Despite continued wishes it might happen, don’t expect Baldur’s Gate 3 on Game Pass or other subscription services, Larian’s Sven Wincke has confirmed once again.
In several threaded posts on X (Twitter), he commented,“Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king. But it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way.”
Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king. But it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way. https://t.co/wEUvd5adt0
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) January 17, 2024
This came in response to a story shared by IGN where Ubisoft Philippe Tremblay spoke about Ubisoft+ Premium and Ubisoft+ Classics and also insisted that people need to get “comfortable” not owning games and relying on subscriptions, for the subscription services to become a bigger part of the video game industry’s revenue. He pointed to the way some have abandoned physical media for streaming platforms and subscription services across media, as in Netflix or Spotify.
Vincke maintains that should subscription services become more dominant and squeeze out more direct to consumer sales, it would lead to some degree of stifling and games never being made in the name of profits and likely, sure bets. “Subscription models will always end up being cost/benefit analysis exercises intended to maximize profit,” he says.
“In such a world by definition the preference of the subscription service will determine what games get made.
Trust me - you really don’t want that.”
Backing this up, he declares that Larian will not be putting its games on subscription services, citing their value and an interest to “make sure the other ecosystem doesn’t die because it’s valuable”, after saying that subscription services might help some devs to get their games made and there’s a place for this.
Since Baldur’s Gate 3’s impressive debut across multiple platforms, some have been asking if or when it might come to subscription services like Game Pass, but it looks like that’s not happening.
