Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch on Xbox in 2023 after all, Larian Studios boss confirms
The enormous RPG will be coming to Series X|S soon
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Amazing news for RPG fans on Xbox who’ve been patiently waiting for the release ofBaldur’s Gate 3- Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke has confirmed that the title will be launching onXbox Series X|S this year.
Vincketweetedthis afternoon (Thursday, August 24): “Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Phil Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bringBaldur’s Gate 3to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time.
“All improvements will be there, with split-screen co-op on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression betweenSteamand Xbox Series.”
Larian Studios had previously made it known thattrying to get the split-screen co-op feature workingon Xbox Series S was holding back the release on the two consoles. Referring to this issue back in July, Michael Douse, Larian Studios’ director of publishingtweeted: “We’ve said many times in the past that the issue is getting split-screen working on the Series S, which is taking more time, but is in progress. This is a huge technical hurdle, but we are unable to release the game on the ecosystem without this feature.
“Far from being exclusive, we have no exclusivity deal that prevents us from launching on Xbox. The issue is a technical hurdle. We cannot remove the split-screen feature because we are obliged to launch with feature parity, and so continue to try and make it work,” he continued.
Interestingly, removing the feature is exactly what the developers have ended up doing - it’s not clear what’s changed there, or whether that may represent the ‘solution’ the Vincke is referring to, perhaps.
Given that Douse previously told fans to expect an update “by the end of the year”, many had been under the impression that the title might not release until 2024, so this latest development will certainly be a welcome surprise to some (perhaps not those who were looking forward to the co-op feature on Series S, though). At the time of writing, Vincke hasn’t given any indication of whenBaldur’s Gate 3will land on Xbox Series X|S, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for further updates.
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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