Is Baldur’s Gate 3 cross-platform?

By Jesse Lennox August 3, 2023

The biggest CRPG of the year, if not ever, promises a huge adventure that you are encouraged to play cooperatively with up to four friends. While online play is expected in the modern era, Baldur’s Gate 3 surprisingly also supports split-screen co-op on every PC and PS5 as well, meaning you can run an entire campaign with a friend side-by-side. As great as all that is, the vast majority of people will likely want to play with a friend in the comfort of their own homes, which might mean a PC player and a PS5 player will want to team up. Is that possible in Baldur’s Gate 3? Here’s a quick rundown of this game’s cross-platform support.

Is Baldur’s Gate 3 cross-platform?

A mage holding a flaming object. — Larian Studios / Larian Studios

In short, no, Baldur’s Gate 3 will not allow for cross-platform play. If you are playing on PC, then anyone you want to play online with will also need to be on PC, and the same is true for PS5. While this is true for now, it is possible that Larian Studios may add cross-platform play in a future update, but for now, it is safer to assume it won’t come and make your purchasing decision accordingly.

The only small silver lining here is that Baldur’s Gate 3 does have cross-platform progression. This means that if you purchase the game on both platforms, you can carry your save between platforms. While not ideal, it is at least an easier way to move between platforms to play with a friend if that’s your only option.

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Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…

Gaming

Which Baldur’s Gate 3 race should you pick?

Baldurs Gate 3

Some RPGs with multiple races don't limit you too much depending on which you choose to play, but most RPGs also don't have 11 choices as Baldur's Gate 3 does. Your race will obviously be a massive cosmetic choice, with your choices ranging from normal Humans to scaly Dragonborn and stout Dwarfs, but the effects of this choice will ripple throughout your playthrough. Your race can have a huge impact on the various stories in Baldur's Gate 3 since some characters will react to your race differently, but you'll never know how that will play out until you come across them. What we can help you with when creating your character is selecting the best race to pair with your class in Baldur's Gate 3.
Elf

The Elf is typically seen as a ranger or a more dexterous race, which holds true for Baldur's Gate 3. They come with two extra stats in Dex and are proficient with both long and shortwords, as well as long and shortbows. They also have two important traits, the first being Darkvision which lets you see up to 12 meters in the dark. The second is Fey Ancestry which gives them a bonus to saving throws when they are being charmed, plus can't be put to sleep using magic. This is a great race to pair with a Ranger or Rogue class.
Tiefling

Gaming

Which Baldur’s Gate 3 class should you pick?

A mage holding a flaming object.

The world of Dungeons & Dragons, which is of course where Baldur's Gate 3 comes from, is all about choice and crafting your own story through the world. Baldur's Gate 3 promises plenty of ways to alter the story, including a reported 1,700 different ending permutations. But the first and most important decision you make will be which class your main character is. Along with your race, your class is what will define how your character plays, including what roles they are best suited for and what abilities they can learn in and out of combat. With 12 to pick from at the start, plus 48 total subclasses within those main 12, it can feel like an overwhelming choice to make so early. To make things easier, we'll break down all the classes in Baldur's Gate 3 to help you decide which one to pick.
All Baldur's Gate 3 classes
Barbarian

The Barbarian is likely the easiest class to wrap your head around just based on the name. This class focuses primarily on the Strength stat and is all about melee damage. They are proficient with light and medium armor, shields, simple and martial weapons, plus get the unique Rage class action. When you enter the Rage state, you deal more damage and can survive fatal wounds. Their saving throws are linked to the Strength and Constitution stats.

Gaming

How long is Baldur’s Gate 3?

A party of heroes stands on a cliff in Baldur's Gate 3.

CRPGs are notorious for being very lengthy investments, and Baldur's Gate 3 is no exception. Even in its early access days, players were spending hundreds of hours on just the first act of the game, though just doing the main story would be significantly less. Some people may spend hours just in the character creator choosing their race and speccing out their class, while others may dive in and only do the main quests. In a game this large, your playtime will vary quite a bit, but no matter how much, or little, of a completionist you are, we can give you a good idea of just how long Baldur's Gate 3 will take to beat.
How long is Baldur's Gate 3?
Oh boy, this is going to be a somewhat complicated and intimidating answer. Baldur's Gate 3 is a massive CRPG that is all about giving you a unique and tailored experience. Everything from your race, stats, and skills to choices, dialogue choices, and successful or failed skill checks can alter your playtime in some way. There's also the vast number of optional activities and objectives you can choose to engage with or ignore, as well as your difficulty level, to consider. Prior to launch, Larian Studios developer Swen Vincke said that an average playthrough of the game would take "between 75 to 100 hours, that's what we're seeing. That's not doing everything, that is just going to be a playthrough. There will be people who will be way over that, the ones who want to do everything. They will probably hit 200 hours, I think. On average, we're seeing people who are going through take about 75 to 100 hours."

From our experience, we would say that figure is accurate if you're playing on the normal difficulty and taking time to do some sidequests and diversions to explore and engage in a decent amount of the optional content. Normally, a 25-hour range would be a bit wide as an average, but when you consider how your class comes into play, how much combat you encounter, to what degree you are role-playing, and whether or not you're playing alone or in co-op, it starts to make more sense.