Larian Studios has confirmed Baldur's Gate 3 won't be available to pre-load ahead of its August 3 launch, which means you'll have to download the whole 122GB file on launch day.
As spotted by PC Gamer, the new Baldur's Gate 3 community update confirmed that you won't be able to pre-load anything ahead of launch, at least not on PC. "Baldur's Gate 3 will launch on August 3rd at 5pm Gent time, or your non-Belgian timezone equivalent as shown above. There will be no pre-loading of the game before then."
The update also confirms that the full version of the game will weigh in at an eye-watering 122 GB on PC. According to PC Gamer, pre-loading the game isn't possible because it's already been out in Early Access for three years. That does nothing to ease the pain of having to wait for such a large download to clear before getting to play the highly anticipated sequel, but it's worth noting that it sounds like the situation is out of Larian's hands.
Baldur's Gate 3 is launching at long last on PC on August 3, and Early Access saves won't carry over to the full version, with Larian assuring, "so much has changed that it's really worth it to start afresh." The sequel will launch on PS5 on September 6 and on Xbox Series X/S at an unspecified date. I've reached out to Larian to see if pre-loads will be available on console and will update this article if I hear back.
Here's why your first Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough should be a bard, D&D's best-worst class.