Larian Studios Exec Speaks Up in Defense of Microsoft’s Extremely Low Assessment to Get Baldur’s Gate 3 onto Game Pass at Launch

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Larian Studios Exec Michael Douse, director of publishing, has spoken in Microsoft's defense after info from a leaked email was revealed. The information comes after a number of email conversations and documents continue to be made public following the FTC hearings regarding Microsoft's bid to buy Activision Blizzard. The latest however included assessments from Microsoft for games it wanted to shore up Game Pass with until Starfield came out. It is always a gamble on how much to spend to get a game on Game Pass at launch and it appears that Microsoft sorely underestimated the success of Baldur's Gate 3 but according to Michael Douse, it wasn't the only one.

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[xGryfter]

No one could have seen BG3's current numbers based on the first 2 BG's sales numbers or, more importantly, the sales numbers of the first two Original Sin games at the time of that document's writing.

This whole situation with people getting butt hurt because they think MS was trying to screw over the little guy is pretty disingenuous and kind of stupid.

What most people also seem to be ignoring is BG3's kick starter (and eventual 3 years of early access sales) of which all can be considered lost Game Pass subscribers. I'm not sure if the sales data only includes launch day numbers but I seriously doubt that. Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game so far but we are looking at a game that has been commercially available and marketed like so for 3 years and acting like the numbers it generated during that time happened in a couple week period.

I think most people, at that time, likely would have agreed with MS on it's value assessment of the game.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Yeah, this is a very unusual situation and a total exception to the norm. I haven't played the game, or any before it, but have heard the same in regard to early access and so on. Ultimately though, congrats to Larian on a job well done and I'm glad they are able to laugh all the way to the bank with this one.

 

[Endgame]

Baulder’s gate 1 and 2 were amazing, but I can’t imagine the sales numbers from the 90s have any relevance on how BG3 would do. A much better indication is the fact that BG 1 and 2 got a remaster and expansion done like 2018 - bad games don’t get that kind of treatment. Furthermore a successful Kickstarter like that, combined with the remaster, shows high interest.

In other words, no one should have been surprised at the success of BG3