Maybe AAA games just don’t need to be as large or sprawling. Release one full campaign with everything you need included in the price. Then if it does well offer dlc.
As the article points out, balder’s gate was early access for 3 years, sold at full price, and still has bugs. It’s not an exception to the rule, larian just delivered a good product that had good source material behind it.
For me, it’s definitely option 2. I really like the way Dark Souls handles it, where the armor sets looks the same on both genders, and everyone can be as tart or as modest as they like.
Maybe there’s a case to be made for a setting in BG3 that pixelates the naughty bits, but looking through youtube comments on BG3 romance scenes (for science!), most people seem to think the nudity is funny more than anything else. The few complaints about nudity really seem to be about the fact that they have to look at a dick/gay couple, which i don’t have too much sympathy for.
Are people really mad about nudity, or are they just mad that it’s not all het nudity?
Edit: ok so after some research, looks like full nudity is an optional setting, and all body models (male or female) can have dicks or vulvas. Which makes me think there’s an anti trans component to complaints as well.
PC gaming took off in the 90s. I'm not clear on the history of consoles but I'm wondering if they became widespread in the 80s? Having these devices at home probably created a larger generation of gamers.
Gaming was "for boys" until very recently, and tbh the inclusion of women as the default audience for games is still a work in progress. Game protagonists are usually male, romance options usually assume the player is a straight man, even the quests and the way NPCs are written are colored by these assumptions.
Video games have gotten so much more complex in a very short amount of time. The storylines are richer, the writing and visual effects have gotten signifixlcantly better. Someone who has only experienced early arcade games or clicker mobile games wouldn't see gaming in general as a worthy hobby for adults.