Baldur’s Gate 3 early access saves won’t carry over to the full game

At this point, you might as well not bother starting Baldur’s Gate 3 in early access, and that’s according to its own developer. Progress in the early access version of the lengthy RPG will not carry over to launch on August 3, so at this point “a purchase of early access is essentially a pre-order,” Larian Studios says. Players have been tackling Act 1 since its early access launch in 2020, but if you go make your dream character and start the story right now you’ll be stuck redoing it all very soon.

“We’re recommending that players don’t buy the early access version of Baldur’s Gate 3 with a view to play through that content, partly because it’s out of date but mostly because we’re so close to launch,” Larian says in its latest community update. “Essentially, the game is so vastly different that it’s not possible to make those save files compatible.”