Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on PC and PlayStation 5, and an Xbox version is on the way too. And while you can’t currently play with your pals on other platforms, Larian director of publishing Michael Douse told Eurogamer that someday, you will.
“[Crossplay] was always in the planning, but we knew it wouldn’t be [ready] for launch,” Dowse said. “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.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 already supports cross-saves, which means that if you’ve been playing on PC and want to move to the PS5 for some reason, you can. Of course, it works the other way too, so if you’re starting out on PS5 and score yourself a sweet gaming PC for Christmas, you can switch your game over and treat yourself to the whole banana the way it was meant to be played. There are a couple of caveats, though: Only your five most recent saves will be synced, and if you’re using any Baldur’s Gate 3 mods your PC saves will not be compatible with the PS5 version.
But the implementation of crossplay is a whole different beast. Baldur’s Gate 3, like the first two games before it, is a great party-based RPG to play solo, but it also supports co-op multiplayer, which is great for people who want to get together with friends for some proper D&D sessions but never seem able to make the scheduling work. (In other words, all of us.) Given that, the ability to play with everyone, and not just people on the same platform as yours, is a big step.
Ironically, the implementation of co-op in Baldur’s Gate 3 might be a little too good. Just like in-person sessions, party pals who are determined to cause chaos can set things spinning off in unexpected and potentially undesirable directions, which proved a real challenge for splitscreen on the Xbox Series S. Also like real-world D&D sessions, it will probably take a long time to finish the campaign.
Look, sometimes the party makes a decision and you roll with it.September 6, 2023
It really do be like that sometimes.
A release date for the Xbox S-X version of Baldur’s Gate 3 still hasn’t been announced, but it’s expected out before the end of 2023. Larian said the Mac version of the game will be out later this month.