Larian reiterates its plan to get Baldur's Gate 3 onto Xbox Series X|S by the end of 2023

Baldur's Gate 3
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

What you need to know

  • Baldur's Gate 3 launched on PC in August and PS5 in September, but the Xbox release of the game has been delayed.
  • There's still no official release date announced for Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox.
  • Michael Douse, the director of publishing for Larian Studios, recently responded to a tweet that the game is still expected before the year's end.

On August 3, 2023, Larian Studios launched Baldur's Gate 3 to critical and commercial acclaim on PC. They followed up one successful launch with a second, releasing the game on PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2023. Unfortunately, gamers on Xbox have been left wanting as Baldur's Gate 3 is still yet to be released on the Xbox Series platform. Larian Studio's director of publishing, Michael Douse, took to Twitter recently to confirm that the studio still plans to release the game to Xbox by the end of 2023. 

Earlier this year, Larian Studios shared that it had not yet brought Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox due to constraints with parity between the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. Eventually, team members from the studio worked with a team from Xbox to work out a solution to the problem. According to Larian Studios, the Xbox Series S was the reason behind the delay, as the team struggled to make split screen co-op work on the less powerful system. 

Larian Studios and Xbox came to an agreement to launch Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X in all of its glory, while the Xbox Series S would lose the problematic split screen mode at launch. This gave the developers an earlier window to release the game, as opposed to waiting until parity could be achieved, which may have delayed the launch of Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox until 2024.

With split screen co-op for Xbox Series S off of the proverbial to-do list, Larian Studios announced the game would release on Xbox consoles "by the end of 2023." The months have continued to tick by, however, and there is still no official release. This has led to some in the community to question if the Xbox release had been delayed yet again.

Douse has taken to Twitter to dispel the theory that the Xbox launch has been delayed, stating "Before the end of the year is the plan." Douse's tweet was tinged with frustration at influencers and content creators spreading negative rumors "for likes" despite Larian Studios' insistence that the Xbox release will be before the new year.

While we wait for the game to finally make it to Xbox, take a moment to check out our Baldur's Gate 3 review for PC.

Cole Martin
Writer

Cole is the resident Call of Duty know-it-all and indie game enthusiast for Windows Central. She's a lifelong artist with two decades of experience in digital painting, and she will happily talk your ear off about budget pen displays.