The director of Baldur’s Gate 3 has confirmed that the game will release on Series X|S consoles this year following a major concession from Xbox.
The massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of this year’s biggest gaming surprises. Larian Studios took a relatively niche genre and turned it into a mainstream hit.
While the game is out on PC and on PlayStation 5 next month, Xbox fans have been frustrated by a lack of an official port announcement. This is due to reported issues trying to get the game to run on the less powerful Series S.
That finally changed with an announcement from the game’s director, who says Baldur’s Gate 3 will release on Xbox Series X|S this year.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s release breaks Xbox’s Series X|S parity requirement
Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke confirmed that, following a meeting with Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Larian will be able to release its game on the Series X|S.
While not meant to be a console exclusive, Baldur’s Gate 3 was unable to be released on Xbox due to the technical limitations with the Series S. The team was unable to get split-screen co-op to work on the system and, since Xbox requires feature parity for all games that release on its hardware, Larian was faced with the choice of a Series X|S release without split-screen co-op or no release at all.
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All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen coop, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series.
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 24, 2023
According to Vincke, however, Xbox has reversed its decision, or at least made an exception to its policy for Baldur’s Gate 3.
While the Series X will have split-screen co-op, the Series S version will not.
This is a huge change in tune from Xbox. Since the consoles’ launch, developers have reported issues trying to make games for both systems given Microsoft’s refusal to budge on the parity requirement.
The Series S is significantly less powerful than its more expensive counterpart, meaning studios that want to push the Series X to its limits must ensure their games will work on both.
This is obviously great news for Xbox gamers who want to play Baldur’s Gate 3, but Microsoft’s concession here has major implications for future games.
Xbox opening the door for Larian is a sign that it may be willing to relax its controversial feature parity policy, something that may allow developers to take full advantage of the Series X’s full capabilities.