Baldur’s Gate 3 finally got a release date yesterday, but fans quickly realized that Xbox wasn’t included in developer Larian Studios’ release plans.
In a statement to IGN, Larian Studios clarified the situation, saying the studio is “planning to release Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC, Mac, GeForce NOW and PS5”. An Xbox version is in development, but Larian Studios has been struggling to get split-screen co-op working on the Xbox Series X|S, which leaves the studio unable to ship that version at launch.
Check out the full statement below, where Larian Studios explains that there is no exclusivity agreement barring an Xbox version:
“Following yesterday’s PS5 and release date announcement, we clarified that we are now planning to release Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC, Mac, GeForce NOW, and PS5. That said, we do not have exclusivity to which platforms we can bring BG3 to, or when, and we’ll announce support for additional platforms if and when we’re ready.
We’re seeing a lot of varying interpretations of what that means, so we want to clarify further. We’ve had an Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 in development for some time. We encountered some technical issues in the development of the Xbox port that prevented us from feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we were sure we found the right solutions – specifically, we couldn’t get the split-screen co-op to work with the same pattern on Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship.
There is no platform exclusivity that prevents us from releasing BG3 on the Xbox day and date, if there is a technical possibility. If and when we announce new platforms, we want to make sure each release lives up to our standards and expectations.”
– Larian Studios
The Baldur’s Gate 3 trailer at this week’s State of Play showcased character classes, split-screen multiplayer footage, and revealed JK Simmons’ role as the antagonist General Ketheric Thorm. We’ve also seen the Deluxe Edition and Collector’s Edition of the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was first revealed in 2019 and is the long-awaited follow-up to BioWare’s classic 90s RPGs. The franchise is in good hands with Larian Studios, who are best known for creating the amazing Divinity: Original Sin franchise.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN, covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of gaming industry experience with subscriptions to IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.