Game director and Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke confirmed that the studio isn’t interested in bringing Baldur’s Gate 3 to Game Pass. While the hit RPG launched on Xbox Series X/S last week, it won’t come to Microsoft’s subscription service any time soon.
Larian decided against Game Pass from the beginning
IGN recently interviewed Vincke about the making of Larian Studio’s award-winning Baldur’s Gate 3. When the question of Game Pass came up, he made it clear that the studio isn’t interested.
“Oh, we always said from the get-go, it wasn’t going to be on Game Pass,” said Vincke, “it’s not going to be on Game Pass.”
“We made a big game,” he went on to say about Baldur’s Gate 3, “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.”
The question of whether to put games on Game Pass is an issue that other developers have struggled with. Small studios and independent developers have a lot to gain from partnering with Microsoft in this way. However, larger publishers have complained about the lost value.
In Larian’s case, Baldur’s Gate 3 is more than successful enough to stand on its own two feet. That, combined with the studio’s pay-once approach to selling its game, makes it unsurprising Vincke isn’t interested in Game Pass.
