Baldur's Gate III announced!

[Remij]

thats cool and all but in the long run as games get bigger developers wont pay enough attention on series s versions theyll likely treat is as how they treated nintendo wii ports during ps360 gen, especially ue5 type of games

It could be the case that certain games skip Xbox altogether because of the Series S. That's a gamble Xbox made when they made it a rule that every game must work on both Series S and X.

Another thing is that Series S has far outsold the Series X (we can speculate as to why) so even if developers made a game, put all their attention on the Series X and just released a shoddy Series S version with a bunch of issues... you'd have the majority of the fanbase with a sub par experience.. and that would generate negative press.

Some studios just might not bother. Fortunately for Xbox fans though, Larian is bothering.. but it will just take more time.

 

[BRiT]

Since a lot of posts are late to the topic, the latest news was the following which no one seems to have read, so here it is reposted:


It's not delayed, just in development according to the Director of Publishing at the developer studio (larianstudios)

Dude come on… we didn’t say an Xbox version is “delayed” we said it’s in development. You’re killing me here. We said that there are tech things we wanted to solve before announcing any Xbox version…

Your Tweet says an on-the-way Xbox version is delayed, not that development is slowed. In development, there are thousands of challenges every day. This is normal. The pace of development varies per platform also. That’s also quite normal. Let’s call it a misunderstanding

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629203325726990336

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629217040136380425

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I am going to use with with our credit card company. The payment is not delayed. The cheque is in development!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Baldur's Gate 3 not launching on XBox.

We've had an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 in the works for some time, but we have run into some technical issues - particularly with split-screen co-op.

This is an example of platform exclusivity not from business shenanigans but due to technical reasons. Although I'm confused why split-screen would be an issue. Is it a feature only on PS5 and not on PC/Mac?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Baldur's Gate 3 not launching on XBox.

Although I'm confused why split-screen would be an issue. Is it a feature only on PS5 and not on PC/Mac?

Split-screen is on all platforms, although the split-screen will not be available during early access, only on full release.

 

[BRiT]

Baldur's Gate 3 not launching on XBox.

This is an example of platform exclusivity not from business shenanigans but due to technical reasons. Although I'm confused why split-screen would be an issue. Is it a feature only on PS5 and not on PC/Mac?

Incorrect statement about "Baldurs Gate not launching on Xbox". The latest news is its in development.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Incorrect statement. The latest news is its in development.

If I may, there is a difference between the use of 'delay' when used as a verb or noun.

Whilst it's accurate to say that the game has not been delayed for Xbox because it was never announced, it's equally true to say that developer is alerting consumers of a likely delay in the release of the Xbox version compared to all other platforms.

 

[BRiT]

It's likely the PC is the lead platform going off previous titles. The next platform is likely PlayStation because of consumer base. The next platform is possibly the Xbox. Priority is likely that order, and so they are at different points of development.

Seeing how they are still 6 months away from their release target, it seems a little premature in "alerting consumers".

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's likely the PC is the lead platform going off previous titles. The next platform is likely PlayStation because of consumer base. The next platform is possibly the Xbox. Priority is likely that order, and so they are at different points of development.

Don't forget that it's also release on that awesome gaming platform, the Mac (but not linux)

Seeing how they are still 9 months away from their release target, it seems a little premature in "alerting consumers".

The game is releasing in August, and it's March next week. They developer is alerting consumers that there is a likely delay in the Xbox release date because Xbox was not mentioned in their recent Community update. If you look at their Twitter account, they were bombarded by people asking if Baldur's Gate was exclusive to PlayStation.

This is a weird hill to die on, man.

 

[Jay]

The next platform is likely PlayStation because of consumer base. The next platform is possibly the Xbox.

Add to that although the game looked good, it also looked like it was running a bit rough from what I remember. Still some time to go, but could just be working things through with PS first.

The main thing is that all details never included mention of xbox.

Normally what happens is game releases very rough on non lead platform.

 

[BRiT]

The game is releasing in August,

Okay, 6 months to end of August, I can't count when tired.

 

[Globalisateur]

Baldur's Gate 3 not launching on XBox.

This is an example of platform exclusivity not from business shenanigans but due to technical reasons. Although I'm confused why split-screen would be an issue. Is it a feature only on PS5 and not on PC/Mac?

Memory management could be an issue with splitscreen on XSS as some assets might need to be doubled. This is the best theory we have based on devs wordings and historical issues on that platform.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Incorrect statement about "Baldurs Gate not launching on Xbox". The latest news is its in development.

I make the distinction between 'releasing' and 'launching'. It's launching on August 31st. There'll be whatever ports and other versions released after that including and XB version. I was also deliberately avoiding the term 'exclusive' where technically BG3 is a PS5 console exclusive at launch.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's likely the PC is the lead platform going off previous titles. The next platform is likely PlayStation because of consumer base.

Consumer base isn't radically different for next-gen* and this isn't a cross-platform title. Furthermore PC and XB share the same API, so it should be easier to port the PC version to XB than to PS5. If they've got split-screen working on PS5 but not XBS, it's plausible they are choosing PS5 because it's easier/faster as per that other Tech thread. Or rather, they aren't choosing platform. They are developing PC, PS5 and XB concurrently with a view to releasing at the same time, but the XB version has hit issues regardless of install base. Conceptually, PS5 also had issues and so they did have to prioritise one based on install base, but that'd just be a theory.

Seeing how they are still 6 months away from their release target, it seems a little premature in "alerting consumers".

Yet they've decided to do that. Instead of saying, "we have an XB version in the works and intend it to launch at the same time," they said, "we're launching on PS5 first," and then clarified, "we've got an XB version but..." implying "we're not confident of getting that out at the same time so will focus on release platforms and then future versions."

Edit: The interesting point of this is where we had two nigh identical machines, we still have a surprising amount of differences to consider between platforms including these curious mysteries!

* Well, PS5might have ~35-40% more? What does one count as a significant enough install base?

 

[Inuhanyou]

Since a lot of posts are late to the topic, the latest news was the following which no one seems to have read, so here it is reposted:


It's not delayed, just in development according to the Director of Publishing at the developer studio (larianstudios)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629203325726990336

https://twitter.com/x/status/1629217040136380425

It's more indicative of jez being a fanboy loser than anything tbh. Accosting devs about general business practices of the industry every player does when it's not even happening in this instance is silly

 

[iroboto]

Memory management could be an issue with splitscreen on XSS as some assets might need to be doubled. This is the best theory we have based on devs wordings and historical issues on that platform.

This is unlikely to be the culprit here. Even XBO is capable of running Halo Infinite in split screen with its 6GB of available memory.
And if it were VRAM this wouldn’t affect Series X in this case, and the base specs for This title is fairly below Next Gen, which the recommended spec is 8GB VRAM.

I largely suspect there are viewport challenges here and how Xbox series consoles handle split screen or the tools around it vary significantly from what they expect. The only reason I’m hinting at this is because 343i can get split screen to work on Xbox, but failed to ultimately finish it due to PC. The reverse and they were working on split screen for years.

Regardless of what the issue is, there are a great deal of many challenges when it comes to split screen, and typically the challenges aren’t being memory bound. The reality is, split screen is tough to pull off and in the case of baldurs gate 3, tacking it on, is likely the reason why development has not progressed well here.

It may be a convenient excuse here to stagger releases because quite frankly they have been developing this one forever and the pre-release money has dried out and there is no time here to work on Xbox and they would rather get the game released and come back and focus on Xbox after.

 

[Jay]

It's more indicative of jez being a fanboy loser than anything tbh. Accosting devs about general business practices of the industry every player does when it's not even happening in this instance is silly

My basic understanding is:
They never mentioned xbox on any of their material.
People thought it was PS console exclusive
Given past statements by them people felt that was going back on no exclusivity
They come out with technical difficulties with xbox so didn't want to mention it (paraphrasing)
Jez said something like sounds like delayed due to XSS. Probably tried to get some kinda confirmation what's going on.

If that's correct, how is that being a fan boy and accosting devs? If not correct how did it go?

Even on here people been debating what and if delayed it's correct and what it means etc and I don't think anyone's been a fan boy.

 

[Inuhanyou]

My basic understanding is:
They never mentioned xbox on any of their material.
People thought it was PS console exclusive
Given past statements by them people felt that was going back on no exclusivity
They come out with technical difficulties with xbox so didn't want to mention it (paraphrasing)
Jez said something like sounds like delayed due to XSS. Probably tried to get some kinda confirmation what's going on.

If that's correct, how is that being a fan boy and accosting devs? If not correct how did it go?

Even on here people been debating what and if delayed it's correct and what it means etc and I don't think anyone's been a fan boy.

No, jez actually deleted tweets of himself being conspiratorial about larian making secret deals to Sony and selling out and such. He even deleted a post that was screencapped implying he had secret knowledge about a secret Sony and larian deal in response to Larian initially saying there was no deal which I will link.

Between that and his hysterical posts over the ABK deal arguing with anyone who had a different opinion on letting MS buy up multiple publishers while crying about any even hypothetical Sony game exclusive, it's become even more embarrassing.

When your attacking Bernie Sanders in a mad rage on twitter because he made an offhand comment about major corporate mergers and acquisitions being bad, it's time to go outside and smell some sweet air.

 

[iroboto]

No, jez actually deleted tweets of himself being conspiratorial about larian making secret deals to Sony and selling out and such. He even deleted a post that was screencapped implying he had secret knowledge about a secret Sony and larian deal in response to Larian initially saying there was no deal which I will link.

Between that and his hysterical posts over the ABK deal arguing with anyone who had a different opinion on letting MS buy up multiple publishers while crying about any even hypothetical Sony game exclusive, it's become even more embarrassing.

When your attacking Bernie Sanders in a mad rage on twitter because he made an offhand comment about major corporate mergers and acquisitions being bad, it's time to go outside and smell some sweet air.

Lawbreakers skipped Xbox. No exclusivity deal arranged, he did so because he said lead console was so much bigger and it was all he could afford. It cratered on PS, He made mention that he should have brought it to Xbox, but the community wasn’t having it and he didn’t bother trying then.

Reality is, that’s the inherent advantages of being the market leader by 2:1.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Lawbreakers skipped Xbox. No exclusivity deal arranged, he did so because he said lead console was so much bigger and it was all he could afford. It cratered on PS, He made mention that he should have brought it to Xbox, but the community wasn’t having it and he didn’t bother trying then.

Reality is, that’s the inherent advantages of being the market leader by 2:1.

Pretty much. The advantage of marketing to more territories and appealing to many people means you have opportunities to sell more which makes devs likely to support your system more when they have to prioritize platforms in a limited scenario. It's basics 101 of console success.

Of course, I won't say anyone was excited about lawbreakers in the first place. Cliff was finished creatively ever since after gears 3