Baldur’s Gate 3 will release on Xbox this year, split-screen co-op dropped for Series S – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews

Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released on Xbox sometime this year, Larian has confirmed following a meeting with Xbox boss Phill Spencer at Gamescom.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been absolutely killing it so far, managing to become the highest-reviewed game of the year and drawing in millions of players. It’s also due to launch on PlayStation in around a week which will surely mean a new flood of players.

However, an Xbox release has been something of a sticking point. Larian has been unable to confirm when Baldur’s Gate 3 would arrive on Microsoft’s console because they haven’t been able to get split-screen co-op to work on the Xbox Series S. According to Microsoft’s publishing rules, games must have feature parity across the Series S and the Series X, leaving Larian unable to release the game.

That all changed at Gamescom, though.

“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,” Vincke of Larian said on X, formerly Twitter.

“All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series.”

All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen coop, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series.

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 24, 2023

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This news could be an important tipping point. Baldur’s Gate 3 is wildly successful so naturally, Microsoft want to get it on their console, but now that an exception to the rules has been made other studios that have been struggling with developing for both Series S and Series X will wondering if they can get the same deal.

On the other hand, could Microsoft be considering amending their rules to grant developers more freedom to get their games running on both consoles?

Whatever happens, the Series S has become quite the talking point amongst developers, many of whom argue that the cheaper machine is actually holding developers back.