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In a new episode of Digital Foundry’s weekly podcast, the band takes on last month’s topic. Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox Drama – Namely, the issues developer Larian seems to be having regarding the Xbox Series S.
If you’re unaware of the drama, a statement from the developer regarding the lack of an Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 apparently pointed to Xbox Series S as the problem. The team said it “wasn’t able to make split-screen co-op work to the same standard on Xbox Series X and S.”
Podcast hosts discuss this issue in the video above, along with the power gap between Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, even wondering if Microsoft should allow developers to remove features if they can’t get them to work properly on Xbox Series S.
“They’re working on an Xbox version (of Baldur’s Gate 3), it hasn’t been officially announced that it’s coming out, but it looks like it’s in production. The current reason they haven’t announced it seems boil down to, according to the statement, they cannot make split-screen work on Xbox Series S.
This is the first time we’ve heard of anything specifically related to a gaming feature not working well on the Series S.”
The hosts offer their own take on whether features should be removed on the cheap Xbox, especially in cases like this where such issues seemingly prevent Xbox Series X builds from launching. Here’s what host John Linneman had to say:
“I think in cases like this it should be okay to release an Xbox Series X version with this feature (split screen) and leave this feature on the Series S. I would rather see the Series X used properly, or at least get the game, to bypass the console as they can’t get this feature to work acceptably on another machine.”
Of course, another Xbox title that ran into local co-op issues was none other than Halo Infinite. Microsoft never pointed a finger at the Xbox Series S there, especially given the game released on Xbox One, but it’s possible split-screen was dropped for the latest generation only. We’ll never know who the real culprit is for Infinite, as 343 directly canceled local co-op on all systems.
This all makes for some interesting discussion, and frankly, it could prove to be a tough puzzle for Microsoft to solve given how many Xbox Series S gamers are now enjoying the console in 2023.
What do you think of all this? Should S-Series features be removed if needed? Let us know your thoughts below.