Back in 1998, Baldur’s Gate came out of the blue and changed role-playing games forever. The little-known game from BioWare became an instant classic, but the Canadian video game studio knocked people’s socks off in 2001 with Baldur’s Gate 2, a sequel which turned out to be even better than the original.
Sadly, while rumors doing the rounds online had pointed to Baldur’s Gate 3 being in the works at BioWare, the renowned studio had actually dropped the franchise in favor of Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
But then Larian Studios announced in 2020 that it was making a Baldur’s Gate 3 game, meaning a third entry in the illustrious series would eventually see the light of day after fans had been waiting for over 20 years for a continuation of the saga.
This means that RPG fans will be able to return to the Forgotten Realms universe made famous by the earlier two games, and interact with characters such as the crazy warrior Minsc and his pet hamster in another epic sword and sorcery game…
Actually, while Baldur’s Gate 3 hasn’t got an official release yet, it’s been available on Steam’s Early Access for those who don’t mind playing an unfinished version of the game. Aside from PC, the game is also slated to hit consoles, but recent news point to this being a PlayStation 5 exclusive, though.
A release trailer shown during Sony’s State of Play event finally revealed a launch date for the game: August 31, 2023. But Xbox gamers might have been miffed by the fact that the game will skip the Xbox Series X/S at launch (Baldur’s Gate 3 is only launching on next-gen consoles so there will never be an Xbox One version).
However, in a statement to Eurogamer, developer Larian Studios denied playing the exclusivity game though.
“Right now we’re planning to release Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC, Mac, GeForce Now and PS5”, a spokesperson for Larian told the video game site, adding that “we have no exclusivity and will announce support for additional platforms if and when we’re ready”.
Also, Larian boss Swen Vincke, told gamers to “relax”, saying his company isn’t “playing the exclusivity game” in a tweet.
Nonetheless, it might be naive of Larian Studios to expect gamers to believe that the studio isn’t favoring Sony, even if it may not have an explicit agreement with the Japanese company. But the company itself says it not having announced an Xbox version has to do with the technical side of things, though.
“We are still working on an Xbox version of BG3, but we’re not yet confident enough to announce it. We don’t like announcing anything until we’re ready, because we don’t want to get people’s hopes up until we’re sure we can deliver”, said a Larian community manager on the game’s subreddit.
So at least the studio has confirmed that an Xbox version is in the works, even if it may not release anytime soon… The technical difficulties Larian has run into are seemingly related to the game’s split-screen co-op, one of the most exciting features being touted for the PS5 version of the game (which is actually being released on August 31).
This makes Baldur’s Gate 3 at least a timed exclusive on PlayStation 5, as there won’t be an Xbox Series X/S version available until a future date, even if Larian doesn’t have any sort of agreement with Sony for this.
Nonetheless, Xbox players will definitely be looking forward to this game too, as it looks to be one hell of a sequel to the highly acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 2, at least judging by the trailer above. It would be a great thing if this wait for an Xbox Series X/S version isn’t that long then, but at least PC and PS5 owners will likely be in for a treat when Baldur’s Gate 3 is released this summer though.
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