Baldur’s Gate 3 was never going to be on Xbox Game Pass, according to Larian Studios Swen Vincke in a new interview. Vincke said to IGN’s Kat Bailey that Baldur’s Gate 3 was never intended for the game service platform as the studio had purposely developed a complete game with a beginning, middle, and end that made it a huge game and it did not include any additional buy-ins such as micro-transactions. This was done as part of a business model to allow Larian Studios to keep making games. The estimated 75-100 hours (per Forbes) to complete the game in a basic playthrough not including going back to more thoroughly explore everything, plus the over 100 GB needed to install it, are a testament to Swen’s claims.
Per Swen Vincke (via IGN):
“Oh, we always said from the get-go, it wasn’t going to be on Game Pass, it’s not going to be on Game Pass. These are sensitive questions. Kat. So look, we are in the business of making a game that has a beginning, middle, and an end. We made a big game, so I think there’s a fair price to be paid for that, and I think that that is okay. We don’t charge you any micro-transactions on top of it, so you get what you pay for. Upfront it’s a big meaty game. So I think that should be able to exist as it is. This is what allows us to continue making other games.”
Game services for consoles, or even NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, can be a two-sided option for game developers. This can similarly be said when a game is free for a time on a specific platform but that’s another story. On one hand, they can provide players a means to more affordably spend on monthly or annual subscriptions to try many different games instead of paying full price for each game purchase. On the other, developers stand to lose out on larger revenue streams when deals with service providers become the end of the road for potential purchases from players who may decide they’ve played enough of a game in the time they had access to it.
Still made it to Xbox
Interestingly enough another Larian Studios exec spoke out to defend Microsoft recently. It was concerning a leaked document showing that Microsoft was planning an extremely low offer of $5 million to get Baldur’s Gate 3 onto Game Pass at launch. While the game may never see the light of day on the service, or at least not any time soon, it has been launched on Xbox. Swen does share that Larien had put in extra effort to optimize the game to run on the X|S consoles as well. Fans of the game should check out the interview as Vincke does go into detail about a number of characters in the game and how player choices affect their playthrough.