I love BG3 to death. But I also don’t want Larian to become the next EA under the yoke of some Hasbro/WoTC for BG4/5/6/7. I hope they continue to make their own games and forge their own path, with little to no reliance on megacorps. Their Divinity series is a treasure in it’s own right, and they said their next small projects are getting them excited.
“this game is a gold mine! It’s being underutilised at the moment, let’s improve the profitability with some in-game purchasable items and a subscription for bonus content”
Steam could absolutely tamp down on this, by changing early access refund policy to be more restrictive.
Early access money should not be guaranteed. If someone wants a refund outside of the two hour or whatever game time they should get most of their money back. The timer should also reset at release, and players get a full refund if the gameplay isn't what was promised.
I don’t think they really can. Larian has creative control over the project itself, Hasbro can’t do much beyond input regarding DnD-specific things. Hasbro can try to milk DnD (as they have been doing), but this won’t affect BG3.
This is an interesting question actually. From what I read, larian has been screwed by producers many times in its past, so they should be aware of these kind of problems. It all depends 9n the contract hasbro and larian have. And if hasbro is as stupid as Microsoft, larian probably has a favorable deal.
It sucks, because I want to buy this game, but I refuse to give WotC/Hasbro money, and I don't want to pirate it because I want to support Larian.
It really sucks.
Do Larian deserve your money less because they licensed trademarks from a company that considered and then backed down from a license change? And for this you’ll rob yourself of a fantastic experience? What a strange value system. Wait until you find out how they made sausages, or your phone.
I will continue to buy stuff that Hasbro has licensed to people who care about the games they make even if Hasbro indirectly profits from it to show support for doing it right. Like the DnD movie and BG3, but not Beyond or the tabletop stuff until they reverse course on those.
If nothing else there is an opportunity for Hasbro to catch on at some point and the people they license to get to make quality stuff to enjoy in the meantime. It isn't like Hasbro is Nestlé and ruining countries.
Corporate isn’t going to take away the lessons we might hope. Folks at corporate at going to ask things like, “how much money was left on the table?” They can only fuck things up through paying attention.
The funny thing is I (and probably many others) didn’t even consider pirating it. It had great reviews and was readily available pretty much everywhere without any obvious drawbacks. So I spent full price for it.
My point; DRM doesn’t matter if you produce and sell your game in a consumer friendly way.
I’m curious to see if other CRPGs also had big revenue increases from BG3’s success. After beating it I’ve bought Divinity Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium, Pathfinder WotR, and Pillars of Eternity II so far. I had never paid attention to the genre before and now I am deep into it.
I bought that on the GOG Anniversary Sale pretty much because I finished BG3 and was in the mood for something new but similar. Hadn’t paid any attention to the Dragon Age franchise before.
I’m amazed at not only how well it holds up, but how much inspiration BG3 seems to have taken from it.
Larian are really the only ones that play nice with a controller.
I understand that a lot of people play at literal desktops and prefer mouse/keyboard, but a lot more (regardless of PC split, it's also almost all console owners) would rather play with a controller. Having an official control scheme for one is meaningful to broad adoption.
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