We also underestimated Baldur’s Gate 3
As an editorial team, it is also part of the business to assess new games. We consider how much hit potential they have, how much reach we can generate with the games, and how many resources we allocate to certain titles.
Baldur’s Gate 3 absolutely played no role for us in recent years. I planned almost no coverage for MeinMMO regarding the role-playing game because I didn’t expect much from it. What was the reason for this? I knew what kind of potential Larian Studios has, as I am familiar with the quality of Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Now, Baldur’s Gate 3 had already been in Early Access for three years before its release; it is so damn hard to create a hype for an initial release. In the years of Early Access, the RPG drifted along without much attention.
On top of that, there was a difficult release window. Baldur’s Gate 3 was supposed to come out amidst Bethesda’s Starfield, a hot contender for RPG of the Year.
If Larian hadn’t adjusted the release strategy of Baldur’s Gate 3 and landed a viral hit with bear sex, it’s still questionable whether the RPG would have made such a huge impact despite the high quality of the game.
This prompted us to spontaneously adjust our entire content planning overnight, redistribute resources, and fully accompany Baldur’s Gate 3 with stories and guides.
Therefore, the narrative that this RPG from Microsoft was severely underestimated in isolation is challenging. This mega-success surprised everyone in the industry, including Larian itself.
On Xbox, Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to finally release at the end of 2023. However, one feature will be missing on the Series S:
Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming to Xbox, but one console will miss out on a feature
Baldur’s Gate 3 absolutely played no role for us in recent years. I planned almost no coverage for MeinMMO regarding the role-playing game because I didn’t expect much from it. What was the reason for this? I knew what kind of potential Larian Studios has, as I am familiar with the quality of Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Now, Baldur’s Gate 3 had already been in Early Access for three years before its release; it is so damn hard to create a hype for an initial release. In the years of Early Access, the RPG drifted along without much attention.
On top of that, there was a difficult release window. Baldur’s Gate 3 was supposed to come out amidst Bethesda’s Starfield, a hot contender for RPG of the Year.
If Larian hadn’t adjusted the release strategy of Baldur’s Gate 3 and landed a viral hit with bear sex, it’s still questionable whether the RPG would have made such a huge impact despite the high quality of the game.
This prompted us to spontaneously adjust our entire content planning overnight, redistribute resources, and fully accompany Baldur’s Gate 3 with stories and guides.
Therefore, the narrative that this RPG from Microsoft was severely underestimated in isolation is challenging. This mega-success surprised everyone in the industry, including Larian itself.
On Xbox, Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to finally release at the end of 2023. However, one feature will be missing on the Series S:
Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming to Xbox, but one console will miss out on a feature
We also underestimated Baldur’s Gate 3
As an editorial team, it is also part of the business to assess new games. We consider how much hit potential they have, how much reach we can generate with the games, and how many resources we allocate to certain titles.
Baldur’s Gate 3 absolutely played no role for us in recent years. I planned almost no coverage for MeinMMO regarding the role-playing game because I didn’t expect much from it. What was the reason for this? I knew what kind of potential Larian Studios has, as I am familiar with the quality of Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Now, Baldur’s Gate 3 had already been in Early Access for three years before its release; it is so damn hard to create a hype for an initial release. In the years of Early Access, the RPG drifted along without much attention.
On top of that, there was a difficult release window. Baldur’s Gate 3 was supposed to come out amidst Bethesda’s Starfield, a hot contender for RPG of the Year.
If Larian hadn’t adjusted the release strategy of Baldur’s Gate 3 and landed a viral hit with bear sex, it’s still questionable whether the RPG would have made such a huge impact despite the high quality of the game.
This prompted us to spontaneously adjust our entire content planning overnight, redistribute resources, and fully accompany Baldur’s Gate 3 with stories and guides.
Therefore, the narrative that this RPG from Microsoft was severely underestimated in isolation is challenging. This mega-success surprised everyone in the industry, including Larian itself.
On Xbox, Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to finally release at the end of 2023. However, one feature will be missing on the Series S:
Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming to Xbox, but one console will miss out on a feature
A leaked email shows that Microsoft wasn’t particularly interested in getting Baldur’s Gate 3 into the Xbox Game Pass. Apparently, the success of the game was completely underestimated, which is not entirely unreasonable.
What kind of leak is this? In connection with the ongoing legal battle between Microsoft and the US agency FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, countless confidential documents and internal emails from Microsoft were published.
In one of the documents that surfaced, Microsoft discusses how much money they are willing to pay for potential deals for the Xbox Game Pass. It turns out: Baldur’s Gate was severely underestimated. Apparently, they thought they could get the RPG hit at a bargain price.
Low “Wow Factor” at a Bargain Price?
What does the leak say? The document shows a long list of potential releases for the Xbox Game Pass. A table lists how high the “Wow Factor” of individual games is supposed to be. This is meant to indicate how much they expect from the titles.
Additionally, it assesses the likelihood of getting them into the Game Pass and how much they would presumably have to pay for it. The files were eventually removed from the FTC servers, but as the internet is known to be forever, they can still be found on imgur.
Baldur’s Gate was apparently quite low on Microsoft’s wish list.
The RPG was dismissed as a “second-run Stadia PC RPG”. The assessment refers to the planned release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on Google’s failed cloud gaming service.
Instead of a “Wow Factor”, the RPG was assigned the category “Hub”. It is unclear what the designation stands for; it may refer to the Xbox Insider Hub. Microsoft also expected to secure Baldur’s Gate for just 5 million US dollars.
For comparison: This amount was also expected for Red Dead Redemption 2, although according to the document, they were assuming a monthly payment of that amount. For Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, they expected a “very high” Wow Factor and estimated a price of 300 million dollars – which is 60 times what they expected for Baldur’s Gate.
Larian Defends Microsoft: “Everyone Did It”
How is this information being discussed? Given the immense success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Microsoft’s assessment seems curious. However, the email containing the document dates back to 2022: back then, no one expected how Baldur’s Gate 3 would perform at release.
The developers themselves reportedly expected only 100,000 concurrent players. A figure that has, even more than a month after release, been casually surpassed with a 24-hour peak of 293,814 players on Steam. At peak times, there were even 875,343 concurrent players (via SteamDB, as of September 20, 11:30)
For this reason, Larian likely does not hold Microsoft responsible for the misjudgment. Michael Douse, the studio’s Publishing Director, stated on X/Twitter: “In their defense: Everyone else did it too.”
According to Douse, there simply weren’t any data available to predict the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Therefore, he would not overestimate the assessment.
Editorial Assessment
Now, Baldur’s Gate 3 had already been in Early Access for three years before its release; it is so damn hard to create a hype for an initial release. In the years of Early Access, the RPG drifted along without much attention.
On top of that, there was a difficult release window. Baldur’s Gate 3 was supposed to come out amidst Bethesda’s Starfield, a hot contender for RPG of the Year.
If Larian hadn’t adjusted the release strategy of Baldur’s Gate 3 and landed a viral hit with bear sex, it’s still questionable whether the RPG would have made such a huge impact despite the high quality of the game.
This prompted us to spontaneously adjust our entire content planning overnight, redistribute resources, and fully accompany Baldur’s Gate 3 with stories and guides.
Therefore, the narrative that this RPG from Microsoft was severely underestimated in isolation is challenging. This mega-success surprised everyone in the industry, including Larian itself.
