A few months ago, Larian confirmed that it is working on an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3, but it won't be ready to launch alongside the PC or PS5 versions of the game. The studio has provided an update this week, confirming it is still having issues getting the game's co-op functioning well enough on Xbox Series S.
Speaking with IGN, Larian co-founder, Swen Vincke, confirmed that the Xbox version of the game is still in the works, but added that development has run into issues. Vincke says that Microsoft has been working with Larian to try and overcome the issue but ultimately some compromises may have to be made to get the game released on Xbox.
The core of the issue is split-screen co-op. If you followed Halo Infinite's troubles development, then this won't surprise you. 343 Industries also had to scrap split-screen co-op for Halo Infinite due to troubles getting it running well on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
As Microsoft requires that developers ship games with the same feature set across both consoles, Larian may have to consider shipping Baldur's Gate 3 without split-screen on Xbox. However, the studio is hesitant to ship an Xbox version with missing features compared to the PS5 version.
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KitGuru Says: Microsoft weren't able to figure this out for Halo Infinite, so I do doubt that the problem will be resolved here. At the same time, I don't think lacking split-screen co-op should be the thing that stops Baldur's Gate 3 from releasing on Xbox.