Baldur's Gate 3 Confirmed For Xbox In 2023, Series S Version Ditching Local Co-Op

I said this from the start, no point in not having the game available at all when you could just drop split screen for the S

ok so to solve this problem is to ditch local co-op. I see

Don't have a problem with this and this is probably how it should be if developers can't make it work. Small features like this being missing will disappoint some, but it isn't a major thing, and it's better than not having the game at all.

Hallelujah! Common sense prevails… thanks Phil for ok’ing this

This is probably how it will be going forward. If it ever happens again where one specific developer runs into a very specific problem with the Series S then xbox will step and help them decide the best path forward. Xbox will probably assist as much as they can to fix it and finally allow it to be dropped if they don't like the time line it will take.

I think couch co-op is fairly niche nowadays, although I could be wrong, so I think this is the correct solution.

@StrawberryTurtle Why? If you bought a S you are ok with this… we read the box when we bought it - we just want to play the game!

@StrawberryTurtle I really doubt there are any Series S owner out there regretting their purchase because they won't be able to play Baulders Gate 3 in split screen.

So this means Microsoft must have softened on the parity clause. A wise decision from Phil and one I fully support.

Lack of split-screen co-op is not a deal breaker for a 100+h RPG... In the end of the day, I believe less than 1% of Series X or PS5 users will use it anyway. Xbox never should have enforced parity in this particular feature.

@StrawberryTurtle couldn't care less. The Series S has been brilliant for the price and I really won't miss local co-op in this game.

At least it’s not 2024 I’m glad a solution was found. I think the sheer success of the game (which should be no surprise) has kind of forced Xbox’s hand. I’ve said before they can’t be happy losing sales to the competition and they still will but at least it’s coming sooner than expected on Xbox.

Hope they’re more relaxed on stuff like this in the future because Xbox players shouldn’t be missing out on releases because of the weaker system they chose to release.

I think its fair to say that lawsuits will be incoming against Microsoft for this move, unless they specifically made clear from the beginning to all prospective Series S owners.

The S just ain't powerful enough. So glad they ditched it to get the game released sooner.

@Cakefish so far it's an isolated incident but I don't think xbox is removing the parity clause in general. It will probably require their approval if it ever happens again.

This also doesn't necessarily mean that split screen will never be available on Series S for bg3.

@Sol4ris I'm sure Microsoft, one of the biggest companies in the world, would have already thought about any possible legal action from this.

This is the way, while I think the Series S is a great option for many people it also shouldn’t hold back what games can do with better hardware such as the Series X.

It's 2023, I'd say around 1% use splitscreen.. Finally common sense prevails..

A sensible move but I think this will be a very rare occurrence, if it even ever happens again at all. It's likely only because BG3 has reviewed so high and been so popular that MS will have eased their stance. Larian going on record and stating that the Series S was the issue probably forced MS's hand a bit too.

So they can do parity clause exemptions?

That's good to hear.

Now why not drop it all together?

Though I do find it hilarious that this only happened after BG3 dropped to raving reviews, and only after gamescom. I bet he was getting an earful from people upset about it. 😂

@InterceptorAlpha because some developers will likely just start being lazy and dropping features that could be on Series S, but just take time. That would obviously be bad for the consumer.

I think exceptions being allowed rather than it being dropped altogether it clearly the better thing to do.

Let me preface what I'm about to say with the fact that I own two Xbox Series X

The correct move here was to drop split screen from both Xbox consoles. By decoupling the two consoles, Microsoft has opened an enormous can of worms far bigger than Baldur's Gate 3, which is itself an enormous, GOTY worthy game. Split screen is a niche feature, preserving it on Series X was absolutely not worth what they just did here, which is going to have massive implications down the road.

I'm happy we're getting BG3, but this was not the best path.

Awesome news for Xbox gamers. Glad they get it sooner.

But surely this is now Xbox admitting there is an issue with split screen on the S?! Because they were helping Larian out, now just dropping it?

(Halo dropped it, FM too)

Welp the door is open now, wonder how many devs in the next few years will seek a pass.

@Jenkinss I own two Series X as well. And I disagree. Dropping coop would have made it objectively inferior to every other version. Why would I pay the same price for something that has more features elsewhere?

Quite literally the only reason I got this was for split screen.

Hell, Black Ops 4 is still my most played COD because it has 4 player splitscreen. Play it every week at a friend's house.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner
That's probably a safe bet. No necessarily Halo as it was cross gen, but Forza dropping it was definitely a S issue. They'd rather cut features than admit there's a problem. Thanfully Forza 7 is 4K 60 already so I don't have to mess with the new one's live service BS.

@Lightning720
That would be Microsoft's own fault for releasing two SKUs. The same thing happened with the 360. Unless you bought a hard drive, you quite literally could not even play many games.

Is this the first time that a game will miss a feature on the S compared to X? Besides graphical settings I can't think of another title where a part of the gameplay has been removed.

Not a good sign as the S was all about offering the same experiences at a lower price

Series S owner here. Common sense prevails. For the amount of people this will affect, it's the best solution. Not saying it's not annoying for those it will affect, but everyone else shouldn't suffer as a result of it.

Finally, common sense prevailed. Releases on X and S, just no split-screen on S. It's an outdated feature and fewer games use it these days. I'm sure it'll be hardly anywhere in 5 years.

Nice give me a date I hand over my money. I have been waiting to play this game and I have a Series X

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Following this announcement I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't believe they were going to be able to fix the problem so it was either drop split screen for series S or no Xbox release at all.

@Jenkinss I’d say that would very embarrassing for Xbox for their premium console to not offer the same features as PS5, simply because the budget console can’t keep up. We know that XSX has no issues running split screen coop in this game as the devs have openly stated as much. Why should XSX users miss out? Just to create an artificial level playing field between XSX and XSS? I strongly disagree with that!

@InterceptorAlpha that is hardly the same thing. Lacking local co-op is not the same as a game not being able to be played.

@Lightning720

I'm sure Microsoft, one of the biggest companies in the world, would have already thought about any possible legal action from this

They likely did but that is not what I meant. Millions of Series S owners are not going to be thrilled by Microsoft's decision here (unless Larian are still committed on split-screen for the S)and once you make an exception...well we know where this is going. And I'm saying this as a Series X owner.

@InterceptorAlpha "No necessarily Halo as it was cross gen, but Forza dropping it was definitely a S issue"

Phil Spencer confirmed to IGN at Gamescon that Forza missing split screen is nothing to do with the hardware capabilities of the X or S and is to do with prioritising resources.

"So if we think about Forza, it has nothing to do with any kind of hardware thing on S and X, just where they wanted to focus their time.

We obviously see the data in terms of how many people play local co-op for games. I love local co-op. Shout out to Vampire Survivors that just launched it. Fantastic. But there's also just a, let's go where the play is, in terms of where we're going to focus our dev resources."

You are conflating two separate issues

I have a Series S and have no issues with this.

@Sol4ris Split-screen in games is hardly a very common feature these days. So outside of a small community it will not be a deal-breaker.
For what it's worth, Halo Infinite, the revered first-party title, also didn't make split-screen work at all on either console, but there it is also easy to imagine that S had a part in it and they canned the whole thing.
I am no game developer but I find it strange that split-screen has proven this demanding. I wonder if Coalition includes it in their eventual Gears 6.
@Kaloudz All rules can apparently be relaxed if it is a very huge game, remember how Cyberpunk launched on PS4/X1? Platform-holders were certainly aware of its state, but didn't; want to block a gigantic AAA from release.

@InterceptorAlpha You're missing the big picture. There are 10's of millions of Series S that just went from being the same as Series X except for graphics, to now and forever going forward, it is a system that gets games sometimes feature incomplete. It will have that label forever, because of splitscreen, an extremely niche feature. The Xbox hardware with the largest userbase this generation is tarnished over... split screen. This was not a good decision.

Baldur's Gate 2 was my favorite CRPG for 21 years straight (until Pathfinder WOTR took the crown) , but I'm able to put aside what I want to see what is bad for Xbox. This is a bad precedent for Xbox. The fact that you personally like splitscreen does not make this a good move for Xbox.

In reality, both parties have had to compromise, @Kaloudz :

Larian have had to drop split-screen on the S, and Microsoft have had to 'bend' the parity clause.

This is a sensible decision, and not one I actually saw coming. I'm very pleased for my Xbox compatriots that they will get to partake in this masterpiece...

Extremely important piece of news today.
While the announcement of BG3 coming to us this year is huge in itself, my main takeaway is that this is the first instance of feature parity between the S and X not being enforced.
This should be really important in the coming years.

This doesn't prevent online co op on the S where the vast majority will be doing their co op.

I have a friend that says the local co-op is extremely far from perfect as well. Its a mixed bag to be sure but not a deal breaker.

@Sol4ris

There probably won't be millions of series S players playing Baulders gate 3 and of those that do were talking about a very small percentage that would want to play in split screen. I really don't think you are going to find many that actually care about this let alone someone that wants to pay for pointless legal action.

@Sakai I'm going to err on the side of precedence versus blindly listening to what Phil says.

He's a good guy. But he, and Microsoft/Xbox in general have been pretty wishy washy on things they've said and promised.

What are they focusing their resources on when they have the backing of a billion dollar corporation? Which content to cut, that's been in prior games, to release later on as they're already doing?

Makes it sound like Turn 10 is a small indie developer like Larian with highly limited resources. Not a good picture to paint. Especially when Larian is shaking things up despite being small.

@Fiendish-Beaver Not really. Steam Deck already doesn't support split screen properly. They had no problems dropping it. But Microsoft was preventing it.

@OrfeasDourvas Agreed. This will be something to keep an eye on going forward.

I don't see how this is a solution. I might not understand, English is not my primary language..
They just cut out a feature. As a Series S owner, I'm very worried by this!

@BacklogBrad Well I didn’t say they are removing the parity requirement completely, but rather softening it. Which has to be true. This wouldn’t be possible if Microsoft hadn’t explicitly provided an exemption for Larian. So going from a no-compromises global enforcement of parity to one where they are willing to give developers exemptions where deemed necessary is a softening of their prior stance. It opens the door to other developers facing similar issues petitioning Microsoft to provide an exemption. Microsoft can then in each case determine whether the issue can be fixed by providing internal Xbox engineers as support or simply by handing out exemptions as in this case. It’s a smart strategy that should hopefully avoid a repeat situation in future.

@BrilliantBill “ For what it's worth, Halo Infinite, the revered first-party title, also didn't make split-screen work at all on either console, but there it is also easy to imagine that S had a part in it and they canned the whole thing”

Xbox One was mostly likely the main cause of Halo not split screen, not the S.

To be fair, if Microsoft invented a magic dongle to provide splitscreen on the S for $1 no one would buy it

Very cool, I'm happy they went this route. So will it get patched later? The quote didn't really indicate.

@Jenkinss I think you are overestimating the impact this will have massively.

Many Series S players won't have even heard of this game and the news that co-op being dropped will pass them by, and even if they do hear it, they'll propably react the same way that mant have here - they don't really care.

This is one game. It is hardly a major issue that will create a terrible reputation. Nintendo released a few New 3DS exclusive games. Most people have likely forgot this ever happened.

Dropping local co-op won't matter in the least.

@Wheatly I will get to play in 2023 - that’s a win for me. The person who implemented split screen should be flogged…

@Lightning720 You're exactly correct.

Microsoft was fine with consoles not being able to play whole games.

Why not be fine with games missing a feature or two for those that bought an inferior product?

You don't buy a Jetta and expect it to have all the features of an Audi.

As a Series S-only user yeah, I feel a little robbed. I like split-screen more than I like online play. Is this a big deal? Annoying for sure but it's not the end of the world. But it does mean I'll wait for a sale. I'm not paying full price for an incomplete version.

@StrawberryTurtle doesn't bother me in the slightest

@Cakefish I agree and also think that if this game wasn't already out and getting all the buzz they might have told them to shove it. I think developers know that it would require an approval and it's not guaranteed so I doubt anyone is eager to try and workaround the S.

Some developers have complained about the S in the past but this is the only time one failed to do something on it and from everything they said about it, it sounded like it was possible but would take some time. It's very possible this never happens again.

There probably won't be many more cases if any where a developer (a small pc centric dev in this case) struggles this badly.

That's an correct choice imo. Release the game now and in the future add the split-screen. But MS has set a precedent here that can come back to bite them later, better be careful. Anyway, I'm playing on PC right now until Starfield comes out.
Funny how some people here saying they're sorry for Series S owners but on PushSquare they're commenting "Sony had a free win with BG3 becoming timed exclusive. Thank you Xbox Series S.".

Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Phil Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time

Ok, am I going mad 😁 for seeing this solution as a temporary option to have BG3 on Xbox consoles this year and in the meantime, Larian and Microsoft are still working on split-screen for Series S but will be available next year? I sure hope so.

@BrilliantBill & @BacklogBrad

I see both of your points, it's just that some precedents are not always the right move, perhaps it makes sense in this case but should not be normalised. Just my thoughts.

I wasn't aware of the issues on the Steam Deck, @InterceptorAlpha. Good to know. Thank you...

@Foxx_64740 Best to never take anyone like that seriously as they just want to clout chase in any way possible - even if none of it makes sense in any way.

Solid solution. A very marginal loss.

I think that Phil knew that BG3 is a big deal because of its GotY potential (pretty much guaranteed, in my estimations) @Kaloudz, and the idea of it being on the PlayStation but not on the Xbox was not appealing to him. I think he has moved on the parity clause for this reason alone. There's just no way he would want to see PlayStation as the only console to have a game that wins pretty much every (or indeed every!) GotY Award, when he could have it on his platform if he makes a small alteration to his parity clause...

@Lightning720

Dropping local co-op won't matter in the least.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Dropping local co-op doesn't matter in the least, it's a niche feature, so dropping it from the X would have been the right move to make. Instead, the Series S is no longer the same console as the X with just lower graphics. It's a system that can get games with less features, the precedent has now been set. This was a disastrous tradeoff for a near zero benefit.

This is great news. For the sake of Local Co-op (which I personally love and based an entire Youtube channel around) it’s not worth missing the whole game.

I have a series x so doesn’t effect me but I think I’d be fine w some compromises if I had an s. I have a ps5 but always get cross platform on Xbox, I’ll be preordering this

I think this is the right move, would have been bad either way but I think at least bringing the game to Xbox with one feature missing for the series S is better than not having the game on the platform at all...

@AverageGamer I had totally forgotten that poor game had to run all the way back to the original VCR X1. Quite a task for sure. Specially for 4-player coop with players in an open-world.

@Kaloudz My bet is that they won't add it. They have probably been struggling and fiddling with it for ages but just couldn't / didn't want to ask Xbox to let them can it on S, probably given popularity and prominence of their game Spencer pulled a "bossman move" and decided to let them cancel it.

@Sol4ris If it was my opinion, Xbox should have stuck to their guns and instead sent some experts over that could get it working. But probably between the two approaches, it is easier and more financially viable to just let certain games avoid specific features rather than having to send rescue teams to a dozen studios every year that say they struggle with S.

@Fiendish-Beaver

There's just no way he would want to see PlayStation as the only console to have a game that wins pretty much every (or indeed every!) GotY Award, when he could have it on his platform if he makes a small alteration to his parity clause

Really curious to see what numbers will BG3 sell on consoles, the game is clearly a colossal success on PC. I never really clicked with the Divinity games (tried several times on Xbox) or maybe it will do to the genre what Elden Ring did to the souls formula...

@Jenkinss I don’t really understand your point here? You say split screen co-op is a niche feature and doesn’t matter in the least. Yet you also say that this precedent where XSX gets niche features that don’t matter in the least and XSS doesn’t is disastrous for Xbox.

@Fiendish-Beaver a CRPG winning GOTY. I hope so.

I'll be waiting for a sale for this and buying it on PS5 anyway as i only bought the Series S for exclusives hopefully not a sign of things to come.

@Cakefish I'll try to lay it out again then. For the rest of the generation, the Xbox Series S no longer can be talked about as the same exact system as the Xbox Series X with lower graphics. That narrative is now dead, the Xbox Series S is now a system that can get games with less features than the Xbox Series X. Going forward, we have no idea what games will omit what features on the Series S. The precedent has been set now, developers can drop features from games on the S.

Painting the XSS in that negative light, which can never be undone, is worth such a niche feature in this 1 game? The thought is absurd to me, putting BG3 on both systems without splitscreen, while maintaining the XSS's status as getting the same games as XSX, would have been a much bigger win.

@Jenkinss
Honestly none of us have the hard data to see if couch co-op is truly utilized in these bigger titles. Maybe Microsoft does have that information and deemed it wasn't a hill to die on.

Series S owner. I don't care.

Whilst not quite the same, this isn't the first time a game has had different MP "rules". Ark tethers coop players UNLESS they are on Series X.

For me I'm more interested in "what gave" and why. Larian was adament they wouldn't ship without coop on any platofrm and MS certain this was a tech problem with a tech solution.

Did the idea of Sony having BG3 make Xbox throw enough cash at Larian to make them give up, or did MS discover splitscreen wasn't going to be possible.

A lot of folks seem to be jumping to the conclusion that the Xbox Series S cannot handle splitscreen in Baldur's Gate 3. It might not be true, though.

Xbox allowed Larian to ship BG3 without splitscreen on Xbox Series S so that the game could be ready to release on Xbox consoles in 2023. Otherwise, it would release in 2024 with full parity across both Xbox SKUs.

As far as we know, Larian could keep working on patching splis-screen on Xbox Series S later next year.

Makes sense - Series X is much more a 'Family' console or 'dedicated' gamer wanting the 'Premium' gaming experience on their flashy 4k TV's but the Series S is much more for an 'individual' gamer and can still play with friends on their Series S online....

In most games, couch co-op probably accounts for so little of the player numbers and don't want to waste too much time/money on that feature.

In some games, its a 'vital' part of the experience but then those games would be designed from the ground up to play in 'Split-Screen'.

It just depends on whether its an 'additional' feature or 'Core' to the experience with 'most' games focusing on 'online' co-op as that is where the majority of 'friends' play and at under $300 its cheap enough that your kids for example can have their own 'Xbox', like they have their 'own' Switch...

Anyway, all that is stated is that 'Co-op' will be missing from Series S at LAUNCH and that is so it can release in 2023. That doesn't mean that they won't 'patch' the game and add 'Split-screen' co-op in 2024 with 'more' help and support from MS teams that they have sent out to help. This is just the early news and that is a 'good' step to bring the game to Xbox sooner...

@BAMozzy yet many families buy the S because it’s cheaper. So where you get the idea the X is a family console and S for individual gamers is just made up.

@BrilliantBill It seems everyone has forgotten that Halo Infinite was on Xbox One.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner The Series X is a Premium Console that's more likely to be sat under the Main TV in a Family Room. I doubt many kids have a Series X in their Bedrooms or students in the dorms - especially not have a '4k' display to actually take advantage of the 'extra' cost.

As a parent, I would buy my kids their 'own' series S like you would a Switch so they can actually play their 'own' games, in their own space and 'together' online without arguing, fighting and/or monopolising the Main TV where 'my' Series X is connected.

@Sol4ris Can't sue Microsoft for a 3rd party decision. If 1st party did that, they may have a class-action case, but even then, depends on the fine print.

Series S owner i dont care just let me play the game

really split screen is so niche at this point

Doesn't impact me since I own a Series X, but i do think this is the wrong approach unless Xbox offers an official policy statement moving forward that will address this. They need to consider granting a timed waiver that allows some devs the chance to work longer on the split-screen mode. Overall though, i think a better solution is saying the parity requirement doesn't apply to split screen modes and then EVERY series s box needs a disclaimer saying that it may not support split screen mode on every title. Still kinda messy. It is disappointing that the hardware wasn't better designed to accommodate this feature, which has been around a long time.

I have a Series S and a Series X. The Series S is the one in a room where I would ever bother with split-screen coop. I still am perfectly cool with this direction.

The S is the equivalent of an undocked Switch, or undocked Steamdeck, and some features simply are too much to ask of the device.

you want split screen buy a series X

@abe_hikura I'm also very interested and we'll never know the full story, although I have suspicions.

Larian was adament they wouldn't ship without coop on any platofrm and MS certain this was a tech problem with a tech solution.

I also so that quote by Swen, and it was baffling to me. This is the same company that released DOS2 on Switch without split screen. Now we also know they're willing to drop it from Xbox. I think this original quote was Swen doing PR spin.

Since then, Michael Douse of Larian has said on twitter:

Far from being exclusive, we have no exclusivity deal that prevents us from launching on Xbox. The issue is a technical hurdle. We cannot remove the split-screen feature because we are obliged to launch with feature parity, and so continue to try and make it work.

Now at first glance this sounds like he's just talking about series S. But I actually suspect (and we'll never find this out) he's also talking about Xbox vs PS5. So my theory which I've posted on this site several times, and after today's news looks more likely than ever, is that Xbox forces feature parity (when possible) on 3rd party games with Playstation, and that since Larian was releasing the game with split screen on PS5, they had to include it on Xbox, and since it was on XSX, it also had to be on XSS - a cascade of parity clauses leading to it not coming to Xbox at all until it could get running on the weakest link. And Xbox decided instead of letting the XSX look weak vs the PS5, they let the XSS look feature incomplete vs the XSX to get to the finish line.

Again, that's all theory, but I've been talking about it since the start of this saga and everything that's happened since (especially the tweet, and today's events) is making me think it's what is really going on.

Wish I went for the series x rather than series s. Not going to lie feel a.little conned

I paid £250 for my Series S when it launched and my friend got the Series X. I did not expect to get the same features as they did because they paid £200 more than me. This is the first instance where a small part of the game has been dropped.

You get what you pay for and I am very happy with what i paid for.

@StrawberryTurtle more anti-consumer than blocking the game entirely? The split-screen can still be worked on and patched in later if necessary/possible. This just gets the game into more hands, quicker. I’m sure those with a Series S would rather have access to the entire game except split-screen (for now) than absolutely zero access. @Moonglow is absolutely right to call you out on your comments. Not sure what your goal is? No one is going to stop enjoying Xbox because of your comments.

This is the smartest solution as if they still want to try to make it happen, they can patch it in later should they choose. Better to get the game out without further delay (especially with its ultra high rating and hype) than continue delays and try to shoehorn something to work with too little time to make it work well…..

I own a Series X, so it won’t effect me. I’m not fond of the decision to drop the Series S from split screen, but I totally get it. Better to have the game than to potentially miss out due to split screen. Maybe it’s something they’ll figure out in time, but I’m not sure how many use this function anymore.

That's surprising, but ultimately good news, because continuing to force Series S parity with the Series X is only going to get worse.

I don't want Series S owners to feel shafted, but it should have been obvious from day one that it would eventually be an issue, and Microsoft screwed up by requiring it from the start. They should have just done the same as Sony and offer a digital only Series X for a lower price with the exact same specs.

@Moonglow these PineappleTortoises just show up here to flame. When I called one of these guys a kid the other day on PushSquare he became so furious to reply me that all of his comments were removed.
About BG3 I'm definitely buying the game on Xbox too but I'll wait a sale, until then I'll be enjoying Starfield and Super Mario Wonder. Great times for those who love to play

@Jenkinss

So your saying the best path is to make a lesser version from PC and PS5 and restrict all Xbox versions from a feature consumers may want?

I plan on playing this solo, it I'm sure there are many who want to play in split screen co-op. Why should I get a lesser experience because people were

1) Too cheap to buy a Series X
2) Couldn't afford the Series X

I didn't pay for the Series X to be held back by the Series S.

Consoles are a luxury item, and while I'm fortunate enough to be able to own all 3, if I couldn't afford the Series X at launch, I'd just wait and save up more for it instead of limiting myself with a lesser console.

I'm all for Xbox selling a lower priced console to make it more affordable for consumers, like everyone, there was a time I couldn't afford all 3 consoles let alone one new console at launch.

This parity and dropped features issue will only grow worse as this generation continues. Mi rosoft should have just released a digital only console with the same specs as the Series X for $100 less just like the PS5, then this would never even be an issue or discussion.

For the price of a Series X or PS 5 and a second controller you could buy two Series S on sale and have a much better coop experience.

Not surprising, it's disappointing but I think coop becomes less important when a game reaches 100 hours or more. I can't imagine being able to get someone to play through the entire game in couch coop.

Shouldn't game be cheaper on S, since it lacks such a major feature? Feature parity was a requirement for a reason.

@Princessmadllama That's because the lower end PC would make sacrifices to quality or performance. They can't do that on a console. On consoles, it would need to look good and perform well. If it doesn't, no one would buy the game.

Damn, was hoping to play this with my nephew but, eh, I can always play it with him when I eventually get a gaming pc.

I'm of the opinion the Xbox Series S should have been explicitly promoted as a "party" or "family" gaming console, not as a budget gaming console, and I think a lot of people bought the Series S thinking the same thing. So in that respect this is disappointing news, but it seems as though it couldn't have been helped so I hope Microsoft learns from this when designing the successor to the Series S.

@Jenkinss
I think saying splitscreen is a niche feature is forgetting that a large market for video games is kids and families. Now this doesn’t apply for Baldur’s Gate but other games like Forza Halo etc definitely could be. I know a lot of people in this situation and I think dropping co op would lose the silent majority of the market in most games.

@Sol4ris Their latest tweet from them claims they are still working with microsoft to try to add local coop on the Series S, dispite they are going to launch the game without it.

I think Microsoft just opened an exception given the big success the game was making.

@NEStalgia This is the big brain solution.

Man it's sad to see so many people brush over local split screen nowadays. You literally don't want your friends at your home to play together anymore. It's such a better experience when you see each other.

As someone who particularly values any couch co op games, Id be mad as hell if I had a series S. Now the door is open I suspect there will be lots more titles which dont have series parity and the promises made to series S owners will not be supported.

However, its great news this title will be on xbox soon, and as im on series x, I dont need to worry personally!

@ysfex3 It is indeed sad. I have had a blast with my wife getting into more games recently playing things like It Takes Two, Sackboy, Lego Star Wars and various Mario’s via couch co op. I have floated the idea of BG3 to her…it might be a bit tooo deep too keep her interest but we will give it a go.

😆🤦🏼 phill talk’s nonsense. Nonsense nonsense. Scrap series s.

The stupid thing is that the one x would probably cope better than the series s.

This works for me on two fronts.
1) it gets BG3 available to play once it comes to GP
2) it justifies my decision to get a series X over the S because major features already being dropped between the two consoles
I'm happy - but there will be a lot of p'd off Series S owners.

@Titntin I wonder if this will open the door for more developers to not even try for parity across the two consoles? Easier to build the game for PS5, Series X and put in whatever they can achieve with minimal cost for the Series S? Obviously Phil will say whatever we want to hear, but mean something completely different.

@StonyKL "I wonder if this will open the door for more developers to not even try for parity across the two consoles?"

I hope not mate, series S owners deserve better than that. It would appear they are selling this as a 'one off', because it clearly hurts the format not to have such an exceptional game available.
It does show the issues with having a two sku system though which has always been a bad idea and clearly remains so. It also shows how quickly they are prepared to break promises the moment they have issues, but I barely believe anything the format holders say these days, particularly ms, as ive watched them break promises for many decades.
Regardless of the above, having BG3 on xbox is a big win for most of us.
Some series s owners will be feeling disquiet about this BUT.. I think we've seen enough this gen to know series S only has these issues with games demanding more memory via splitscreen. I wouldnt expect many games to have different feature sets, so unless you value splitscreen highly (as I do), Id suggest theres nothing to be concerned about..

@BBB No I've read so many comments here that just outright say that it's a niche thing now. This means that they believe a large majority of people don't consider it even a normal feature anymore.

@GeeEssEff We've been resorting to just taking turns during game runs like RE2/3.

I think Microsoft should drop the console parity clause and announce a one time offer. Send in your Xbox Series S for a one time $200 off an Xbox Series X. Problem solved and no court on earth would go after them for false advertisting.

I wonder what this means for an release date. Previous reports had the game ready to go outside of the splitscreen issue, I'm sure there's more to do than just disable the menu option for series S,l.

Then again Starfield is going to dominate my play time in september and just as I'm finishing up, Cyberpunk DLC will launch. So my RPG dance card is full to October.

@Titntin As we are only just starting to see devs move away from cross gen gaming and already there are issues for the S I can imagine this becoming more and more of a problem. Personally I say great - leave the S behind and focus on the X, only because I have an X and I'm selfish.
Also wonder if it means MS might try and bring local co-op back to Forza and Halo Infinite for the X only in a future update.
I genuinely became interested in buying BG3 because of the local co-op as I'll be playing it with my son.

Great news and the right decision in this more rare complex case.
Bring it on!!

Does this mean we can get split screen on Forza and Halo? I mean... we should right?

@somnambulance Thank you, I think there are a lot of people here looking at the immediate result of this - which I'm as ecstatic about as anyone - vs the long term ramifications - which are honestly disastrous for the Series S, the primary Xbox console this generation in terms of userbase. BG3 could have been had without this sacrifice.

@abe_hikura

Larian was adament they wouldn't ship without coop on any platofrm and MS certain this was a tech problem with a tech solution.

Yet, they shipped the Steam Deck certified version without split screen coop. Any statement that they would not ship without coop on any platform likely was them saying they would not ship without it on Series X. So long a version of Xbox can have the feature, they will ship, just like non-Steam Deck PCs can run it fine.

@ysfex3

Man it's sad to see so many people brush over local split screen nowadays. You literally don't want your friends at your home to play together anymore. It's such a better experience when you see each other.

You're conflating split screen with local co-op. Over 95% of my gaming is couch co-op, but I haven't used split screen is decades. We have two XSX in our living room side by side, a tradition that has gone back to the 360 days, and we've always had 2 gaming PCs well before that. Split screen is like american cheese, if you have absolutely no choice then I guess it's acceptable, but it's the worst option.

@Wheatly As far as I'm concerned, this became clear as soon as Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was revealed to run at 30fps on Series S (though I believe they patched it later).

Series S would be quite appealing if it actually delivered the full Series X experience, just at a lower resolution, as the early claims went. But no, a considerable handful of games now play worse than their X counterparts, blurring the line between current- and last-gen experiences.
This new split-screen development is the next logical step on that path... with the conclusion ultimately being that Series S retires a couple of years before the X.

@Jenkinss Whilst Im sure the benefits of your arrangements would be acknowledged and desired by all who enjoy couch co op, Id be willing to bet less than 0.5% of people have two screens next to each other.
Given you situation is extremely rare, and the costs of achieving it both in space and equipment so high, its quite clear why there is such a pressing need for split screen for those who value playing games with others in this way. Worst option or not, its the only feasable option for most and Id suspect devs to plan for the majority of users needs, hense split screen.

@Tharsman Don't get me wrong, you have a point but as far as I'm aware there isn't a bespoke "Steam deck" version, it's just that the Steam version will run at a certain spec level.

@abe_hikura And how different is that from Series X|S? It's the same code, each console simply runs with different profiles that enable/disable features, potentially lower res assets, etc, but the code is the exact same.

@Titntin Right, totally agree my setup is not practical for everyone, but coming full circle, split screen was dropped from Forza, from Halo, dropped from the vast majority of games at this point for a reason - they have the numbers, it isn't used. And now it was dropped from Baldur's Gate 3 on more than half the current gen Xboxes, at a great cost. I don't think killing the XSS's status as a fully fledged current gen system was worth keeping split screen on XSX for launch, I think they should have pulled the feature from both consoles and if possible, added it later. The genie is out of the bottle now, and for what? Let's say 5% of players (I doubt it's that high) will use split screen in BG3, you just sacrificed Xbox Series S's status as a true next gen console to satisfy 5% of 40%~(XSX) of Xbox users for this one game. This was the wrong call for the big picture.

@Jenkinss Because all the kids had two consoles and two big screens in their rooms. Two of everything is better it's true.

@ysfex3 They don't, but all the console manufacturers and developers have analytics on how much split screen is used, and that's why it's been pretty much abandoned. Nostalgia doesn't cloud their decisions.

Whatever the reason we can’t have games arriving late for series s/x game consoles behind the PS5 etc.
The Xbox brand needs momentum, not reasons not to join team green.

As for series s not getting couch co-op, you get what you pay for, just like a car with certain features or not like heated seats or not.

@Jenkinss Nostalgia is not the discussion tho. Also MS has artificially limited the option so that it becomes less popular. They want you online and monetizable, not actual just having fun with real life friends.

@ysfex3 But everyone is scrapping it. Larian themselves was happy to scrap split screen in DOS2 on Switch, it wasn't important.

@Jenkinss Did you remember my initial comment? This is what I meant.

Genuinely cannot remember the last time I played a split-screen co-op game