Larian Studios will deliver Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox Sequence X (and Sequence S) later this yr, the studio’s inventive director, Swen Vincke, confirmed Thursday. That’s excellent news for gamers on Xbox who’ve been ready for information on the Dungeons & Dragons recreation, as till just lately it appeared like they must wait till 2024.
However Larian’s making it occur with one vital concession: The Xbox Sequence S model of Baldur’s Gate 3 received’t have split-screen cooperative play on the lower-powered Xbox. That characteristic was beforehand holding up a current-gen Xbox launch, nevertheless it seems Microsoft is letting Baldur’s Gate 3’s builders bypass feature-parity necessities on the Xbox Sequence consoles.
On X, the social media platform beforehand often known as Twitter, Vincke said that after assembly with head of Xbox Phil Spencer at Gamescom, he was “tremendous pleased to verify” that Larian “discovered an answer that enables us to deliver Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox gamers this yr nonetheless, one thing we’ve been working in the direction of for fairly a while.”
Added Vincke, “All enhancements will probably be there, with split-screen coop on Sequence X. Sequence S won’t characteristic split-screen coop, however may even embrace cross-save development between Steam and Xbox Sequence.”
Only a few weeks in the past, Michael Douse, director of publishing at Larian, bolstered that technical limitations — not platform exclusivity offers — have been holding up the Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S launch of Baldur’s Gate 3. “We’ve mentioned many occasions up to now that the problem is getting split-screen engaged on the Sequence S, which is taking extra time, however is in progress,” Douse mentioned on the time. “This can be a large technical hurdle, however we’re unable to launch the sport on the ecosystem with out this characteristic.”
The Sequence S has been on the middle of a debate over the past yr relating to whether the console is “holding back gaming” or, on the very least, leading to compromises for Xbox Sequence X video games. Microsoft seems to have stepped in to quiet that form of dialogue, which has solely gotten louder amid Baldur’s Gate 3’s unimaginable recognition. The D&D role-playing recreation is already one of many most-played video games on Steam and has turn into a top-selling recreation on Sony’s PlayStation Retailer, the place it’s accessible for pre-order.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was launched on Home windows PC on Aug. 3, and is coming to PlayStation 5 on Sept. 6.