What you need to know
- Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, confirmed that after discussions with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, a solution has been found for Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox.
- Baldur’s Gate 3 will be coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles sometime later in 2023.
- The game will support split-screen on Xbox Series X, but not Xbox Series S.
Xbox players, rejoice, you’ll be in Karlach’s embrace later this year.
Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, confirmed on Thursday that the company’s breakout hit Baldur’s Gate 3 will arrive on Xbox Series X|S consoles later in 2023.
Though there’s no exact release date right now, after discussions with Microsoft Games CEO Phil Spencer, the studio found a solution to bring the game to Xbox, with Xbox Series X getting split-screen support, while the feature will be absent on Xbox Series S.
Baldur’s Gate 3 launched a few weeks ago to critical acclaim on Windows PC, attaining the highest Metacritic score of the year so far and reaching 500,000 concurrent players on Steam in just a couple of days.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently planned to launch on PS5 on Sep. 6, 2023, the same day for the wide release of Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield. Both PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will support online co-op and cross-progression, so players can take their progress on PC to their console of choice.
Analysis: Likely the right call, but keep an eye on the S
This was almost certainly a good call by Microsoft, allowing Larian Studios to bring the game to Xbox Series X|S players sooner than would otherwise be possible with the studio struggling to get split-screen functionality running on the lower-end machine.
With that in mind, I think Microsoft will have to keep a closer eye on what developers choose to sacrifice on the Xbox Series S versions of games. We’ve already seen situations where ray-tracing or 120 FPS modes skip the Xbox Series S, and that’s been fine. I’m of the opinion that split-screen is also an okay sacrifice, but basic functionality cannot be.
