Ever is a long time, but Larian Studios boss Sven Vincke is adamant that if you want to play the 2023 Game of the Year, then you are going to have to buy it outright as the studio has no intention of ever letting its labor of love appear on the $15 per month subscription service.
In an interview with IGN Vincke said, “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. 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.”
There was some talk earlier in the year that the original games in the trilogy, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 were coming to Game Pass, but as yet they have not appeared, and may never do so.
The unprecedented success of Baldur’s Gate 3, despite its $70 price tag, shows that it is still possible to have success with a title without the draw of Game Pass. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to Microsoft. Publishers are thought to receive a lump sum upfront to place the game in the Game Pass library.
According to a story on Eurogamer earlier in the year, a leaked Microsoft document suggested Microsoft thought it would cost just $5 million to get BG3 on Game Pass, compared to $300 million for Jedi Survivor – this was at a stage where nobody expected the phenomenal success of the best RPG for decades and the relative lack of interest in Jedi Survivor.
Although it has initial issues with save game functionality on the Xbox version, which Microsoft is still working through, there have been no such game-breaking bugs on BG3’s PC counterpart which has had a seemingly smooth launch for such a massively sized game.
