Baldur's Gate 3 Roadmap Confirms Cross-play is Coming
Larian Studios confirms that cross-play is eventually coming to Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3 has quickly become one of the most popular games of the year, which is saying something considering how many great games have been released in 2023. One of the reasons for the game's popularity is that you can treat it similar to a real-world Dungeons and Dragons session and group up with friends to explore its massive world. Baldur's Gate 3's co-op might not be the main selling point for everyone, but it is another feather in the cap for why the game has been doing so well with its fanbase. Now, that feature is going to get even better as developer Larian Studios has confirmed that cross-play between PCs and consoles is on the docket.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Larians' director of publishing, Michael Douse, said that cross-play has always been something they've wanted to do, but we'll have to wait at least a little bit longer. "It was always in the planning," Douse said, "but we knew it wouldn't be for launch. It's in the roadmap, and though we have an idea of when we'd like to get it ready for, we don't want to put a date on it until we're sure."
PlayStation, it's party time.
— Larian Studios (@larianstudios) September 6, 2023
Baldur's Gate 3 is now out on PS5!
Get it here: https://t.co/eTeYRCRkHO pic.twitter.com/ROWwZuqw31
From that, it seems clear that we will get cross-play at some point, it just might take a while. It is worth noting that things always change during development, so it might end up being too complicated to implement down the line, but that seems unlikely. Not only does Douse sound confident here, but Baldur's Gate 3 already has cross-save functions from PC to PlayStation 5. With that in mind, it certainly seems like it's more a matter of when than if Baldur's Gate 3 will get cross-play.
Of course, the next question on everyone's minds is "When is it coming?" Well, that's much harder to guess. Obviously, Douse's comments make it clear that the team isn't ready to announce anything yet, so we don't have an official timetable. That said, the perfect time to introduce it might be when the Xbox Series X/S version launches. In a perfect world, those two things line up, but both of those things still seem very much in flux, so we wouldn't count on them coming out at the same time. At the end of the day, your cross-play hopes will have to live in a state of "wait-and-see" until we hear something official from Larian.
When is Baldur's Gate 3 Coming to Xbox Series X/S?
As mentioned, the release date for the Xbox Series X/S version of Baldur's Gate 3 is still up in the air. Larian had some trouble getting splitscreen to work on Xbox Series S, which pushed it back from launching alongside the PS5. In fact, early this year, the team announced that's actually cutting splitscreen on that console to get the game out on the system. Alongside that announcement, the team said it is targeting a release date by the end of 2023, but didn't give us a more concrete window than that. Hopefully, now that the PS5 and PC versions are both on the market, we'll hear something more concrete in the coming weeks.
