Microsoft Engineers Help Get Baldur’s Gate 3 Split-Screen Working on Xbox Series S – IGN

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most anticipated games of 2023. It starts in August on PC, then in September on PlayStation 5. But why is there no release date for the Xbox Series X and S models? At first, you’d think that Sony’s Jim Ryan had collected Larian a basket full of money to secure the Baldur’s Gate 3 console for himself, but that’s not the case. There is no public agreement currently in progress. Which begs the question: what about Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series consoles?

The truth is related to the struggle that Larian continues to take Baldur’s Gate 3’s-player-play-screen co-op successfully on the Xbox Series S, and Microsoft’s policy that forces a game screen on the Xbox Series X and S. This means that. Larian can’t release Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series console until it’s optimized for S-screen co-op on the S until it reaches the bar it needs to satisfy players. This isn’t about the difference in framerate, the difference in resolution, or whether the S version has the same effect as the X graphics. This is about the main difference in gameplay, and that’s where Microsoft draws the line.

You may have asked, why not just release Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series X, leaving the S all out? Microsoft does not allow this. You may have asked, why not stop split-screen-op on the Xbox Series S model? As mentioned, Microsoft mandates that the game be the same on X and S, so this is not allowed. And you may have asked, why not take the big idea of ​​cutting-edge gameplay from the Xbox Series version of the game? Baldur’s Gate 3 is considered by many as a single player game, after all, and let’s not forget Microsoft’s studio, 343, which was torn from last year’s ill-fated Halo Infinite. Not only is Microsoft eager for multiplayer games to be launched on the Xbox with gameplay similar to that seen on the PlayStation, but Larian may face backlash from Xbox players, especially Xbox Series X players, if Baldur’s Gate 3 is launched without split-screen. console can support it and the PS5 version has it.

So Larian is in a tough spot. It wanted to release Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series X and S at the same time as on PS5, but due to the problem of distribution on S, it cannot.

IGN spoke with Larian’s boss Swen Vincke to discuss the matter. Understandably, he was at pains not to criticize Microsoft, and he refused to answer when asked if he had asked for an exemption (IGN understands at this point in the Xbox Series lifecycle, Microsoft is sticking to its guns despite growing calls from the development team. The company will abandon its requirements to launch the Series S). Instead, Vincke pointed to the difficulty of Baldur’s Gate 3 itself and the freedom with which it shoots and split-screen co-op as the source of its problems.

“You’re very free in what you do, freer than people expect,” Vincke said. “That means you can get into a really big city that’s denser than people expect. You can do all kinds of crazy things, so it takes a lot of optimization. On some platforms we’re faster than on other platforms. It just takes time. That’s the reality of development.

“We didn’t fix this. Our intention was to demand immediate release. But we’ve been in this game for a long time. It’s a very big game. The amount of things you can do with it is insane. I think people will be surprised when they see everything. There are obstacles that we have to overcome, so we just deal with them. Others take more time.”

Vincke said Larian may have to “perform” to release an Xbox version, but declined to say exactly what those are. “There may be some compromises that we have to make, but we are trying to be limited in the compromises that we have to make,” he said.

“But I don’t want to jump ahead of the development team, which is doing amazing things. I don’t want to say it’s going to be like this until we’re done and it’s OK to release it.”

Vincke also mentioned an additional issue: the nature of the development of Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian experts found that the optimization of the S model was difficult because the content that had been added over the years grew. “It was difficult for him to do that when the game was ‘not over’, because everything was coming,” Vincke said. “Now they have everything, so they see what they’re up against.”

While this is disappointing to Larian, it’s a bad look for Microsoft. Its customers are missing out on one of the most exciting games of the long-running franchise due to what many players see as a sloppy release process. So it’s no surprise to learn engineers from the Xbox Advanced Technology Group (ATG) have been enlisted to help Larian get the S version of Baldur’s Gate 3 up and running.

Although Microsoft did not respond to IGN’s request for comment in time for publication, Vincke confirmed this. “We were really supported by Microsoft,” he said. “We had the support of the ATG team. They’ve been great. They’ve been very supportive. Everyone wants this on Xbox. It’s not that we don’t want it to come out on Xbox. It’s just, our problem – and it’s us, Larian – is that we just made a really big game. And it’s a game very difficult.

“We are not builders with unlimited resources either. We are locked into the amount of time each platform type is tested. When you start adding permissions to the platform, it becomes more complicated.

“I wish I could tell you that we can do magic and miracles. We can’t. But I don’t think we should stop the kind that is ready in the world if we exist. I don’t think that’s a good reason to stop. Our PC players have been helping to make the game even better during Early Access. They have waited long enough. So it is time for them to take their Bible in their hands.

“If we were to be fair on all platforms, we would have to wait, I don’t know how long we will be ready. That’s why it’s important to release it now, we release it when it’s ready on PS5, and we release it when it’s ready on Xbox.

“This is not him. You will be able to play it. It’s just a matter of patience. This is a question of time. “

How much time? Vincke said Larian’s “desire” is to release Baldur’s Gate 3 for Xbox Series X and S this year, but he didn’t confirm.

“Our goal is to prepare for this year,” he said. “Our teams have been working on this project for a long time, and they are disappointed that they did not finish it. I hope people will understand, it is the reality of development. You are there. It’s not what you want, but it’s there.

“We want the game to end. It’s ready. It has to go out there. We want players to play. We need as many players as possible to play. So it’s in our best interest to release it on all platforms. We’re doing everything we can, but we don’t want to compromise when we’re doing it. We want to make sure that when you get it in your hands it’s like hey, this is great, I want to play this with my friends in multiplayer. “

What’s going on with Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series X and S shows a looming problem for Microsoft. As more and more developers look to take full advantage of the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, should they release a version of their multiplayer games on the S that isn’t too powerful to hold them back? Or, in extreme cases like Larian’s, keep the full Xbox version?

In October, a VFX artist who worked on the Xbox Series X and S games said in a tweet that has since been deleted that “many developers have been in meetings over the last year trying to solve the requirements of the Series S”.

“The studio went through a phase of development where the Series S was an albatross around the neck in production, and now that the game is being developed strongly with new ideas, the teams don’t want to repeat the process,” said the developer. .

Splitscreen seems to be the most taxing thing on the Xbox Series S. We have already said that 343 had to leave the Halo Infinite feature, which caused controversy from fans of the series. In May last year, Alexander Battaglia of Digital Foundry said memory constraints made the Xbox Series S “painful” to work with. “We’ve heard from a number of developers that they feel like the Series S is a bit of a pain in the ass at times – not just the CPU or GPU power there, but it’s like the memory constraints,” he said.

It seems unlikely that Microsoft will allow publishers and developers to release their games on the Xbox Series X anytime soon. It sees the affordable S as an important part of its console strategy, helping Xbox reach more gamers. But this means that engineers are faced with the ever-increasing headache of getting their games optimized for S. This is a problem Microsoft seems to be aware of.

In a recent interview with Axios, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty admitted that developing the Xbox Series S alongside the X, PS5 and PC is “a lot of work”. But he added that developers will find it easier when they go to their second game on the platform, because they can “prepare better, knowing where the sharp corners are”.

In the interim, Larian’s work with Microsoft on the Xbox Series version of Baldur’s Gate 3 continues. But in time, the current generation is approaching its peak, perhaps those who have the platform will consider relaxing their wishes. It sounds like this could go down well with the developers, and could benefit players.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can come to Wesley wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or privately at wyp100@proton.me.