The delay in the launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox compared to the PlayStation was a significant setback for the Microsoft console. However, Larian Studios had assured gamers that the game would arrive on the Xbox sometime this year, and it seems the developer is staying true to its commitment.
In a new post on X, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke gave a positive update about the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3. According to Vincke, the Xbox version is being playtested and is “still on schedule for this year.” However, the exact release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 on the console still isn’t available and the studio will give gamers an update “when we’re sure it’s done.”
Larian previously stated that the highly anticipated release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox will happen sometime between September and November. The studio also said that it is working on bringing the RPG to Xbox “as fast as we can.”
Latest on the Xbox – being actively playtested, still on schedule for this year. We'll announce the exact release date when we're sure it's done.
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) October 31, 2023
Baldur’s Gate 3 was released on PC and PlayStation 5 earlier this year but unfortunately didn’t arrive on the Xbox Series X/S. The studio had trouble implementing the split-screen co-op feature on the Series S which caused the delay. Typically, games released on Xbox’s current-gen consoles have the same core feature set. However, with the Series S having trouble with the split-screen co-op, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer made an exception for Baldur’s Gate 3 in order to ensure that the game comes to Xbox this year. As a result of the exception, Baldur’s Gate 3 will not feature split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S at launch. However, the feature could be added later on as an update, if and when Larian gets it working.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will be launching with all the improvements and updates from the PC and PS5 versions, with the Xbox Series X version arriving with split-screen co-op. The game will feature cross-save functionality between PC and Xbox consoles via Steam.
Larian previously said that it believed that Microsoft required full feature parity between the Series X and Series X versions. The studio opted to delay the game when they couldn’t get the spilt-screen co-op working on the lower-end console. However, Spencer clarified that feature parity is only implemented on a case-to-case basis.
“In terms of parity, I don’t think you’ve heard from us or Larian, that this was about parity,” Spencer explained. “I think that’s more that the community is talking about it. There are features that ship on X today that do not ship on S, even from our own games, like ray-tracing that works on X, it’s not on S in certain games.”
It will be interesting to see how many copies of Baldur’s Gate 3 will ship on the Xbox given that the PC and PS5 versions have been out for a very long while now. Many think Xbox missed the bus on this one given that Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the year’s best-sellers and is a strong candidate for game of the year. Others blame Microsoft’s choice to have two consoles at the same time as the culprit for the delay. Perhaps Microsoft should have released the game on the Series X first since it was working on the console.
