yet but it’s going to be big.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Out of curiosity, what is the download size for the gamel? Are there any issues with the dwarfing the size of physical media and requiring a substantial download anyway? It's on my list of games to play 5 years from now, so I haven't paid too much attention to the details.

It's 122GB in size on PC so presumably it will be around the same size on PS5. That means they'll either have to ship the game on 2 discs (doubtful) or on 1 disc with some of the required game data being downloaded from PSN (awful).

 

[crackajack]

How the hell? Well, now I understand why I haven't been able to preorder it on Amazon. What a huge bummer.

Seems like even the Collectors Edition just have some physical stuff and no disk for anything, just codes for steam and PSN.

Baldur's Gate 3 Collector's Edition

Gather your party and prepare for the launch of Baldur's Gate 3 with the limited edition Baldur's Gate 3 - Collector's Edition, now available for pre-order!

ce.baldursgate3.game

I thought it's digital codes and stores only, but seems like they offered this for physical collectors, just without a game medium, which are admittedly increasingly pointless, being only install disks anyway.

 

[mckmas8808]

Lol all it took was one game (AW2) abandoning physical format and suddenly everyone follows. I didn't expect it to happen so fast.

When sales don't look at good as they hoped, they'll end up putting out a physical edition later this year.

 

[Alebrije]

Surely there will be a GOTY physical edition...so the long wait starts today...

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Surely there will be a GOTY physical edition...so the long wait starts today...

100%, it's just a waiting game now which I'm fine with tbh. There's a fuckton of games releasing this year still!

 

[Luigi Mario]

100%, it's just a waiting game now which I'm fine with tbh. There's a fuckton of games releasing this year still!

I wouldn't worry about it. Just like with their previous two titles, they will probably announce a GotY edition sometime next year, which could also coincide with the release on Xbox Series consoles.

 

[DeepEnigma]

$20 says a physical version will release in the west after digital.

 

[Havoc2049]

So the uber hardcore fan will buy the Collector's Edition and import a physical Japanese copy. I actually did that with Halo 5, as the Collector's Edition didn't come with a physical copy of the game.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

They released their last game (divinity 2 for switch) as a physical game through LRG. Game is $250 now to snag and sealed copy.

They will release on through LRG or some other “niche” partner.

This makes a lot of sense. They license the physical publishing rights to another group, they still get a cut of the sales and don’t have to do any of the work associated with publishing a physical copy.

 

[Roufianos]

Lmao, wtf? Well I'm definitely not buying it then. Not really used to CRPGs so no way am I buying it without the option to resell.

 

[xrnzaaas]

It's 122GB in size on PC so presumably it will be around the same size on PS5. That means they'll either have to ship the game on 2 discs (doubtful) or on 1 disc with some of the required game data being downloaded from PSN (awful).

And how is offering it on 2 discs a problem? They could do it if they wanted to, there were smaller releases that shipped on 2 discs on the PS4 (like Yakuza 3-5 Remastered).

 

[DigitalScars]

Yeah if no physical release I'm gonna be waiting for a deep deep discount before buying. The same goes for Alan wake 2.

I'm in no hurry for them either, there's so many other great releases right now plus my backlog, I'm good.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

And how is offering it on 2 discs a problem? They could do it if they wanted to, there were smaller releases that shipped on 2 discs on the PS4 (like Yakuza 3-5 Remastered).

Keep in mind that all publishers must ship their games on UHD BD for the PS5 instead of standard double layer BD that's used for PS4 game releases. This presumably means that a 2 disc release on PS5 is more costly than a 2 disc release on PS4. This is just my guessing, by the way.

 

[T-0800]

$20 says a physical version will release in the west after digital.

Well it's not going to release before digital.

 

[struggler_guts]

That's awesome, idk why but I just assumed this wouldn't get a japanese release

 

[mitch1971]

Did they use a name generator to make that company name?

 

[CamHostage]

I'll never understand why Japan seems to get more, and better physical releases than the west.

Because they buy physical releases there, at full price. The collector's market there is super active, and there are people willing to pay premium for things which you could get in other ways much more affordably. (The DVD/BD market is still busy there, for instance, whereas elsewhere manufacturers are looking to exit whole territories and maybe phase out physical entirely.)

There are likely other factors (I'm not sure if Japan can escape some localization issues, meaning they might not need to include all language tracks, which could save on disc space if getting onto a single BD is a problem? It's 97GB to download so I don't know how the Japanese disc/s are going to be handled?), but company relations are pointing to a vocal but small minority wanting discs while the actual market is unfortunately telling the current story.

Surely there will be a GOTY physical edition...so the long wait starts today...

Maybe a Limited Run release eventually on disc? Start saving and warm up your "Buy Now" trigger finger before they're all gone...

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[Zheph]

I just finished my 3rd run... extremely solid goty for me

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

So PlayAsia has opened physical preorders for the JP version of BG3. On their website it says that the game comes with both EN and JP subtitles.

 

[Labadal]

Confirmed in this Xweet.

 

[adamsapple]

Confirmed in this Xweet.

Hopefully they announce a physical release soon, or at least by the time the Xbox port is coming.

 

[64bitmodels]

Hopefully they announce a physical release soon, or at least by the time the Xbox port is coming.

ehh. if it includes english and japanese just import the JP version and set the language to English. you get your physical earlier than when the US gets it

 

[killatopak]

Please have an Asian English release.