Baldur’s Gate III Is Coming to Xbox This Year After All, but No Split-Screen Co-Op on Xbox Series S

After all, “Baldur’s Gate III” will land on the Xbox console this year. Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed in a tweet that he and Xbox head Phil Spencer have found a solution to bring the critically acclaimed CRPG to Microsoft’s current console. But there’s a catch: The game doesn’t support split-screen co-op on the less expensive Xbox Series S — a feature the developer has been working on implementing for months due to the console’s technical limitations. In fact, in order to keep Baldur’s Gate 3 functionality the same on Xbox Series S and X, Microsoft even sent engineers to help Larian.

“Very pleased to confirm that after meeting with (Spencer) yesterday, we have found a solution that will allow us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year, something we have been working on for a while now. thing,” Vincke tweeted. . The above changes don’t affect the regular online co-op mode, where you invite friends to help you with your campaign. However, rolling multiple characters on the same system (on the low end) is what causes problems for Larian – especially when all party members run away in all four directions, start casting spells and putting pressure on the console. In the words of Vincke at a recent event, a lot of screen activity on a single screen. interview“This requires memory.”

The lack of memory has to do with Microsoft making the Xbox Series S cheaper, which naturally comes with caveats of reduced performance. Larian confirmed earlier this month that Baldur’s Gate 3’s lack of an Xbox release date isn’t due to some sort of exclusivity deal with PlayStation, but rather because they’re trying to keep Green Team parity between the two consoles. . Microsoft’s policy Force parity in gaming features between the Xbox Series S and X, so players with lower-end consoles aren’t left out. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will make an exception for Baldur’s Gate 3, or completely remove the rules for this generation of upcoming games.

is speaking IGNSpencer claimed that he doesn’t think his team will abandon the Xbox Series S anytime soon, but added that Microsoft will learn from the situation. “I don’t think you’ve heard from us or from Larian that it’s about equality. I think the community is talking about it more.” He added that equality between systems is more of a developer decision . “This is the game I want to see on the platform, and we have the resources to help make sure it does… I think they’ve said it’s going to be out by the end of the year.” In a tweet, Vincke also confirmed that Xbox Versions will cross-progress between Steam and Xbox Series S/X, so you can jump between platforms and pick up where you left off.

Larian Studios also dropped their promised first patch for Baldur’s Gate 3, which addresses over 1,000 bugs and balance issues in addition to fixing kissing contact issues for shorter matches. Earlier, the animation made it look like your short characters couldn’t reach out to their romantic interests and just leaned in and kissed their boobs. Now, if you’re not tall enough, your partner will kneel down to make contact. You can check out the full list of changes on the official website. In the meantime, the studio will continue working on a second patch, which will include “significant performance improvements” (for Act 3 content, I assume).

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version will be released on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is expected to be released sometime this year.