Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be a very large game, around 122 GB according to Larian.

There has been considerable speculation and confusion about the status of preloading Baldur's Gate 3, and Larian has not been forthcoming on that front. In an interview with itmeJP last week, Larian boss Swen Vincke said he doesn't actually know how preloading will be handled.

"I imagine they will do something, but I don't really know," Vincke said. 'It would be cool because it's very large. Obviously the game has changed a lot between Early Access and now.

Unfortunately, the final answer to that question is a very simple "no."

"Baldur's Gate 3 will be released on August 3 at 5 p.m. Ghent time, or the time zone equivalent outside of Belgium. There will be no preload prior to that time. The full game release is approximately 122 GB. Please note that Early Access save games will not be compatible at launch.

Vincke said essentially the same thing in an interview with itmeJP, warning that there is no point in getting your hands on the early access version of "Baldur's Gate 3" now since you will effectively be starting over in a few days anyway. There may be a few bytes that are the same, but it will essentially be a complete reinstallation."

Not being able to preload a game of this size is not great, especially for those (like me) with slow or unreliable Internet connections. However, this problem seems to be a Steam limitation. Simply put, preloading a game downloads the file but keeps it encrypted until you play it, but since "Baldur's Gate 3" has already been available in Early Access for almost three years, Steam can't do that and preload the game.

Larian confirmed on Twitter that this is why preloading is not an option:

For GOG, the same principle applies to the reps, and Larian also said they "want to maintain equivalence" between the two platforms.

The lack of a preload option sucks - 122 GB is a big download, but most fans don't seem too concerned, although there have been some frustrated reactions. Perhaps they are too excited at the prospect of being able to stuff more iris tadpoles up their nostrils to care.

Baldur's Gate 3 will be fully unlocked on August 3 at 8 am PT/11 am ET/4 pm BST