When Is Baldur’s Gate 3 Coming to Xbox?

Baldur’s Gate 3 finally has a release date after being available in Steam early access for almost three years. Developer Larian Studios (the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2) has taken feedback from the PC gaming community for the game’s beta and has refined Baldur’s Gate 3 for its full release. The game has a release date of 3rd August for PC with the PlayStation 5 version taking a step back, receiving a 6th September release date. However, there is no official statement made regarding the release of the Xbox Series X/S versions.

Will Baldur’s Gate 3 Release on Xbox?

Long story short, yes Baldur’s Gate 3 will be released on Xbox Series X/S. Larian Studios has confirmed that the game has been in development for the next-gen Xbox Series X/S for quite some time. However, they have run into technical issues with the Xbox Series S.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is certainly a humongous game boasting a lot of features. One such feature is the game supporting split-screen co-op. In a statement to Digital Foundry, Larian Studios has mentioned that they have had technical issues with getting the split-screen co-op feature to work on the Xbox Series S, possibly due to its hardware limitations. This is also why the game has not been announced officially for the platform. The statement from Larian states:

"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 split-screen co-op to work to the same standard on both Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship."

The developer mentioned that there is no console exclusivity for Baldur’s Gate 3 and that if the technicalities are fixed, they would surely announce a release day and date for Xbox. Larian Studios also mentioned that they would like to maintain their own standards and expectations for each version of the game.

Digital Foundry’s tech editor Richard Leadbetter also pointed out that there has been a disparity between the Xbox Series X and the Series S in several titles, specifically due to its hardware limitations. The Series S had to miss out on certain ray tracing features and higher FPS modes apart from the obvious difference in resolution between the two consoles. 

However, in this situation, the difference between the two is not just a change in visual elements but a major gameplay feature that is integral to Baldur's Gate 3. This suggests that Microsoft wishes to eliminate any disparity between the Xbox Series X and the S.