Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available in Steam Early Access but its release hasn’t been the smoothest, a portion of the playerbase reporting crashes on startup.
It’s not just when starting the game that players are encountering crashes, either. Multiplayer, character creation and the first cutscenes are also spots where Baldur’s Gate 3 has proven bound to crash, according to various feedback posts.
The number of players flocking to the game at launch also manged to break the Steam purchase button for a while. At the time of writing, Steam Database reports an all-time peak of almost 74,000 players.
Baldur's Gate 3 Crashing
As with every popular Steam Early Access release, responses to Baldur’s Gate III crashing on launch haven’t all been measured.
Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke, anticipated the wave of complaints posting a reminder on Twitter before the game’s launch. “It’ll crash / stuff will go wrong / not everything is polished or even finished”, it reads.
Reminder that it is Early Access and not a full release. It'll crash / stuff will go wrong / not everything is polished or even finished. However, it's already loads of fun, it's packed with content and I'm very very proud of what our team accomplished.
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) October 6, 2020
The developer is already working on the first hotfix for Baldur’s Gate III that aims to address multiple issues, including some related to multiplayer.
A handful of Steam users have also found two simple workarounds that stop Baldur’s Gate III from crashing on launch. One involves finding the executable file in the game’s “bin” folder and running it as an administrator.
The other workaround is as simple as starting the Baldur’s Gate III launcher, clicking on the cog next to the Play button, then switching from Vulkan to DirectX11. While they might not work for everyone, they could prove a temporary solution until the hotfix arrives.
A disclaimer on the RPG’s Steam page informed players that they “should not buy Baldur’s Gate 3 in Early Access if you want a polished experience” since it went live. In addition, players have spotted that even the credits are in Early Access.
Both are good to keep in mind if you’re eager to hop back into the Forgotten Realms.
Baldur’s Gate III aims to spend at least one year in Early Access. During this time players can see what the game’s first act has to offer.
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