Sony Has No Console Exclusivity Over Baldur's Gate 3

It’s not uncommon to just skip an xbox launch due to its limited instal base. No need to presume any exclusivity agreements.

They could be posturing for a game pass deal. Likely the only way gamers will play it on Xbox.. for most of them.

That's a bit strange. This is a game I would expect on Xbox too. They must be taking a page out of the Square-Enix book...or more likely lack of enough resources to do so. I'm sure it will show up sooner or later over there.

They are most likely still trying to work out a gamepass deal with Microsoft, as others have said without gamepass the game will most likely go un-noticed.

will be on GP at a later date.

Most likely want PC sales first

My first thought hearing there isn't specific console excluisvity was Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 must have sold like garbage on Xbox One, which isn't exactly a reach.

As for Game Pass, it might not be worth it for either party. Microsoft basically owns all of the other big CRPG developers now so why pay for someone else's game to compete with their own product? And is Microsoft willing to shell out enough money to make it worth Larian's time to port it to Xbox?

It's not a great marriage.

@themightyant not to forget that over 90% of third party exclusives on nintendo and playstation are from Japan/Asia who would be taking less risks by localising thier games for the bigger install base in their own region and in the west.

Saw people on Twitter screaming Sony money hatted this but nowhere did it say it was a timed PS exclusive nor was Sony shouting it like they would with Final Fantasy or Silent Hill. Xbox fans need to stop blaming Sony every time a game skips Xbox. The number of times I've seen people say Sony paid for Octopath 2 even though it's on Switch + PC and Nintendo has been the one showing the games in Directs. Or Pixel Remasters, essentially any game that releases on anything but Xbox.

Sony is like "we'll pay you a million a month if you keep it exclusive, but you don't have to sign anything, so it's not an official exclusivity deal"

"Also, here's an NDA and don't ever mention it."

Jokes aside, for indie games this is not too uncommon. But on the other hand, the systems are so similar, it would be very easy to bring it to Xbox, so why not do it? Even if it only sells a couple of thousand copies, that's still profit.

@Sam_ATLUS in fairness, when an article was posted on here regarding the first octopath traveler not being on ps people made the same claims about xbox moneyhatting.

Game Pass doing its thing.

@Cherip-the-Ripper i still dont understand why Octopath skipped PS. Its a very strange state of affairs given we get the sequel and Square has a strong relationship with Sony (i'm not suggesting M$oft paid for exclusivity on 'next gen consoles btw). I had expected it to drop when the second game was announced for playstation, but i guess not 🤷‍♂️

Proper good journalism there.

Wish more people with a platform reached out to a source, instead of spreading console war fodder.

@Octane @Korgon @thefourfoldroot1 I'm expecting the're angling/negotiation for a Game Pass presence if this is all the case. There's no question indies love it, and whether they may get it or not, they're probably trying to angle for it. The whole "we'll announce other platforms at the right time" tends to imply that. Switch 2 is probably a given. Switch 1 would have been if it could run it. Might cost too much for MS to sign off on it though, and/or doesn't fill a niche their own Obsidian titles won't be filling already.

Since XB really has most of the WRPG and ESPECIALLY the "Baldur's Gate" crowd, it seemed strange this of all games would definitely skip that platform, it's kind of the home platform for fans of the genre what with Obsidian and inExile as first party (both halves of Black Isle Studios that co-developed the original Baldur's Gate with Bioware, and also produced wholely Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale, etc) PS actually seems like the weirdest of the 3 platforms in terms of audience match for the title, to me. I still think PC is the main platform and not by a small margin.

@NEStalgia Why do you think Xbox has most of the WRPG crowd, "especially Baldur's Gate"? Do you have sales data showing this, or are you pulling that out of thin air based on Xbox buying some studios and thus assuming?

@Rob_230 Been finding it a bit rich for Xbox owners crying foul or accusing Sony of double standards "buying exclusivity" when they've been buying up Zenimax Bethesda,InExile & Obsidian & cornering the vast majority of the western rpg market!🙄

Agree regarding Octopath Traveller though I think it only just recently left Gamepass? It'd be nice to see the first game get a shadowdrop but who knows if the gamepass deal didn't exclude a PS version being developed at the time...look how long it took the original Mass Effect took to come to PS3,back in the day!

@ShadowWolf712 No there's no statistics, but it's the console where a huge part of its exclusive lineup will be major CRPG/WRPGs. Much moreso than PS or Nintendo. If someone were to ask what console to buy and said they were primarily into WRPGs, I'd tell them XB just as fast as I'd say Nintendo or PS if they were into JRPGs. PS is just not the console I'd identify as particularly aligned with the top down CRPG & WRPG market. XB first, Nintendo second (for the top-down/retro stuff) and PS last. Well, really PC first, obviously. If there's ONE niche XB does have reliably, it's that one.

@Sam_ATLUS

I also saw a lot of these tweets yesterday, but my reaction was just to have a proper good laugh at all of them. Seriously, that user base is something else, it is like a collective mindset of assumptions and negativity. Truly unique.

@NEStalgia
Sure, they could be calculating whether Gamepass makes sense. But for me, if I wanted that, I might release it on Gamepass last (and get sales from impatient people with multiple platforms). Depends how much money MS want to throw around I guess.

@NEStalgia Yes, but that's a far cry from your original comment that they have most of the WRPG crowd. They're clearly trying to appeal to that market (arguably even corner it) but that doesn't necessarily mean they have it. And given the sales split ESTIMATES (I will wholly admit they're, for the most part, estimates via third party trackers and not set in stone) seem to indicate that games such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim's Special Edition sold far more on the PS4 than the Xbox One, it stands to reason that the PS platform still has a very hefty amount of the WRPG crowd, and thus was likely prioritized because of it.

@thefourfoldroot1 Exactly what happened last gen: releasing on PS4 just made better business sense if you were a dev with a limited budget.

Xbox wasn't really known for its rpgs to be fair, I bought baldurs gate III ealy access on steam so looking forward to full release

For some players this will be a big blow if it is exclusive. My friend and I are huge fans of coop Wrpgs. It started with Divinity 1. One of the main reasons he likes his Xbox so much is because he knows they will be home to a ton of these games. We had a blast with Wasteland 3 for example.

If Sony did make a deal it's a savvy one for this crowd. It's a niche market but Larian is probably the best studio in the world at making crpgs and this game will almost certainly be the best crpgs for years.

I have all platforms so I can play it regardless but it will be a bummer if I can't with my friend. I might just have to hold out for a possible Xbox version but I don't know if I will have the patience lol. This is GOTY material for me.

would hate to be an xbox player right now, this is the game ive been waiting for, DOS1&2 were masterpieces so been patiently waiting for the console release date, cant wait

@Rob_230 yh I find it baffling as well, guess it'll take a decade or so to uncover what Square was thinking these last few years. I actually thought it was ported by now until someone said it wasn't on here or px.
Anyway hope it eventually does, already been so long.

@Omnigameplayer The article and headline specifically says there's no Sony exclusivity. When/how/if it comes to XB isn't known, but it's not Sony influence either way. I do really doubt this game would skip XB in the absence of a Sony deal, since it' fits squarely in the console's main CRPG/WRPG niche. I do imagine it's all about GP negotiations (whether it happens or not.)

@ShadowWolf712 That's fair. Though X1 was more or less a commercial failure, so it's not really the best way to judge the present, it had no market at all really. And PS being the dominant platform overall will just tend to show the highest sales overall in any genre. It's not like I think the game shouldn't be on PS, more that it would be really weird for it to not be on XB since that's the genre that platform seems to be squarely positioned to cater to as it's identity going forward, and not just WRPG, but this is a classic CRPG sequel, and the "old PC fans that don't want to bother with PC anymore" is kind of a core niche for XB (myself included!)

@thefourfoldroot1 Agreed but that's why it's "will announce other platforms at the right time." It's probably in negotiations to see if they can get MS to pay what they want them to pay. And maybe those negotiations hinge on registered interest or preorder numbers on other platforms or something as well. And/or a "day 1" deal is different than an "after 6 months deal" or something. With GP, it's not a fixed fee, it's tailored to each game/publisher deal....so, really not unlike a traditional publishing contract, really. It's kind of a publisher that publishes publishers. Just a guess, but it seems pretty standard for most indies to try to get into GP on XB, and this one has enough clout to try to work out a higher tier deal. Sometimes that seems to go along with "launches later than other platforms but launches onto GP" type setup so it basically gets a second wave of marketing and attention like a second launch. With this game I could see them riding whatever Sony marketing they have going for a "first launch" then having a GP focused "second launch' type of thing. The indie sales game seems really interesting, especially for higher profile indies like this.

Expect this the rest of the gen Xbox fans. When The Coalition had to step in and help out getting The Matrix demo running on series s because creators didn't want to be burdened with that annoying task, does that not speak volumes how EVERY other dev is going to be when being forced to make their current gen games for it?

Correct me if I am wrong please with countless gameplay or even screenshots of Xbox's own 1st party series s/x only games to date please (they don't have to be even out yet)...... you know, to squash these concerns.
You can't, that's the glaring issue.

That's hugely assumptive, @UltimateOtaku91. As far as I can tell, the sales figures for the likes of Divinity Original Sin 2 are not broken down beyond an overall number. I'm not saying you are wrong in surmising that the game sold better on the PS4, but assuming that it did, then that would likely be down to the far larger install-base that the PlayStation has. Maybe you are in possession of detailed numbers, but the only figure I can find is for Steam.

Personally, I have bought Baldur's Gate in Early Access, as well as the Collector's Edition twice (once for the PC and once for the PS5). I have bought both Divinity Original Sin games 3 times (once on the PC, and twice on the Xbox (one of them as a gift for a friend, who already had it on the PC)). Were Baldur's Gate to be released on the Xbox, I'll get the Collector's Edition for that too. My point being, I don't think you actually have any real idea where the fans of this game are, or on what platform.

@andrewsqual Gamepass is also going to be a problem. Gamers on Xbox are cheap and now the majority of them just don't want to buy games anymore, they want to play it on gamepass.

Gamepass is good for indies developers who get a check upfront, but any AAA studio, it's bad since there is no way the check covers the loss of money in sales.

Because of this, I am pretty sure some AAA devs will decide to start skipping Xbox and go exclusively for PS/Switch.

Hell, Square-Enix is already doing it with FF7R and FF16. That's why they're not releasing on Xbox, not because Sony extended the exclusivity deal beyond 6 months. Xbox fanboys will say it's because Sony paid to have them permanently not appear on Xbox just because Microsoft said so with zero evidence. However it's clear that you can't reason why Xbox fanboys anymore, they're hopeless, they swallow every bull Phil Spencer says and pretty much everything that comes out of the guy's mouth is lies and *****.

Wait a minute they’re releasing a Mac version before the Xbox?

That’s… shocking actually.

@KaijuKaiser Microsoft doesn't regret it. Some devs probably dread it tough.

@GigaGaia GP provides a lot of great games and many millions of people pay for the service monthly. Let's not forget that MS started focusing on games again just a few years ago so understandably there has been a drought, but this year everything is supposed to change. Starfield will probably be a bigger game than any Sony exclusive.

Hope that Sony gets some competition. It's a good thing.

I've seen lots of people on Reddit and elsewhere declare that the lower specs of the Series S in no way will hold games back. This statement from Larian seems to be another indication that this is not true.

So another case of the series S holding a game back.

And what's worse is the game doesn't even look that demanding graphically.

Xbox Series S isn’t a next gen console , it’s just a Xbox One X Pro

So the S is holding games back, just like we said it would. How about they just skip the S entirely and don't worry about the less powerful console that shouldn't be around.

So the Series S is already causing problems for developers

Wont be the S holding it back, its not hugely demanding type.

more they are a small team so it takes time.

better than releasing a mess like most do.

I wonder how many games are going to have this X/S issue for Xbox. I suppose the developer can target to the X, but that would make the S an outdated system a mere two years into this new generation. This could be a horrible blunder by Microsoft.

@KaijuKaiser nah, i doubt they regret it. Series S was a vehicle to drive Gamepass subscriptions, and from that perspective has been a success. Pretty sure it has outsold the X in a lot of regions given its small size and lower price.

It will be interesting to see how it copes as the generation goes on though and how it influences the direction of the games industry. Will devs cater to it, or will they take the defacto approach of exclusively releasing on PS5 to avoid the hassle of dealing with it.

Unfortunately i do think there is a risk that a large number of cross-gen games on PS5 will be held back over time as devs make Series S the lead system to develop for and then port to the more powerful Series X and PS5

@carlos82 @Jaz007 @UltimateOtaku91 Did you guys even read the statement? They said it’s an issue with split screen co-op.

I think it's a more complex issue than the Series S just not being able to run it.

@LiamCroft
It’s hard to decipher without clarification. Is it the split screen on both the X and S, or does that mean that the S can’t properly run split screen? I would think the X wouldn’t have an issue with this, but I don’t believe Microsoft will allow developers to release for one system and not the other, meaning if the S can’t run it, the x won’t get it either.

Whatever the case, we’re only two years in. If (big IF) it is a S issue this soon, it will be a much bigger issue by years 3+.

@LiamCroft yes

"specifically, we’ve been unable to get split-screen co-op to work to the same standard on both Xbox Series X and S, which is a requirement for us to ship."

So at least one of them is the issue and I'd imagine that would be the S

I appreciate their forthcomingness about what exactly is the concerns/reasons it’s not going to XBox right away. Not a lot of developers would be so honest about the specifications. Props to them

I’m not sure how much use the split screen would get…I’m surprised they didn’t just pull it from the X/S until a remedy could be patched in. Maybe not the best solution, but it would at least be a stop gap. Sucks that devs have to deal with this along with everything else involved in launching a game.

Why it was off-topic when the whole situation has been blown out by Xbox fans? And this is not even the first time this kind of thing happened. There is nothing in my comment which flame the console war or rude words. I am just expressing my opinion.

Didn't Halo Infinite have issues with its split screen integration as well, which ended up being cancelled altogether. So maybe there's a system fault thats making it difficult for splitscreen play on those systems or just the one of them.

Either way they should of just put the game on the system day one and patch in splitscreen at a later date.

@UltimateOtaku91 343 effectively said they didn't have the resources to develop it, which is odd as you can glitch the game into split screen and it even runs pretty well on the Xbox One

I reckon they might have run into technical difficulties with the Xbox series and they couldn't get split screen to work.

That's my guess anyway.

@DarkestHour GP is good for consumers, it's not for publishers and developers, unless they're indies that can cash in with the early check. Big developers and publishers probably lose money by going the GP route.

That’s one juicy tidbit about the X/S, I have to applaud the honesty. I can’t wait to play this on PC, personally. That era of D&D CRPGs, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale, etc. That’s peak gaming nostalgia for me.

I remember reading some article ages ago about this being a pretty power hungry game. I think the Devs were being asked about it coming to PS4/xbone at the time, and they weren't powerful enough.
Split screen obviously increases the drain even more.

@KaijuKaiser I’m not saying MS drops it, I’m saying Devs start dropping it.

Uff... Microsoft did themselves in there.

Also, i said since day 1 that the series S is a scam and they would have to toss it aside a few years in cause it would not run the new games at an acceptable performance level.
Seems like it was already happening, they were just holding them back.
MS are in a twist now.

It's nice to be back on ps5 again, at least I know with the exception of exclusive, nearly all games will be available for it 😃

@Nem I like xbox series s, it's a perfect cheap console for playing gamepass games, but yeah it's hard for publisher that want to release a full next-gen games since they have to release it for the s too.

Everybody forget that it is already released on Windows, wich is Microsoft main product, also serie s hardware is not a problem since it's running fine on steamdeck.

So they can't make run well on Series S and they decided it don't worth the hassle cause the install base is limited and also xbox gamers are spoiled by gamepass and don't buy many games outside it. Thats a weak point on xbox marketing. I got a Series S, i think its a great little console. The main problem for me is not the hardware limitations but the limited storage that makes it not the best deal in gaming on the long term. I mean you end up spending as much as X and still get lower specs

Have to say, @GigaGaia, I'd love to see your evidence for this. Sony had entered into many exclusivity deals with Square for many different games, and with FF7, for example, we know Sony have extended the original exclusivity agreement, we just don't know for how long. It is also likely true that the longer that games such as Final Fantasy don't appear on the Xbox, the more 'forgotten', and less important, the franchise will become on that platform, meaning it does actually become less worthwhile to release the games on there. In fairness to the Xbox crowd, if it takes 3, 4, 5 years or more for a game to come to their platform, then that game is getting older by the day, and thus less appealing.

Also, the only sales figures that we get to see are for physical copies, and as there are more than double the number of gamers on the PlayStation than on the Xbox, it stands to reason that most physical games sold will be on the PlayStation. We do not get to see how many digital copies are sold, and it is just possible that more people buy games digitally on the Xbox, than on the PlayStation (bearing in mind that the download memory space is larger on the Xbox, and easier to increase). The point being that we don't actually know. Does the Game Pass affect sales? Undoubtedly, yes, as it is a very good deal. Will the PlayStation version have the same affect? To a lesser degree, probably yes. Lesser because the service is not as good as the Game Pass just yet, though the Game Pass has had a few years to get it right. Ultimately, though, if a game is available on a Service, why would you feel the need to buy it? Equally, if you want to buy a game that is not available on the Service, that is exactly what you would do, as is exactly what happened with a game such as GoWR for example...

I'm just glad the game is coming to ps5. Super excited. I also think it's great eventually Xbox will have it. The more games that can be multi platform the better for all gamers. Many gamers only have one system. Let us all have fun.

Unless you own stock in Microsoft, who gives a *****? This is a Playstation site & you are getting the game (though I doubt most here even care about it).
Its like shooting fish in a barrel, no wonder the push square team does it so often🤣

Technical problems seem to me more like the problem of the Series s and series x side by side. As nice as that S is, he's going to cause more and more problems like this. But the Xbox camp doesn't want to hear that. okay then not..

Actually, you are mistaken, @TommyNL. If you venture over to view the Green site, you will see many of them commenting on how the Series S is limiting what becomes available on the Xbox in general, or is at least slowing what is available. As much as Microsoft might try to use PR speak to conceal its shortcomings, those that actually game on Xbox are often very vocal about the issue. Indeed, if you look right now on the Greet site, you will see an article covering this very topic, relating to Baldur's Gate 3...