Baldur’s Gate 3 is late on Xbox due to issues with the Series S
Baldur’s Gate 3, one of this year’s great RPG releases, is coming out on PC and PS5 soon. Far from being exclusive to the Sony console, the game will also be launched on Xbox Series X|S – in fact, Larian Studios wanted to release both console versions at the same time. However, the planned split-screen mode proved difficult to implement on the Xbox Series S, according to IGN.
Microsoft demands that games released on Xbox Series X must be playable on the Series S with feature parity as well, so Larian couldn’t simply cancel the version for the less powerful device and move forward with an edition for PS5 and the Series X only. This policy has repeatedly been criticized by some game developers, who’ve warned Microsoft that it would cost them deals as the lifecycle of the current console generation goes on.
“Our plan was that we wanted to have a simultaneous release,” Larian leader Swen Vincke told IGN. “But we've been on this game for a long time. It's a really big game. The amount of things you can do in it is insane. I think people will be surprised when they see everything. There's constraints we have to overcome, so we just work on them. Some take more time.”
It looks like the studio will have to make some compromises when it comes to the Xbox version, though exact details about what those might be are not available currently. Microsoft seems to have realized as well that this isn’t exactly the greatest look for them either, so they’ve sent some engineers over to Larian to help them optimize the game for the Xbox Series S and hopefully get that split-screen co-op mode up and running smoothly.
Vincke stated that ideally the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 could make a 2023 launch date, though he couldn’t confirm this 100%.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming to PC on August 3, 2023, and to PS5 on September 6, 2023.
