August 1st 2023.
Baldur's Gate 3 is now one of the PS5's biggest exclusives of the year, and the rivalry between Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3 continues to grow. Initially, it was just a coincidence of the release schedules, but the two titles have become arch-rivals, leaving few console gamers able to play both. While the PC edition of Baldur's Gate 3 is set to release this week, the PlayStation 5 version won't be released until September 6th, the same day as Xbox exclusive Starfield.
It was not intended to be a PlayStation console exclusive, however developer Larian Studios has been unable to get the game to work fully on the budget-priced Xbox Series S, which has a slower processor than the Xbox Series X. This has caused the delay of all Xbox versions until next year.
The issue is with the split-screen mode in the game, which requires too much horsepower for the Xbox Series S. Since it is Microsoft policy that every game must have exactly the same features on both Xbox Series X and S, Baldur's Gate 3 can't be released until it works on both. Director of publishing Michael Douse announced on Twitter that 'We have quite a few engineers working very hard to do what no other RPG of this scale has achieved: seamless drop-in, drop-out co-op on Series S. We hope to have an update by the end of the year.'
If there isn't even an update on the Xbox version's progress until the end of the year, it strongly suggests it won't be released until 2024. Theoretically, they could just remove the split-screen option entirely from the Xbox edition, but there seems to be no interest in doing that. Despite any conspiracies, there is no sign that Sony has had any hand in encouraging Larian, in terms of the release date or the delay of the Xbox versions.
Baldur's Gate 3 has become a PS5 console exclusive by default, but there is no exclusivity deal for the game. To stay up to date with all the exclusive gaming content and latest releases before they're seen on the site, be sure to sign up to the newsletter.
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