Baldur’s Gate 3 credits are missing a bunch of outsourced workers

Baldur’s Gate III isn’t even fully released yet and it's already achieved the kind of buzz other developers would sell a kidney for. However, with that buzz comes increased public scrutiny, and it looks like the game failed to credit many of the workers who helped complete the project, as reported by Game Developer.

The issue was originally spotted by freelance localization producer Katrina Leonoudakis, who noted that the game’s credits failed to mention translators who worked on the Brazilian Portuguese localizations. A company called Altagram Group handled these translations, and it’s worth noting that company executives and department leads appear in the credits. Additionally, translators who localized to other languages, like Italian, were properly credited, though these translations were handled by companies other than Altagram.

The issue goes beyond translators, as reports also indicate that outsourcing studios failed to list many devs involved with the project. The credits list each studio by name, but not specific employees who worked on the game.

For its part, Larian is on top of it. The company notes that “this was all Altagram group” and that it has “compelled them to fix this,” in a statement provided to Eurogamer. The developer goes on to say that a fix is coming soon.

It’s definitely a good thing that the developer is working to resolve the issue, as people deserve credit for their work. However, this has become an all-too-common practice within the games industry. Game Developer spoke to several localization experts and they described a “laissez-faire” attitude when it comes to properly crediting contractors. To that end, there have been multiple instances of this practice in the past year, from translators working on Persona 3 and Persona 4 not being properly credited to artists and developers of high-profile titles like Metroid Dread and God of War: Ragnarok not getting their moment to shine.