Baldur’s Gate 3 Will Release On Xbox After All

Baldur's Gate 3 party mountain promo screenshot

Baldur’s Gate 3 is already out on PC, where it’s been massively popular – popular enough to almost break Steam – but its console release is pretty close too… at least on PS5. On Xbox Series X|S it’s been a much more complicated story, and for a little while there, it seemed like it might not happen at all.

The primary roadblock seems to have been the Xbox Series S, the much less powerful, but less costly, version of the latest and greatest Xbox console. According to Larian Studios, the developer behind BG3, getting split-screen co-op working on the Series S without a huge performance hit was proving to be very difficult. Unfortunately, due to Microsoft’s Xbox developer policies, games shipped on Xbox Series have to have the same game modes on both consoles.

Larian was faced with a tough choice: either scrap split-screen on Xbox, or skip the platform altogether. Despite help from Microsoft engineers, it seems like getting the feature working just wasn’t on the cards. Thankfully, a compromise has been made, and BG3 will be able to release on Xbox after all.

Baldur’s Gate 3 director and CEO of Larian Studios Swen Vincke announced on Twitter that after a meeting with Xbox head Phil Spencer, the two came to a compromise that would see the game released on Series X with split-screen, and on Series S without it. It’s a solid compromise, and one that suggests Microsoft’s developer policies are a lot more flexible than previously thought — at least for big games, who knows if a smaller game would have been afforded the same luxury.

To make up for the lack of split-screen, Larian will be including cross-save progression between Xbox Series S, Series X, PS5, and PC via Steam, which is a nice addition. Other than that, it’ll be pretty much the same game as it is on PC already, and the same game that’ll come to PS5 in a short while.

As for when the Xbox Series version of BG3 will be released, we’re not quite sure yet. Vincke says that the compromise means the game will be available “this year”. The PS5 version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is due to be released on September 6, 2023 — the same day as Starfield on Xbox. It’s unlikely BG3 will be released on the same day, but we don’t imagine it’ll be too much later.