Larian Studios’ mega RPG Baldur’s Gate III is finally available on every platform now that the title Stealth was released during The Video Game Awards in December. This is great news for all games as the title dominated the conversation of games in the latter half of 2023, as well as bagging a large number of game of the year awards.
2023 was a great year overall, with Baldur’s Gate III leading the way, but another conversation about subscription services like PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass has been playing out on both fronts. During the FTC V. Microsoft trial, Sony’s CEO Jim Ryan claimed that developers largely don’t like it, a sentiment I have heard some agreement with though not on a large enough scale to state it is accurate.
Conversely, gamers have largely gravitated to the services, enjoying the monthly fee rather than paying for each game. The idea of gamers wanting to save money, or view multiple releases a year is unfair to their wallet, it is very little wonder these services have become a larger part of the industry
Put both these topics together and you end up with a lot of gamers hoping they will be able to wait out the Baldur’s Gate III hype till the game releases on one of these services so they don’t need to purchase it. According to Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke, you are going to be waiting near past infinity if that is the way you want to enjoy it.
The CEO posted on his Twitter page, primarily in response to Ubisoft’s Philippe Tremblay who claimed subscription services were the way of the future, that he strongly disagrees with that point.
He outlined in his tweet that there are already a select number of publishers making games and that the subscription model might further dilute how many people can dictate what kind of games are green-lit. It should be noted that these services have coincided with a steep rise in live-service titles as well, with games like the upcoming Foamstars making a point to launch via PlayStation Plus.
Vicke went on to write:
Getting a board to ok a project fueled by idealism is almost impossible and idealism needs room to exist, even if it can lead to disaster. Subscription models will always end up being cost/benefit analysis exercises intended to maximize profit. In such a world, by definition, the preference of the subscription service will determine what games get made. Trust me – you don’t want that.
He then proceeded to declare that Baldur’s Gate III would not be added to any subscription service in the future. He acknowledged that for some titles it offered a larger audience it they might not have received otherwise, stating that both can exist. Vincke stated that paying full price for a game can be “valuable” and that it should not die out.
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