Larian Studios' Dungeons & Dragons RPG threequel, Baldur's Gate 3, is finally coming out of Early Access after three years on August 31 this year.
The studio confirmed at the recently concluded Sony State of Play showcase that Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to the PS5, MacOS, and Windows PC later this year.
But, before we go and talk about the slightly controversial Xbox delay, let's talk about the highlight of the latest trailer for Baldur's Gate 3.
Apparently, J.K. Simmons has signed on to play the "seemingly invincible necromancer leading an army of the dead", General Ketheric Thorn. We also got a look at the upcoming game's unique feature: split-screen co-op play. With this feature, up to two players on one PS5 can play together, while up to four are supported via online co-op.
A Larian community rep took to Reddit to elaborate on the PS5 exclusivity issue:
Xbox players, we’ve seen your questions about if/when you can expect Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox. We’ve had an Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 in the works for some time, but we have run into some technical issues – particularly with split-screen co-op. We are still working on an Xbox version of BG3, but we’re not yet confident enough to announce it. We don’t like announcing anything until we’re ready, because we don’t want to get peoples hopes up until we’re sure we can deliver.
There’s no platform exclusivity preventing us from releasing BG3 on Xbox day and date, should that be a technical possibility. If and when we do announce further platforms, we want to make sure each version lives up to our standards & expectations.
Fingers crossed, Larian can get Baldur's Gate 3 working on the Xbox Series S/X before the end of the year. But, hey, if we've learned something in the past few years, it's better to delay a game than to release it broken.
With that said, Sony isn't afraid to flaunt its exclusives, so unless it bought Lariat and wanted to surprise everyone, the Xbox Series S/X release of Baldur's Gate 3 was always guaranteed. The only question now is when it's coming to Microsoft's latest consoles.
Speaking of Sony, the world's leading console manufacturer is reportedly preparing to host a PlayStation Showcase before June. Nintendo and Microsoft have joined Sony in skipping E3 2023.
