Mentioned it in one of the other threads about this but it bears repeating:

BG3 did not come out of nowhere. It wasn't a case of Wizards of the Coast giving money to a random studio and getting a masterpiece out.

Baldurs Gate 3, as a product, was officially in development since approximately 2019. It released into early access on Steam in 2020 and 1.0 in 2023. It received repeated injections of cash through things like fricking google stadia over that period.

But also? Baldurs Gate 3 didn't begin development in 2019. Larian had been pestering/pitching the Wizards since freaking 2014 when they were still working on the kickstarted Divinity Original Sin 1. And Larian, as a studio, had been making CRPGs since 2002's Divine Divinity.

BG3 was agame with 3 years of active development and 21 years of experience and expertise.

When studios get shuttered because they aren't immediately profitable? You inherently have people who decide "I am done with this shit" and either were successful enough to enter early retirement or transition to related industries. You lose the experience that makes a "three year game" possible. Sometimes that is a high profile creative lead. But more often that is the people who don't get to go on stage at the keighleys but who are interpreting said creative leads and actually making the mechanics and story beats we all love.

Fuck EA. They are a horrible company that has mismanaged so many IPs and engaged in decades of worker abuse. But understand that we are also likely losing hundreds, if not thousands, of experienced game developers which will make future games from other studios worse.

And before people say "fuck that, I like indie games": Clair Obscur is the poster child of that and for very good reason. Maybe do some research as to who those core 30 people are (hint: They mostly were head hunted from Ubi et al) and where their money came from. And then think about what happens when there aren't major studios to head hunt from.

How many times do the developers of Baldur's Gate 3 need to explain the basics of how to make a popular game and we all treat it like deep wisdom?

Not that there's anything wrong with what they're saying. I just feel like it only sounds like deep wisdom because the industry is so fucking broken.

It's weird to me that game devs don't experiment with alternative organizational structures more often, kind of like Motion Twin; or how they're only just beginning to unionize in some places. The "capital" in game development is a little bit computer hardware, but otherwise the vast majority of value in a game design studio is the human beings and their talent and skills.

I cannot think of any other industry where the workers are more essential, and management more superfluous and replaceable.

The fuck he talking about? Obviously it has worked before. How else can you explain yearly COD releases making billions in revenue?

That it's a losing strategy in the long term was always obvious, but get this: whomever's in charge only cares about the numbers of the following quarter. That the company will go under in 10 years is literally not his problem, that's the next schmoe's problem.

Yeah, but have you considered the fact that this gives Saudi Arabia &/or Jared Kushner "anti-cheat" level access to millions & millions of PCs in the USA?

That is reason enough to never buy another EA game.

Capitalism doesn't really see building a well treated highly compensated team of exceptional high skill workers as consistently generating more money for them.

For this to work you need a few people at the helm who actually give a shit about long term results. Capital wants bigger numbers with each earnings report which doesn't always happen with gaming.

I for one have no comprehension as to how blizzard has maintained it's following, but it's a great example for how even the best companies can turn to shit by shareholder/board member directions. The money got too big with WoW.

Tobias Funke "But it just might work this time!"

Is this what experts generally refer to as the “Fucking Around” phase?

they gotta make that 55b back now

I mean, all due respect, to the guy, but this doesn't go down until 2027. At least give them a minute to get in the position where they could feasibly fuck up before you berate them for it.

If you look at the Internet they are apparently definitely dismantling the company to sell the pieces but also definitely continuing to make what they make but with MAGA politics but also as a muslim theocracy and trimming down and speeding up but also doubling down on live service at the same time somehow.

And man, one or multiple of those may happen, but almost certainly not all of them and none have happened yet. Given how much of a public-ass public company chasing short term gains they've been historically I can't help but think there's a fair amount of projection going on.

Here's my stance: I have no idea what this means and I have no idea what they're going to do. This is all weird and I have zero frame of reference for how the new owners are going to gel with that organization or what their new objectives are going to be when compared to the old "make more money this quarter than last quarter" thing.

But Larian themselves released a buggy mess even with early access for 3 years? Why did they rush it out?

Fuck EA and AAA in general, but like practice what you preach Swen. You aren't the small studio you think you are anymore, you have nearly 500 employees.

Seems kinda stupid to say right after EA just made $55 billion doing exactly that.