Larian Studios Provides Update on Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox Version
Larian Studios has provided an update on the Xbox version of its highly anticipated RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3. The developers have confirmed that while they are working on bringing the game to Xbox, they may need to make some compromises to ensure a release on the platform.
Earlier this year, Larian Studios addressed concerns about the Xbox version when they revealed that they had encountered technical issues, specifically with split-screen co-op. In an interview with IGN, Swen Vincke, the founder and creative director of Larian Studios, shed more light on the challenges they are facing.
One of the main struggles for Larian Studios is Microsoft’s policy that games must have feature parity across both the Xbox Series X and S. Therefore, the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 cannot be released until the split-screen co-op has been optimized to an acceptable quality on the lesser-powered Series S. Achieving this level of optimization is proving to be a challenge due to the game’s demanding nature.
Vincke explained, “You’re very free in what you do, more free than people expect. That means you can run into a really big city that’s much more dense than people expect. You can do all kinds of craziness, so it requires a lot of optimization. On certain platforms, we’re just faster than on others.”
While the studio had initially planned for a simultaneous release, they may have to make compromises to release the Xbox version. Vincke did not elaborate on what those compromises may be but emphasized that they are trying to keep them limited. He stated, “We’re trying to be very limited in our compromises we have to make. That’s one of the reasons why we’re taking more time also.”
Vincke reassured fans that Baldur’s Gate 3 will be available on Xbox, but it may require some patience. When asked about the timeline, he expressed the ambition to have the game ready for Xbox later this year.
As for the release dates, Baldur’s Gate 3 is scheduled to launch for PC on August 3rd, earlier than originally planned. The PlayStation 5 version will follow on September 6th.