Larian Studios has confirmed that Baldur’s Gate 3 will be coming to Xbox Series X/S this year but it will not feature split-screen co-op on Series S. It’s well-documented that the developer had been struggling to get split-screen co-op working properly on the entry-level Series S hardware but CEO Swev Vincke recently revealed that a solution had been found. Unfortunately, that solution means Series S players will not get the multiplayer feature.
Vincke tweeted that Baldur’s Gate 3 is on track to release sometime this year on Xbox Series X/S but only Series X players will get the split-screen co-op feature. Larian had been struggling to get co-op working on the less powerful Series S hardware for some time now, though described it as a “technical hurdle” and initially refused to launch the game with missing features. Turns out that some solution had been found but it resulted in Larian completely ditching co-op on Series S after all.
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Vincke stated in his recent tweet:
“Super happy to confirm that after meeting Phil Spencer yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time. All improvements will be there, with split-screen co-op on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series.”
Earlier this month, Larian Studios said it would update players on the progress of getting co-op running on Series S by the end of the year, though that announcement has come much sooner than expected. No release date for Xbox has been revealed yet but we can hopefully expect one sooner rather than later as Microsoft probably wouldn’t want to miss out on having this potential Game of the Year on its platform.
In related news, Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to have a massive launch on PS5 when it hits Sony’s console on 6 September, largely thanks to pre-orders skyrocketing following the good word of mouth from the PC release.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently available for PC with a PS5 version arriving on 6 September. An Xbox release date hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Source: Swen Vincke
