Hasbro Chief Executive Officer Chris Cocks has claimed that Baldur’s Gate 3 is “gonna be a game of the year or RPG of the year contender”, while answering questions in an earnings call to investors on Thursday.
Baldur’s Gate 3 released onto Steam Early Access – which gives fans access to a work-in-progress version of the game ahead of its official launch – on October 7 2020. Cocks says that “well over a million players” have already bought the game, which won’t see a full release until the Autumn. That’s supported by third-party analytics tool Steam Spy, which estimates Baldur’s Gate 3 has between two and five million adoptees.
The CEO even claims that “to date it’s the most successful early access game in Steam’s history”. Cocks doesn’t provide his criteria for that judgment, and Steamspy estimates that 20 to 50 million players bought Viking exploration game Valheim, and 10 to 20 million Phasmophobia, both paid games and both still in Early Access. We’re therefore inclined to doubt Cocks’ claim – but Baldur’s Gate 3 is still very successful.
Hasbro has “high expectations” for Baldur’s Gate 3’s full release, according to Cocks. Financial results Hasbro published on April 27 predict that the game’s release in the Autumn will buoy revenues for Q3 2023. In the call to investors, Cocks says it will start to contribute to the bottom line “probably in September, and then more meaningfully in Q4 and Q1 next year.”
Hasbro groups together the finances of licensed and in-house videogames with its wholly owned subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. This combined WotC / videogames segment was the only part of the business to make profit in Q1 2023, with both ‘consumer products’ and ‘entertainment’ posting losses, as well as falls in revenue compared with Q1 2022.
Of course Wargamer’s main interest in Baldur’s Gate 3 is playing it, not what it’s doing to Hasbro’s bottom line. If you feel the same, make sure you check out our guides to all the playable Baldur’s Gate 3 classes and the Baldur’s Gate 3 mods fans are using to tinker with the game.