Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass says boss: “There’s a fair price to be paid”

Baldur’s Gate 3’s director has confirmed that the game won’t appear on PC/Xbox Game Pass anytime soon due to the game’s value for money.

Baldur’s Gate 3 had a sporadic release schedule throughout 2023. The game launched on PC in August after spending several years in Steam Early Access. Baldur’s Gate 3 was released on PS5 and macOS in September, followed by an Xbox Series X/S release in December.

Developer Larian Studios took a long time to make a concrete announcement about an Xbox Series X/S port, but when it was revealed, speculation started regarding Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Game Pass. This would be a great way to make up for the late launch of the game, as Xbox fans waited months to play it.

Unfortunately, the people who want to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Game Pass might be waiting a long time, as Larian Studios has made a definitive statement about the title’s future on Microsoft’s video game subscription service.

Larian Studios

Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass anytime soon

Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke revealed in an interview with IGN that it won’t appear on Xbox Game Pass, and there have never been plans to bring it to the service.

“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,” Vincke said. “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.”

Releasing a meaty game with no microtransactions hasn’t stopped other third-party developers from putting their titles onto Xbox Game Pass. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a critical and commercial hit, however, giving the developers a lot of leeway with monetizing the game.

This isn’t to say that Baldur’s Gate 3 will never be on Xbox Game Pass. The game is a hit right now, but sales will eventually die down, and Microsoft is known to pay a lot of money to bring big titles to the service. If Baldur’s Gate 3 gets paid DLC, that will also be an incentive to put it on Game Pass.

It’s disappointing that Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t be coming to subscription services so soon, but it didn’t win all those awards for nothing. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive game with acclaim pouring in from every corner of the Internet, so it’s well worth its price tag.