Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has claimed it’s working with Microsoft to resolve an issue that was seeing players on Xbox being banned from accessing their account.
18.12.2023 - 17:07 / videogameschronicle.com / Swen Vincke / Michael Douse / Xbox Game
Larian Studios has explained why Baldur’s Gate 3 might never come to Xbox‘s Game Pass subscription service.
After its release was held up by several months due to technical issues, the celebrated RPG launched for Xbox Series X/S to coincide with this month’s The Game Awards, where it won six prizes including the coveted Game of the Year award.
Asked by IGN if Xbox had attempted to bring the title to Game Pass, Larian founder and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke said such a deal had never been on the cards, at least as far as it was concerned.
“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,” he claimed.
“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,” Vincke added.
“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.”
Larian’s director of publishing Michael Douse, previously leapt to Microsoft’s defence after it emerged that the platform holder had seemingly heavily underestimated how well the game might perform.
Court documents leaked this summer revealed that in May 2022, over a year ahead of Baldur’s Gate 3’s release, Microsoft thought it might be able to secure the game as a day one title on Game Pass for as little as $5 million.
Given the game’s success, Microsoft’s estimate now looks like a gross miscalculation, but Larian’s Douse wasn’t taken aback by the figure. Commenting on a report stating that Microsoft “completely misjudged Baldur’s Gate 3”, he said the Xbox maker wasn’t alone.
“In their defence, so did everyone else,” he wrote in September. “Same with DOS2. Comes with the genre, and the way we approach things, and the way we execute things.
“There just isn’t any existing data that could have told anyone how BG3 was going to perform. We just had to take giant spooky leaps.”
On Friday, Microsoft released an Xbox Series X/S firmware update designed to address an issue that could result in saves being lost on Baldur’s Gate 3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has claimed it’s working with Microsoft to resolve an issue that was seeing players on Xbox being banned from accessing their account.
Developer Larian is working alongside Microsoft to sort out «annoying and uncool» account bans, which can happen when Baldur's Gate 3 footage containing nudity gets uploaded to Xbox servers.
Baldur's Gate 3isn't just known for its thrilling storylines and memorable characters. Larian Studios' award-winning fantasy role-playing game (RPG) includes plenty of steamy romance scenes, too; recordings of which have reportedly gotten Xbox players in hot water, leading to bans for at least one user (via Dexerto).
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Baldur's Gate 3 has claimed the Game of the Year award in the 2023 Steam Awards, along with the crown for Outstanding Story-Rich Game. It probably would have won even more, but the Steam Awards rules limit games to nominations in a maximum of two categories, presumably to avoid any across-the-board ass-kickings.
Before its release, promised to include 17,000 different endings — but does it really? There's undeniably a ton of player choice and variation in the game. There are even hundreds of contingencies and failsafes in case players try to break . It wouldn't be too much of a stretch at all to say there are thousands of different ways its story can play out, but 17,000 endings is an entirely different kind of claim.
Minthara is definitely one of Baldur's Gate 3's spicier companions, and a firm fan favorite for those that enjoy a little bit of bloodshed in their RPGs. Back at launch, you couldn't actually recruit Minthara without slaughtering a bunch of Tieflings (or turning her into a sheep), and while a recent patch has allowed players to not have to make that choice anymore, it's still very clear that she isn't a particularly pleasant person.
Having logged somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 hours (not accounting for my shameless overuse of save scumming), I feel like my playtime pales in comparison to pretty much everyone else playing Baldur's Gate 3. And even so, principal narrative designer Lawrence Schick expects the RPG to continue yielding new discoveries, including by the developers themselves, for literal years to come.
Baldur's Gate 3's default class was originally going to be the Paladin, but a conundrum with Lae'zel sort of ruined the entire idea.
If you’ve been holding out hope that Baldur’s Gate 3 might find its way onto PC Game Pass in the future, I’ve got some bad news for you: it’s very unlikely to happen.
The Game Awards has come and gone again, with 2023's show proving somewhat contentious, depending on who you ask. Something that became increasingly apparent as the show progressed was the pressure winners appeared to be under to wrap things up. Even Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, who managed to snag Game of the Year with Baldur's Gate 3, appeared to be whisked off the stage after around 30 seconds, surprisingly spry in a suit of armour.
After a period of some uncertainty, Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox Series X/S, which begs the question – could the smash hit RPG ever end up on Xbox Game Pass? Baldur’s Gate 3 is exactly the kind of high-engagement title that could potentially drive long-term Game Pass subscriptions, so I’m sure Microsoft would love it, but according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, it’s not happening.
Swen Vincke, the director of Baldur’s Gate 3 and CEO of Larian Studios, has spoken out about the role-playing game’s lack of Xbox Game Pass release, saying that it was a decision made «from the get-go.»