As we already informed you earlier today, the editors of the British Eurogamer spoke to Phil Spencer at Gamescom and discussed the issue of publishing games for the Xbox Series. Since the launch of the new generation, it has been burdened by the necessity to bring new titles to both models – Series X and Series S – which, however, differ significantly in performance. Therefore, developers are constantly faced with very difficult optimization and often unsatisfactory quality, which they make known regularly, but Microsoft ignored their complaints. Until now, when there was an interesting breakthrough in connection with Baldur’s Gate III, which could – or might not – turn out to be an important precedent. According to Swen Vincke, the latest title from the Larian studio will be released on Xbox later this year, but on Series S without split-screen cooperation, which will affect parity with the version for Series X, and therefore something that the developers should have forbidden.
The situation may be a bit confusing, but in fairness we’ll admit that Phil Spencer – one of the men who undoubtedly helped define the above condition – doesn’t really contradict himself. If we are to return to the remembered interview for Eurogamer, there was a question of parity – that is, that the versions for both models of the new Xbox were identical in terms of content or functionality – which Spencer, however, denied. “I think this is something the community is talking about more. There are elements that apply to Series X but not to Series S, even with our games,” Spencer said. He mentioned, for example, ray tracing, which does not actually appear on the Series S, but you will certainly recognize that it is more of a technical issue than a functional or content one. But let’s face it, it’s starting to seem that Microsoft is beginning to relax the situation around the Series S slightly between the lines.
Super happy to confirm that after meeting @XboxP3 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.
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 24, 2023
There is still that current report from Swen Vincke, which confirms two things. The first is the removal of split-screen co-op on Series S, the second is the promise that Baldur’s Gate III will be released on Xbox before the end of this year. The information appeared on Twitter and is quite brief, but Vincke confirms in it that he met with Phil Spencer and agreed on this solution. He also promised that the loss of split-screen should be the only thing that gamers will miss on the Series S, everything else – including the “improvements” mentioned by Vinck – will be available. You can also look forward to cross-save, i.e. the possibility to use the saved position from Xbox for playing on PC and vice versa, which gives players the opportunity to alternate game environment and not be too limited by the platform.
However, it is questionable whether the imaginary Pandora’s box has been opened and other developers will not understand this concession to Microsoft as an incentive for similar negotiations for other games. Although Spencer repeatedly stated in the interview that he cannot imagine a world in which the same games as the Series X would not be released on the Series S, but who knows, maybe in time it will be enough for Microsoft if the players get a version that is more technically truncated, similar as it is when releasing on previous and current generation consoles.
2023-08-24 17:05:07
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