Baldur’s Gate 3 finally got a release date yesterday, but fans quickly noticed that Xbox wasn’t included in developer Larian Studios’ launch 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 struggled to get splitscreen co-op working on 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’s no exclusivity deal holding back an Xbox version:
“Following yesterday’s PS5 and release date announcement, we’ve clarified that right now, we’re planning to release Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC, Mac, GeForce NOW and PS5. That said, we have no exclusivity for which platforms we can bring BG3 to, or when, and will announce support for additional platforms if and when we’re ready.
We’re seeing a lot of varied interpretations of what that means, so we wanted to clarify further. We’ve had an Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 in development for some time now. We’ve run into some technical issues in developing the Xbox port that have stopped us feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we’re certain we’ve found the right solutions – specifically, we’ve been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship.
There’s no platform exclusivity preventing us from releasing BG3 on Xbox day and date, should that be a technical possibility. If and when we do announce further platforms, we want to make sure each version lives up to our standards & expectations.”
– Larian Studios
The Baldur’s Gate 3 trailer in this week’s State of Play showed off character classes, shots of the splitscreen multiplayer, and revealed J.K. Simmons’ role as antagonist General Ketheric Thorm. We also got looks at the game’s Deluxe Edition and Collector’s Edition.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was first revealed in 2019, and it’s the long-awaited follow-up to BioWare’s classic 90s RPGs. The franchise is in good hands with Larian Studios, which is best-known for creating the incredible Divinity: Original Sin franchise.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.