The massive success of Baldur’s Gate 3 has been impossible to ignore since the game’s full launch early last month. And even as the game’s platform offerings have expanded to include the PlayStation, and soon Mac as well, it almost seems perplexing that the title isn’t playable on Xbox.
Thanks to some leaked emails from Microsoft, however, we now know that it appears the company had the opportunity to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox but instead seemed to dismiss the game, calling it a “second-run Stadia PC RPG.”
In an email between Microsoft executives, the company had a list of upcoming game releases for this year and it looks like it completely missed the mark on BG3 by ranking it at the very bottom of its list of games that were set for Q2 2023.
The emails between executives were from last May, and the leak comes amid Microsoft’s legal proceedings with the FTC.
What makes matters worse for Microsoft Gaming is that it seems clear in the emails that CEO Phil Spencer was pressing his team to fill gaps in the company’s Game Pass offerings. Additionally, the company seemed to expect that Larian Studios would want somewhere around $5 million in return for the game’s inclusion in Game Pass. Meanwhile, other games like Suicide Squad, Mortal Kombat, and Jedi Survivor were listed as having expected partner asks of more than $250 million.
So next time you’re looking at your Xbox and wondering why you can’t play Baldur’s Gate 3 on it, just remember, it might not be Larian’s fault for failing to offer the game on the console. It looks like Microsoft woefully misread what kind of potential the title had.
