Baldur’s Gate 3 recently underwent some slight changes to its launch plans. Instead of releasing on 31 August for PS5, the game has been pushed up by a week to 6 September. However, the PC launch is coming our way earlier now too on 3 August. As for the Xbox Series X and S launch, well, that still doesn’t look pretty.
If you don’t know, Baldur’s Gate 3 is not headed to Xbox Series X/S yet because Larian Studios is struggling to get the game’s split-screen co-op working on the Series S. In the past, the studio expressed its frustrations with the limited resources on the Xbox Series S and as a result, the console cannot run the demanding Baldur’s Gate 3.
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Larian Studios cannot release Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series X without including the Series S. This is part of Microsoft’s mandate to develop games for the Xbox platform. So until Larian Studios gets co-op working, the game won’t release on the Xbox platforms.
Thankfully, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel for Xbox fans. In an interview with IGN, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke chatted about the challenges the studio is facing on the Xbox Series S. He says that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a highly complex game and the weaker Series S isn’t boding well for development.
Vincke claims that the studio wanted to do a cross-platform release at the same time. This means releasing Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC at once. But the hiccups remain due to the Series S.
Larian Studios has even arranged for members at Microsoft to help with the development of the game. Vincke says that Microsoft has supported the team. He hasn’t revealed how well this has progressed for the studio but it is good news nonetheless.
“We’ve certainly had support from Microsoft. We had support from the ATG group. They’ve been doing great. They’ve been helping a lot. Everybody wants this out on Xbox. It’s not that we don’t want it out on Xbox. It’s just that, our problem — and this is us, Larian — is that we just made a very big game. And it’s a very complicated game.”
Vincke says that the team also can’t spend unlimited resources on this project. Even though everyone wants Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox, the compromises being made on the project to suit the hardware are becoming more complicated.
“We’re also not a developer with an infinite amount of resources. We are constrained in the amount of time each platform version is tested. The more permutations you start adding to it on a platform, the more complicated that becomes.”
Larian Studios has set a goal to have Baldur’s Gate 3 out on Xbox this year. It will unlikely release in September alongside the PS5 version but at least there’s good news.
Source: IGN
