Xbox boss Phil Spencer has admitted that Steam hit game Baldur’s Gate 3 launching on PlayStation 5 before Xbox Series X and S isn’t a big deal for Microsoft, but he remains committed to launch games on both consoles.

Larian’s sprawling RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 launched on PC in August and is set to release on PS5 in early September, but the Xbox Series X and S version doesn’t have a release date yet. There is no exclusivity agreement between Larian and Sony. Instead, Larian is having a hard time getting two-player split-screen co-op to work well enough on the Xbox Series S.

Is the time now, then, for Microsoft to allow studios to release their games only on Xbox Series X? Or maybe you should relax your parity clause? That’s exactly what Esports Extrasasked Xbox head Phil Spencer at gamescom 2023. Here’s what he replied:

“Obviously, we look at the data in terms of how many people are playing local co-op. I love the local co-op mode. Congratulations to Vampire Survivors who just released it. Fantastic. But there’s also a question of going where the gameplay is, in terms of where we’re going to focus our development resources.

“As for the two platforms, I want the games to be released on both platforms [X y S]. There are feature differences between platforms. We have the ability to handle that and how it works. It is up to the teams to choose where to focus their time and effort. We are here to support you and whatever you want to do. We want to make sure that games, when they are released on competitive platforms, are also released on Xbox.

“So we’re going to learn from this experience as well because we don’t love that. But I don’t think it’s something that’s a fatal flaw in the system. It is the partners who prioritize their time, we listen and we are good partners for them. And we see some amazing games doing a great job in S and X. Diablo looks great, Starfield looks great. Forza looks great in both. And I want to make sure that console gaming is accessible to more people, and we think console price is a pretty big part of that.”