31 August 2023 , 13:00
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Baldur's Gate 3's has been the hottest thing in gaming for the last month, but the potential Xbox version of the game has been in flux for a while. And now it's apparently coming way sooner than we thought.
Baldur's Gate 3 seems like a shoo-in for game of the year 2023; the RPG's PC launch last month took the world by storm, and the PS5 release next week is going head-to-head with Starfield – which would be a losing battle for just about any other game. Baldur's Gate 3 is also currently tied for the highest rated game of 2023 on OpenCritic (with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) based on the PC version alone, so it's no surprise that console players want in on the action.
While PlayStation owners don't have to wait long (with that version releasing next Wednesday, September 6), it was looking like those waiting for a Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox release would be waiting a while. Larian Studios announced that the Xbox Series S was the reason behind the Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox delay because it couldn't support split-screen. However, last week during Gamescom, Larian Studios CEO Sven Vincke confirmed on Twitter that after a meeting with Xbox head Phil Spencer that the two sides have found a solution to bring the game to the platform this year.
The solution is that split-screen co-op won't be unavailable on the Xbox Series S version of Baldur's Gate 3 – an unprecedented move, as up until now, Xbox Series X|S games have had a feature parity clause (which can be seen in this redacted document published by the SEC ), typically only being allowed to divert on performance.
Now, in an interview with IGN, Vincke has said we can expect Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox sooner rather than later with an estimate of sometime "between September and November", saying that it will be out as fast as the studio can get it out. So we could be playing Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox in just over a month if everything goes well.
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Series split-screen
Here we are, three years into the new console lifecycles and Microsoft has finally broken the parity clause on Xbox Series S games, which is sure to set a precedent going forward. Obviously Xbox wants to get in on the hype of one of the biggest games of the year (and Starfield's biggest competitor this September) no matter what, but this could have dire consequences for Xbox Series S owners.
On the other hand, many developers and even Xbox fans on Reddit seem to agree that teams should have a choice when going for Xbox Series S parity. While I don't foresee any games ditching the Xbox Series S entirely and this is likely just to get in on the Baldur's Gate hype, it makes me wonder what happens when we get a game as popular as Baldur's Gate 3 that simply can't run on Xbox Series S? Will Microsoft eventually let developers ditch the less powerful Xbox entirely at that point?