Larian Studios has announced that it's found a way to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox Series X|S players and that the game will still be able to make it onto the platform this year.
“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,” explained Larian founder Swen Vincke.
He went on to explain the solution: Xbox Series X consoles will have the split-screen feature while it won’t be available on Xbox Series S. However, all of the hotfixes and improvements implemented so far will be in the Xbox version. Additionally, there'll be cross-save progression between the Steam and Xbox Series versions.
Super happy to confirm that after meeting @XboxP3 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.
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 24, 2023
Larian previously said it had issues developing the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 due to the Xbox Series S’ hardware, and specifically that the studio was struggling to get split-screen co-op to run on it. Microsoft even sent engineers to work with Larian on resolving the problem, too.
Xbox's Phil Spencer has also insisted that games run on both Xbox Series X and S consoles and that Microsoft will learn from the situation surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s one of the biggest games of the year and Microsoft certainly didn’t want to miss out on it, giving PlayStation a defacto console exclusive for such a monumental release.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is already out on PC and is set to launch on Sept. 6 for PlayStation 5. Larian Studios said that it will still come to Xbox Series X|S sometime in 2023, but didn’t provide an exact release date yet.
In IGN’s 10/10 Baldur’s Gate 3 review, we said, “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur's Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey