Baldur’s Gate 3 is Coming to Xbox Sequence X|S Later This Yr

It’s official, the critically-acclaimed RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming to Xbox Sequence X|S consoles later this yr. Swen Vincke, CEO of developer Larian Studios, confirmed that after assembly with Xbox head Phil Spencer yesterday, there’s now a path ahead to carry the sport to Xbox gamers with out having to make sure characteristic parity between Sequence X and Sequence S consoles.

“Tremendous blissful to verify that after assembly Phil Spencer yesterday, we’ve discovered an answer that enables us to carry Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox gamers this yr nonetheless, one thing we’ve been working in direction of for fairly a while. All enhancements shall be there, with split-screen coop on Sequence X. Sequence S is not going to characteristic split-screen coop, however may even embody cross-save development between Steam and Xbox Sequence,” the studio head posted on X/Twitter.

All enhancements shall be there, with split-screen coop on Sequence X. Sequence S is not going to characteristic split-screen coop, however may even embody cross-save development between Steam and Xbox Sequence.

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

With a 96 rating on Metacritic, Baldur’s Gate 3 is without doubt one of the best-rated video games of 2023, ex æquo with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The sport was launched on PC earlier this month, and it’s coming to PlayStation and macOS on September 6. For Microsoft, having no launch date for a sport of this caliber was actually dangerous PR. Nonetheless, the corporate permitting Larian Studios to drop help for split-screen coop on the Sequence S looks like an excellent compromise to make to get Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox later this yr.

In latest months, Larian Studios has been fairly public about its struggles to make split-screen co-op work on the Sequence S, which is why the Xbox model of Baldur’s Gate 3 nonetheless had no launch date. Whereas each the Sequence X and the Sequence S have a really related CPU, the Sequence S solely comes with 10 GB of reminiscence (with much less bandwidth than the Sequence X’s 16GB of reminiscence). And it additionally has a far much less highly effective GPU than the Sequence X, although that in all probability wasn’t the core of the difficulty right here.

Plenty of Xbox fans have been fairly vocal concerning the Sequence S probably “holding again” current-gen video games because of builders having to optimize their video games for the much less highly effective console. However in a latest interview with Eurogamer, Xbox head Phil Spencer defined that sport builders don’t have to ensure characteristic parity for video games transport on Xbox Sequence X|S consoles.

“There are options that ship on X immediately that don’t ship on S, even from our personal video games, like ray-tracing that works on X, it’s not on S in sure video games. So for an S buyer, they spent roughly half what the X buyer purchased, they perceive that it’s not going to run the identical method,” Spencer mentioned. “I wish to make sure that video games can be found on each, that’s our job as a platform holder and we’re dedicated to that with our companions. And I believe we’re gonna get there with Larian,” he continued.

So, Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to Xbox Sequence X|S later this yr is absolutely excellent news for Microsoft and Xbox followers. Regardless that Microsoft has huge Xbox-exclusive video games coming this fall season with Starfield and Forza Motorsport, it’s actually necessary to not make Xbox players really feel like second-class residents in the case of third-party help.