Baldur’s Gate 3 will not appear on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. So if you were waiting to play the game for free, it’s really no use, according to its creator. He has a good reason for it.
In a year with great titles like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Spider-Man 2 and Hogwarts Legacy, strikingly Baldur’s Gate 3 managed to walk away with the award for best game of the year. A big surprise, since at first it seemed like a truly niche game.
As such, many gamers were hoping they could eventually play it for free if they had a subscription to Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. That’s not going to happen.
Baldur’s Gate 3 ass not on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus
Maker of Baldur’s Gate 3 is Belgium’s Larian Studios. CEO of the developer is Swen Vincke and responded via X to an interview to Ubisoft subscription boss Philippe Tremblay. That studio makes the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, among others, Tremblay revealed in that interview that gamers should get used to not being owners of games in the future. He envisions that soon there will only be subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.
For Vincke, this is unthinkable. He never wants Larian Studios’ games, including Baldur’s Gate 3, to be on Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. According to him, it’s just a nice system that players can own their favorite game. So he doesn’t want to let that ecosystem bleed to death.
Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king. But it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way. https://t.co/wEUvd5adt0
– Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) January 17, 2024
Why this is good
And for that, the Baldur’s Gate 3 creator has a good reason: “Content is the most important thing. But it becomes a lot harder to make good games when subscription services become the dominant model. A select group then decides what will or won’t be on the market.”
And of course Vincke is heartily right in that, and for that we only have to look at Baldur’s Gate 3. It seemed to be a game for a select few and has now been embraced by everyone and a true success. In a world with only Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, it might never have been there.
He continued, “To get board approval for a project that runs primarily on ideals is almost impossible. That very idealism must exist, even if it can lead to a major failure. Subscription models are all about making money.”
However, that doesn’t mean he’s against Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, but you can’t expect Baldur’s Gate 3 on those. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but it shouldn’t become a monopoly. We already lean on digital sales channels, but if these all become subscription services, that would be terrible. You really don’t want that.”
