Baldur's Gate 3 Launches in December for Xbox Series X|S - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 December 2023 / 7,654 Views
Larian Studios announced Baldur's Gate 3 will launch for the Xbox Series X|S in December with the exact release date to be announced at The Game Awards on December 7.
"Xbox players, we hear you’re looking for more news on Baldur’s Gate 3," said Larian Studios. "The game is on track for a December release. We’ll see you at The Game Awards for the World Premiere of the exact release date."
Baldur’s Gate 3 released for PC on August 3 and for the PlayStation 5 on September 6.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Can't wait to finally play it!
Hopefully it will either be a shadow drop immediately after the show, and/or a day one Gamepass announcement there.
Game Pass announcement and shadow drop? That'd be weird for Larian to hold a "World Premiere" slot at TGA to just announce the release date of the Xbox port xD
EDIT: I just thought about this, but it could be possible Larian announces an expansion for the game alongside the Xbox release date. That would definitely be worth having a World Premiere slot at TGA.
It definitely will cost a lot more than MS originally thought before launch, but seeing how engagement on PS5 not being anywhere near as high as anticipated, that might bring down the cost a bit. BG3 is still a PC centric title that didn't seem to bring in as many console players as many of us thought. I was shocked to see BG3 was ranked 20th in player engagement on PS5 for the month of September. Especially considering the game launched on PS5 within the first week of September and I doubt that number went up any higher in October.
That's certainly possible, I also think there is a good chunk of gamers on ps5 that didn't pick up BG3 since it's digital only. I'll play it at some point but I'm not in a huge rush to pick it up digitally. If it does come to gamepass I'll just play it there. If I'm purchasing a game I like to have the option of digital of physical.
I can see that being the case. Larian did tease that this week would be a good week for fans of physical media alongside teasing the Xbox release date. So keep an eye out for that! Physical PS5 version may be on the horizon.
Yes I'm waiting for a physical release and discount (didn't like Divinity 2 unfortunately).
Is engagement something these companies are worried about though? Aren't they more interested in sales data? From what I saw it was second best selling game in that month for both NA and UK. I always assumed engagement was more of a secondary figure for everyone except GAAS and GPMS.
Typically, not for a non-GAAS title, but, BG3 is a game that takes a LOT of time to complete. Let alone get Platinum for. You look at Steam reviews and it's very rare to see any review that is less than 100 hours at the time of review. Hell, my first general playthrough of the game, not even trying to get all achievements, took me 108 hours. So while initial sales may have been good for PS5, the lack of player engagement means very few are actually playing the game for any decent amount of time. Many could have played for an hour and decided it just wasn't for them.
It's not like Spider-Man 2 where you can get a Platinum within a single weekend.
That's what I was originally pointing out is that MS would most likely have to pay higher than originally anticipated because Larian can easily point out the PC release to show how massive their game is. Number 1 in player engagement on Steam in August and September and number 2 in October only behind Counter-Strike. That's just unheard of these days on PC. BUT, maybe not pay quite as high because MS can point out player engagement thus far on console. MS could get the game on PC Game Pass as well.
Either way, I doubt MS minds paying a premium given just how popular the title has turned out to be in general. Especially given that MS agreed to drop splitscreen co-op on Series S because of how much they want BG3 to be on Xbox already. That is of course, a big if, if it comes to Game Pass at all lol.
very true microsoft is losing money with xbox but use it as a marketing tool etc
good
I played dozens of hours of act one initially on the PS5, but when I saw that there were huge patches coming in pretty constantly, I stopped and decided to start from scratch later. Why would I want to have a lesser experience, where there are still thousands of bugs and missing things to be sorted out. However, I will be playing the shit out of this game later.
They must be almost finished with the tweaks to have enough confidence (that it will most likely be released on the day of the show).
No way it comes right to GamePass.
Probably dropping during or after the show.
I predict it launches immediately after the show.
Talk about it being added to Xbox after Xbox ditched the parity thing, all good things for the game and devs, and all the talk is how people can get it on cheap GP instead of buying it? Buy the game, support the devs directly.
They want the game day one on GP so Larian on next release keep giving priority on consoles for Sony.
Silly take imo. A game that is estimated to have so far sold 10m+ on PC on 3rd party steam tracking apps (Larian has given no official sales update in awhile, the most recent data we have is 5.2m sales on launch in August from a Belgian Embassy) and has at least 1m+ lifetime sales potential on Xbox Series, isn't going to come to PC Gamepass and Xbox Gamepass for cheap, Larian would likely be getting at least a $30m paycheck from Xbox for that most likely (the equivalent of about 700k lost full priced sales). Microsoft could get an Xbox Gamepass only deal for much cheaper since the sales potential of a PC focused RPG is much lower on console, but Xbox is unlikely to go for an Xbox Gamepass only deal, as they have shown they really want to drive PC Gamepass subs.
On top of that large upfront paycheck from Xbox, multiple developers have noted that many Gamepass users use their Gamepass 10% discount to buy the game at some point before the Game exits Gamepass, while even more use that Gamepass 10% discount to buy DLC for the game (and I'm sure that Larian has at least some DLC planned for BG3). Larian would be cleaning up nicely from a PC and Xbox Gamepass deal, in all likelihood it would mean they would make more money from Microsoft in the long run than they will from the PS5 version, which has seen lackluster sales so far (failed to make top 10 on PS5 digital charts in October as a digital only release, losing out to older games and games which released on both physical and digital).
I have no idea if Xbox will go for a Gamepass deal on BG3 or not, maybe they will because they want to make it up to their fans by causing the late release with their parity clause, or maybe it won't come to Gamepass. Either way, I will be playing it on Gamepass if it comes, or buying it if it doesn't.
If BG3 is coming to GP then Larian is still getting paid.
The developer is making a deal for it to be on GP. They are getting supported by it lol What a weird thing to say….
