Summary
Michael Douse, the director of publishing at Larian Studios, commented on some remarks made aboutBaldur’s Gate 3that were discovered in some internal emails that were part of a major Microsoft leak. In the leak, some Microsoft emails went into detail about the cost of bringingBaldur’s Gate 3to Xbox Game Pass and revealed the tech giant’s doubts over how successfulBaldur’s Gate 3would turn out to be.
Over 120 documents pertaining to Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard that were not properly redacted were mistakenly uploaded to the Northern District of California’s file repository. Some of these leaks included confidential information about Microsoft’s plans for Xbox Series X console revisions as well as future plans for the next console generation. The leaks subsequently prompteda response from Xbox lead Phil Spencer, who called the leaks “old” and urged gamers to wait for what Xbox has in store in the future. But those were far from the only things revealed in the recent leaks.
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According to some leaked internal emails, Microsoft stated that it would cost over $5 million to bringBaldur’s Gate 3to Xbox Game Pass, andcalledBaldur’s Gate 3a “second-run Stadia PC RPG"before its August 2023 release on Steam. In response to the leaked comments, Douse stated on Twitter that Microsoft was far from alone in its underestimation ofBaldur’s Gate 3.Douse said that a similar comparison was made betweenDivinity: Original Sin 2and the turn-based RPG genre overall, and that such doubts from the industry came with developing them. Douse added that there was no way of knowing beforehand how successful an RPG likeBaldur’s Gate 3would turn out to be prior to launch, and said the company had to take some “spooky steps” during development.
Douse followed up by thankingBaldur’s Gate 3fans for not underestimating the game and the developers. Days after the leak made the rounds,Baldur’s Gate 3released its third major patchin an effort to fix more bugs and issues with the game. One of the major features of Patch 3 was the Magic Mirror, which allowed players to change their character’s pronouns, voice, and parts of their general appearance such as their face. However, a character’s race and body type would remain unchanged.
Despite Microsoft’s leaked comments aboutBaldur’s Gate 3, the game is still slated torelease between September and November 2023on the Xbox Series X/S. Only time will tell howBaldur’s Gate 3will be received on the platform in light of the Microsoft leaks.
Baldur’s Gate 3is available now for PC and PS5, with an Xbox Series X/S version in development.
