While the legend of Baldur’s Gate 3 will continue to grow for all the right reasons, especially since it’s an incredible game that has helped redefine what a D&D-style experience can be for everyone, there have been a few small hiccups that held the game back from being 100% perfect. For example, gamers know that while Larian Studios went all out on the first two acts, the third left something to be desired at times, and they went on to fix that in updates after release. Then, there was the “curious case” of the Xbox Series X/S launch, where Larian had to delay launching it for several months to work out how to get most features to work on the Series S model.
This was because of the requirement that Microsoft had for its consoles, where developers had to release games on both systems or else not release them at all on the platforms. While some would have been fine with NOT releasing it on the Xbox line, Larian Studios made the deal to do it and got it to work. However, there were some small caveats, including that on the Xbox Series S, there wouldn’t be able to do split-screen co-op, as the developer couldn’t get it to work properly, unlike the Series X model.
Fast forward to now, and the 8th main update for Baldur’s Gate 3 has been released for testing, and in it, gamers are finding out that Xbox Series S users can FINALLY do split-screen co-op. Better late than never, right? Obviously, that’s not the only feature of the update, as there will be cross-play, new sub-classes, and more. All of these will give people more reasons to go back into the title and play it again to their heart’s content.
The irony of all of this with the Xbox line is that this is all Microsoft’s fault, but it won’t bend in its ways. The Xbox Series S has caused numerous problems for multiple developers, not just Larian Studios, and because of that, several key games haven’t dropped on the system yet. If you were to ask Phil Spencer about it, he doesn’t see a problem with what’s happened and even noted that there won’t be a shift in allowing developers to only make games for the Xbox Series X.
It’s this kind of mindset that has all but doomed the current Xbox console and is forcing Microsoft to go multiplatform with its titles. How any of this will end for Microsoft is still up in the air.
