Summary
Larian Studios vowed to updateBaldur’s Gate 3credits in order to address the fact that some members of its localization team that worked on the game as freelancers were left uncredited for their contributions. The controversy came to light within days ofBaldur’s Gate 3releasing to overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Like most modern big-budget titles,Baldur’s Gate 3features comprehensive localization meant to make the game maximally accessible. Larian localized the game in 13 languages, including French, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese. And though the Belgian studio has over 400 employees as of 2023, it has historically avoided in-house localization in favor of outsourcing that part of development to partners such as the Berlin-based Altagram Group.
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It was Altagram that was at fault for the fact that someBaldur’s Gate 3localizers were left out of the game’s credits, with Larian saying as much in a recent statement to Eurogamer. After the Belgian developer was made aware of the issue, it promptly “compelled” Altagram to help address the controversy by providing it with an exhaustive list of freelancers who worked on the game, a Larian spokesperson said. The complete list of the RPG’s localization staff will hence be added to the game as part of its first major patch, which is expected to come out as soon as Larian is done releasinghotfixes for the day-one version ofBaldur’s Gate 3.
In the meantime, Altagram has taken to Twitter to admit fault for the incomplete list of credits identifying its Brazilian Portuguese localization team. In a lengthy statement posted on Twitter, the company said it accepts “full responsibility” for the omission, vowing to overhaul its content review practices so that something like this doesn’t happen again. The only members of the Brazilian Portuguese localization team that are credited in the current version ofBaldur’s Gate 3are Altagram’s executives and project leads.
Some members of the localization staff found this incomplete list of their contributions all the more disappointing due to how massive of an undertaking localizingBaldur’s Gate 3was. Fernando Moreiras, a credited member of the Spanish team, said that the project spanned more than 2.5 million words and ran for nearly four years. The size of the game’s script is also underlined by the fact thatBaldur’s Gate 3has thousands of ending possibilities.
Baldur’s Gate 3is not the only big-budget game that found itself at the center of a localization controversy in recent months; following Bethesda’s June 11 showcase, somegamers were also left angry aboutStarfield’slanguage options.
Baldur’s Gate 3is available now on PC and launches September 6 on PS5, with an Xbox Series X/S port also in development.
