Baldur's Gate 3 Team Explains Why the Game Isn't Launching on Xbox Consoles Alongside PS5 and PC

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios shared a statement to explain why the game isn't launching on Xbox alongside PlayStation 5 and PC.

The issue is technical, as the studio has problems getting split-screen co-op to work the same on Xbox Series S and X.

[darkrider]

The potato console is the problem and it will get worse.

[VenomUK]

So because of Microsoft’s requirement that games have feature parity on both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and the split-screen isn’t working yet on the S this means that the Series X version is being made to wait too? There were hints that this was the reason split-screen multiplayer was dropped for Halo Infinite.

My suggestion to Microsoft is to drop the parity requirement, if the Series X version can do it the release it day and date with the PS5 version. If you’re paying £200 quid less for the Series S console you have to understand that it wont have the same capabilities as the Series X.

[DarXyde]

I think they'll relax it. They have to (or....make Series S users stream the Series X version?).
Needlessly complicated, honestly. I totally get wanting to have a device with your services and subscriptions at a lower cost of entry to bring more users into the next generation, but it often feels like Microsoft has some very unusual policies and strategies that come back to bite them. They change course, but it's for common sense issues—F2P online multiplayer requiring XBL Gold comes to mind; it's just bizarre that it took them long enough to be reasonable there.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to

light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to

light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to

light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to

light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to

light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[anubusgold]

Court documents that have come to light says sony forces developers not to use the power of the xbox consoles because it makes them look bad its time for the UK regulators to attack sony on that.

[darkrider]

It can't, the series S is more then 50% of the sales of Microsoft

[wiz7191]

Crazy part is it’s not the GPU or CPU that’s causing the issues , it’s the memory limitations it’s not enough ..

[shinoff2183]

Damn all that hoopla in the other article for nothing. They just need more time. It's gotta be sonys fault somehow I just can't quite put my finger on it.

[gangsta_red]

Right!? All that talk about no Xbox salez, low user attachmentz, no audianzes, just for the game to still be coming to Xbox.

[shinoff2183]

I mean you aren't wrong. Everything you just wrote is spot on. Maybe not the audience. Just that in a nutshell the audience is cheap(again not everyone but someone had to have stopped buying games) according to ms.

[Christopher]

It's almost like two sides made up excuses and then got played by the real answer and we should all just try and wait for the actual reason why things happen rather than point fingers.

[fr0sty]

This still stands as irrefutable proof that Series S IS holding back multiplatform games this generation. I'm ok with MS making bad business decisions, but when those affect the quality of the games I play on my console, then I take issue. For every developer that "puts in the extra time to make it work", there's more that just cut features instead. Extra time to get something working is extra money spent paying the ones doing that work... And the ones holding the purse strings aren't always going to want to spend that, but they're still going to want to sell to the Xbox install base, and MS requires everything that runs on X has to run on S... so there goes this feature or that from MY game, on another console, all because MS had to release a last gen console to try to target the sub $300 market. We'll hear about it when they do decide to put in that extra effort and money, but the vast majority of the time, we'll never hear about what got cut because they didn't want to spend that money to get it working on all systems, if it could even be done at all regardless of budget.

[Chilliersplash]

I find the way you use z instead of an s really irritating

[porkChop]

One of the devs clarified that they aren't even saying it's delayed on Xbox. They're just trying to fix whatever issue they have with coop before they announce the Xbox version. It could very well launch in August alongside the other platforms.

[porkChop]

I honestly don't know. All they've said is that they're having issues with split screen coop.

[Thundercat77]

Xbox should drop the potato console already.

[MadLad]

I've seen what the "potato" console can do. I'll be playing on PC all the same, but the Series S is a whole lot more powerful than what people seemingly want to make it out to be.

[execution17]

It's basically a faster one x which can do 4k when the series s can't... since it might be the trend going forward for some developers delaying the xbox version just to get it to run the way the want it too or just skip xbox entirely

[PhillyDillyDee]

They shouldve known it would cause issues like this for devs. They probably did and just didnt care…

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

MS caring about devs? Since when? RoFL. Nah, they're constantly on about wanting to "revolutionize" the industry to fit them, and cry when they end up in last. The S was always about trying to maximize sales. If devs or the health of the industry factored into it at all, I'm a long-lost heir to the British throne. Also keep in mind how well MS takes care of its own devs, and that should be a clear indicator of how much of a thought they spare for third party devs.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

BG3 runs on a Steam Deck. There is no excuse.

[MadLad]

Exactly.
There's something going on with it coming to Xbox. I have multiple PCs ranging from high end to fairly antiquated, as well as a Steam Deck.

I have the game running on a GTX680 and an i5 fairly decently. I like to run my own benchmarks just for the fun of it.

If a build that old can run it fairly decently, there's absolutely no reason something like the Series S shouldn't be able to.

Every dev that, so far, has claimed the Series S was holding them back, it ended up something weird was going on in the background.

[darkrider]

Of course there is, they want to sell a great product and not something running like crap. There no secret agenda... The console is very weak. The Bandwith is small, the amount of ram is low. So it very hard to make it run on console full of bottlenecks.... It's a 3rd party studio and it doesn't have time to waste on such weak console.

[MadLad]

@darksider

I remember the original Xbox, and even the GameCube, being far more powerful than the PS2... yet we got PS2 ports of games.

Engines are very scalable nowadays. And now consoles are just PCs with a logo slapped on it and a closed ecosystem. Anymore when I see things like this it just feels like an excuse on the Dev's part, or there's something going on in the background that we're not hearing about.

I also explained how the game actually runs fairly well on a system with specs far lower than a Series S.

[P4rrot]

Are you able to run split screen co-op on the game on a "lower end" device with 8gb of ram? Co-op seems to be the issue they bring up, (which is not really going to happen on steam deck anyway for obvious reasons) maybe the series S having half the ram of the steam deck is the restricting factor getting this feature to work properly.

[lonewolf10]

Exactly, no issues with doing this across low to high end PC's, why are consoles an issue.

[gangsta_red]

I'm not a programmer, but doesn't Fortnite have split screen for the Series X and S? and that does a lot more than what BG3 is potentially doing.

But who knows, I'm sure there's other factors that may be going on.

[FGHFGHFGH]

Maybe it's a dx11 problem. BG3 uses vulkan as it's default api (even on pc) and steam deck also uses vulkan as it's graphics api. BG3 supports dx11 also but it's slower than vulkan and is old tech. I don't think dx12 is supported. Maybe it's time for microsoft to ditch dx requirements for xbox.

https://www.digitaltrends.c...

[hotnickles]

That’s interesting. You would think MS would be all over that. Maybe because it’s not some huge franchise. If it were a serious AAA title MS wouldn’t have that at all.

[Soulsborne]

For those who think development for pc is the same for consoles plz stop gaming. Get some help.

[Destiny1080]

The issue is technical

[OhReginald]

Lol now that is funny.

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

I expect this will be an issue for the XS going forward, as the S just isn't a very powerful console, and apparently MS doesn't want games that run on the X and not the S. With many devs supporting last gen up until now, it probably wasn't as big a deal, but now that some seem to finally be moving away from the old consoles to focus on the current ones, I can imagine the S will be a bit of an issue going forward, depending on the game of course.

The simple multiplats such as indie and retro stuff that will continue to be on the Switch will run on the S no problem. For the hardware-pushing stuff that requires current gen systems though, MS has kind of shot themselves in the foot.

[HyperMoused]

good to see they are taking more time instead of releasing a game that doesnt work, ill be getting this when it comes out

[y2jb]

There’s a good chance that sales of the Xbox version of non GP games are abysmal. A sizable part of that user base no longer like paying for games as they have a sub to pay for each month.

[X-23]

Perfect example of how some of the Xbox fans are in complete denial, the dev team says one thing and still the delusional ones will try and say it's something else.
Personally I'm fine with their decision, at least they didn't decide on skipping console release or delaying the PS5 version altogether.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

It runs on lower spec hardware. You are reaching

[oIMyersIo]

Whilst I do feel the Series S is excellent value for money, Microsoft should’ve gone the same route as Sony: one digital, one disc with the same internal specs as to avoid this bs.

Xbox games being held back by the Series S will only get worse & the thing is, Microsoft has dug themselves a hole now because if/when they move to some games being SX exclusive, there will be a fair few upset Series S owners as they were sold on the promise that this is a new gen console.

Do better, Microsoft.