Title: Baldur’s Gate III Xbox Version Rumored to Launch in 2024, Split-Screen Issues Delaying Release
By Ben Lyons, Gamereactor.cn
The highly anticipated 1.0 release of Baldur’s Gate III is making waves across the gaming community, with the PC version set to debut on Thursday, August 3, and a PS5 release scheduled for early September. However, it seems that fans eagerly awaiting the Xbox Series version will have to exercise patience as Larian Studios faces challenges in getting split-screen to function on the platform.
Michael Douse, Larian’s publishing director, recently addressed the issue, confirming that the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate III is indeed in development but is taking longer than expected due to technical difficulties with implementing split-screen co-op on the Series S. In a tweet, Douse revealed that the Larian team is devoted to achieving a seamless in and out co-op experience, a feature that no other RPG of this scale has accomplished before.
“We’ve said many times in the past that the problem is working with split-screen on the Series S, which will take more time, but it’s a work in progress,” explained Douse. “It’s a huge technical hurdle, but we can’t be in the ecosystem without this feature. We’ve got quite a few engineers working really hard to accomplish something that no other RPG of this size has been able to: seamless in and out co-op for Series S. We hope to have an update before the end of the year.”
However, a tweet by Larian Studios, which has since been deleted, hinted at a potential delay for the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate III. The tweet stated, “Say ‘we hope to have an update before the end of the year,’ suggesting the Xbox version won’t be ready until 2024.” This sparked speculation among fans regarding the release date for the highly anticipated Xbox version.
Despite the potential delay, Douse emphasized that Larian Studios does not have any exclusivity agreements preventing them from launching on Xbox. Split-screen functionality is simply a technical obstacle that they feel compelled to address to ensure feature parity across platforms.
As eager fans await more updates on the progress, it remains unclear when Baldur’s Gate III will make its way to Xbox consoles. However, with Larian Studios’ commitment to delivering a groundbreaking co-op experience, the wait may be worth it for Xbox players.
Source: Gamereactor.cn