One of the most essential games of 2023 is not ready to arrive in the Xbox Game Pass catalog. Developers detail the reasons why they prefer to avoid Microsoft’s gaming service.
As you may know, the title that received the 2023 Game of the Year award at The Game Awards, namely Baldur’s Gate 3, has just been released. coming to Xbox consoles. For the moment, the launch is not really going as planned, marred in particular by several bugs on the backup system.
While waiting for the situation to improve, many of you may be chomping at the bit in the event of a release of Larian Studios’ game on Xbox Game Pass. Well, know that you will have to show a lot of patience. For good reason, the developers have not yet no intention of offering their latest baby on Microsoft’s gaming service.
Also read: Baldur’s Gate 3 review – no doubt, it’s the game of the year
Baldur’s Gate 3 will probably never come to Xbox Game Pass
In an interview with our colleagues at IGN, studio founder Swen Vincke explained this decision. According to him, there was never any question of offering Baldur’s Gate 3 on Game Pass, from the very beginning of development. “We made a big play, so I think there’s a fair price to pay for that, and I think it’s OK. We don’t charge you for any microtransactions, so you get what you pay for. It’s a big, meaty game, so I think it should be able to continue to exist as is. This is what allows us to continue creating other games,” he believes.
In September 2023, remember that several confidential documents from Microsoft relating to Game Pass were leaked online. These reports notably revealed the sums estimated by the company to acquire this or that title on its service. So, we learned that Microsoft was considering paying EA $300 million to get Star Wars Jedi Survivor on Game Pass… and only 5 million for Baldur’s Gate 3.
Michael Douse, publishing director at Larian, was not bitter about this ridiculous estimate (especially when we know the current success of the title). In good faith, he readily acknowledges that “it went with the genre”, namely CRPG. “Same with Divinity Original Sin 2… There is simply no existing data that would tell anyone how BG 3 was going to work.”
Source: IGN