Baldur's Gate 3 devs strikes again, As Larian Continues Blasting Greedy Publishers

[@MrHulthen]

Larian shows yet again why they're the most based studio in the industry. Correction: Larian helped devs out of St. Petersburg in Russia, not Ukraine. Original interview - www.gamefile.news/p/baldurs-gate-iii-interview-michael-douse IGN Article: nordic.ign.com/duplicate-baldurs-gate-3/80857/news/baldurs-gate-3-dev-larians-publishing-director-calls-games-industry-an-avoidable-fck-up

[@VictoriaBrz]

I remember when CD Projekt used to do that after Witcher 3.....hoping Larian does not follow the same path.....

[@HH-hd7nd]

One correction: They didn't get developers out of Ukraine - they got them out of Russia. The studio was based in St. Petersburg. As Swen said in an interview more or less no one of the people working at the St. Petersburg studio supported the war, some had friends and family in Ukraine. What way too many people forget is that the war absolutely doesn't have universal support in Russia. According to several studies more than 40 % of the russian population oppose the war.

[@MrHulthen]

​@@HH-hd7nd thanks for the correction!

[@anotherelvis]

Does Larian still employ people in Russia?

[@HH-hd7nd]

@@anotherelvis I don't think so. They closed the studio in St. Petersburg and moved all of their employees who wanted to leave Russia (which was most of them) to the EU.

[@bonedrone9869]

As someone who lost their job in a mass layoff due to a clueless CEO mismanaging budgets, I wish more companies were like Larian.

[@OctopusOwl]

Seriously. I wish more would be like Larian, cus living through the layoffs and constant turmoil is not sustainable

[@justsomeguy5103]

Silicon valley seems to be suffering from the total lack of job security that plagues the US. European companies cannot legally lay off people as quickly or easily as in North America. If they have a temrporary need, external consultants is the way to go, because you better prepare for anyone you hire to stay around for years.

[@HeribertoEstolano]

@@justsomeguy5103 That's what I came to Say. Of course Ubisoft and CD Projekt RED are game companies that behave like USA companies in their predatory manner and are from games Industries; but Larian is more of an European company through and through. They threat their employees like human beings.

[@goblincomic4522]

Lot of company used to be like Larian until large cooperation involve . Blizzard back in the day way differ from acti-blizzard . Same go for konami , bioware , even EA . when the ceo from wall street get involve every thing turn shit

[@MeredithPutvin]

Across Multiple industries...

[@1957DLT]

Regarding BG3's Patch Notes: give the writer(s) a damn prize for the most entertaining patch notes to read. I don't know about anyone else, but I usually approach patch note info with a 'scan, scan, uh-huh yay, scan, scan, done'. Larian's patch notes are whole gd novel of fun.

[@Kagane1001]

I never read them and I thank you for enriching my life

[@Viper3220]

The loss of institutional knowledge is a huge downside. It's really costly to train people over and over.

[@nayber2352]

it's not even just about training people, when you lose people, unless things are amazingly documented (which they never are) you lose the understanding of stuff, so on top of retraining, people need to spend time figuring out how things work, and trying to figure out the intentions of the original dev This usually leads to spaghetti code too

[@beccangavin]

This is so true. I started getting emails from a department in Florida a couple of months ago. I’m in Arizona and I support just five locations on the west coast and the emails are coming from a corporate department completely unrelated to the job I actually do. It turns out, I’m the only person left with even a modicum of knowledge about this department on the other side of the country. I asked how they got my name and I’m just the only name they had on file. They eliminated the people that actually do the task they needed me to do and now they have to figure out how to get it done. Problem is, I don’t have access to do what they need and everyone I would have asked has already also been reallocated. It’s really stupid.

[@darthcygnus7692]

47 years old here: i lived in the golden era of gaming: when games where made for gamers, not for their wallets. Starting with commodore 16, then pc and different consoles, and let's not forget Arcades, i lived trought the amazing evolution of gaming and see it's downfall in the latest years. I've seen EA, Activision, Blizzard and many more destroyng the best developers team ever existed, trhowing their works and experience out of the window. Larian is what gaming was back then, and what should become again!

[@shadowcastyt]

An indie studio with a AAA budget completely changed the game and the big AAA publishers and devs are shook

[@nicholasmotz6362]

Changed the game? Wtf are you talking about? Things havent changed at all. In fact I’d argue Larian is no better then the rest. BG3 was pushed out rushed and barely finished. And Larian already said that there won’t be any new content for the game. Meaning this goty (lol) wont even get ONE dlc. How is that a move in the right direction. Stfu. They got a little bit of fame and are using it to push their own agendas. Which dont benefit gamers at all. Wake up. Stolkholm syndrome at its finest.

[@hornantuutti5157]

Hmm i played it on launch with steam deck. Secont playtrough with desktop. No issues or major bugs. + paying for dlc's is retarded pretty much. They delivered full game with replayability as there is alot to discover. i would easily call it a true AAA game.

[@pingada07]

​@@nicholasmotz6362 i played since EA. Zero issues or major bugs. I don't know what you say

[@Rowant-sh7vm]

@@nicholasmotz6362 they released a romance update with new endings like literally 3 weeks ago so they are continuing to make content for the game and as much as i would love a dlc I'm happy that it is a complete game that doesn't really need it and as for it being rushed out ,it certainly doesn't look that way when you compare it to a title like starfield or city skylines 2

[@vadersfist1775]

@@nicholasmotz6362 that‘s actually the main point. They don‘t want to make a dlc as they wanted to launch a full game without us having to spend more money on the game. They could do a free dlc but the problem is that it would be expensive and if they make it paid dlc they violate their principles. So that‘s not an option. It‘s the downside that comes with setting high principles. The other problem is handling higher levels of the DnD classes as they start to get quite quite broken between level 12 and 20. Especially the Wish spell would be quite problematic to handle. Of course they could keep the maximum level, but I they are to passionate about it to go for a half-hearted approach. It’s better to keep the game like it is

[@ninja1man4u]

I hope larian doesn't end up like CDPR. I remember this sorta thing happened with them too (talking negatively about other game publishers and the industry at large) before doing THE EXACT THING they lambasted the industry for doing. Have they announced any new projects

[@nhurka2016]

It could happen, but their leadership and the choices weve seen them make (Like walking away from D&D) leads me to believe they are, for now, genuinely honest about their games and intentions

[@flying-magpie]

At least CDRP actually kept working on the game and now people love it Most companies would just leave it to crash and burn

[@MrBrutalicus]

If people stop putting others on high pedistals and almost worship them in the first place the fall wont be that high. Take things for what they are.

[@SquidgyPixel]

It's less likely considering Swen has had quite humbling experiences happen to him, when Larian was on the brink of bankruptcy before D:OS, he was living in his car.

[@hyperbannana9262]

Well tbf cdpr is ultimately a corporation so when they get pushed by shareholders they kinda have to listen, larian studios doesn't have this issue

[@aersla1731]

Swen is the type of boss you want to work for. Such a shame we don't get more leadership like him in companies. I mean to be fair Larian is an independent company so it's a bit of a difference in structure. Here hoping they continue to make good games, and being a source of positivity in the gaming dev space.

[@thseed7]

Larian has full on earned their fandom. Baldur's Gate 3 is great, but Swen roasting all of the worst parts of the gaming industry is phenomenal. What a novel idea "Businesses should take care of their employees over the extra 1.3% in earnings stockholders would have gotten I'd we fired them, abused them, burned down their homes and ate their first born and charged them a subscription fee to watch" approach that most developers take nowadays. Yes, you can make more money, but do you need to if it hurts employees and consumers?

[@raphaelw8s4u]

Makes one really want to work at Larian. They speak facts and show that there is another way. Leading by example.

[@8wayz2shine]

Just a small clarification - Larian had to evacuate their employees from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Not because it was invaded but because of the sanctions imposed on Russia and possibly some of the new laws that came into force in Russia as well. Also apparently they helped evacuate a family member of one of their employees from Ukraine.

[@PartiesInTheAfterlife]

Let’s just call a spade a spade. The issue is that Hasbro doesn’t care about its properties and acquisitions like Wizards of the Coast (D&D), tossing relationships like with Larian completely in the trash after they literally injected a shot in the arm to a property that was being demolished by the owners.

[@MetroPlexGamer]

Baldur's Gate 3 is what Dragon Age Inquisition should've been years ago. Even though Baldur's Gate 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition both won Game of The Year Awards, it's Larian Studio that comes up on top as an examplary game studio and sets the bar higher. Bioware is sweating by now and the pressure to keep up with Larian Studio is imminent when Dragon Age Dreadwolf is up for release sometime next year or in 2027. We'll see if Bioware delivers.

[@dzejrid]

0:20-0:24 I am amazed that we live in times where this is considered as some sort of amazing and unorthodox practice that needs to be highlighted. What a horrible place the industry has become over the past 20 years.

[@KartiacKID]

I pray to god that Larian never goes public

[@bigeststarspark]

so making a good quality game which is based on players likings and preferences instead of putting dislikeble things could insure a game's success? who would've thought...

[@ForDerrick]

Biggest difference I’ve seen between Larian and other studios is their quality control measures ie. lengthy open beta, maintaining a strong and consistent staff, having genuine interest in the product. They develop games to completion, release new features for their existing games at little to no cost to the consumer, and cover their ass for everyone on the project. They love what they do, and it really shows

[@hibye52930]

Great video, Hulthen. One thing though: Vinke didn't say that the next game will be bigger than BG 3. He made a comment about an "RPG to dwarf them all" but that was a long-term goal for the company. He's said he wants to do something smaller scale for their next project.

[@Vaytra]

Thanks for going through this! It's nice to see some dialogue - not just about how the gaming industry is sucking - but also about how it can be fixed. Some people need to lead the way to something better. It's nice to see some independent studios coming out to do just that, and I will gladly put my money in their pockets as they do. Support companies operating in better ways than status quo, and we will see more of it - both because people genuinely want to be better, and also because some will just want to follow the money trend... either way, the gaming industry can be better than it is now - for gamers and employees.

[@Delogros]

They are kinda what Bioware used to be but hasn't been for quite a while now

[@burghler]

The difference is that Larian is a privately-held company and doesn't have to worry about quarterly earnings and stockholders staring over their shoulders. It's all down to Swen Vincke; I hope his run of luck holds out. He seems like a savvy player.

[@aaronwalsh8469]

Larian is 30% owned by Tencent

[@fenrirsilver6441]

At the moment, my favorite companies which have gotten at least AAA attention(whatever that means) would be Larian, FromSoft, and SuperGiant.

[@eliasvernieri]

Just for anyone who is interested in this ( very very niche comment) Larian is an Agile company in the sense that they use Agile methodologies ( like scrum) for all the company.

[@gamerscomplete]

and they still managed to complete a good game even despite using such an abysmal development methodology, pretty impressive!

[@chinaman1]

Things like scrum is nonsense. People think it helps with team building but majority of the time it's a waste of time.

[@torkleyy9168]

idk about scrum, imo they succeeded despite not because of that. but in any case, the best Agile framework cannot fix bad management

[@dopaminedrought395]

@@torkleyy9168 you hit the nail on the head. it's the management, not the framework. and lol at "very very niche comment" when Agile is such a well known technique

[@Charles_Bro-son]

Man, I hope Larian can hold their ground!

[@robwo1821]

Larian has been rocking since Divinity Original Sin. BG3 just brought them to the top of everyone's perception. I am glad. It is good for the industry.

[@GabrielBadwolf]

Honestly it can be said about a lot of companies that make dumb decisions once they get too big. My brother for example worked 3rd line tech support for a huge company that did back end internet stuff. He worked there quite a while and by policy from the company they couldn’t give him a raise any higher than what he was getting. So he left to get a better paying job elsewhere. He was the only one at the company who could do certain things because it was using older equipment or that he’d been known to be good at fixing issues because he was good at thinking outside the box. So it was chaos that two years later they’re still putting fires out from. They had to replace him with two contractors that cost the company twice what they paid him each.

[@imperialspacemarine1539]

larian studios: "use money with foresight 4head" every publisher ever: "no. we like gambling away money and make you suffer for it"

[@justsomeguy5103]

Are these companies by any chance owned by the same money bags that believe anyone who is struggling financially is simply suffering from excessive consumption of lattes?

[@imperialspacemarine1539]

@@justsomeguy5103 you mean the same money bags that think its cool to create anti-holmless architecture?

[@David25512]

Good for Larian, however I'm still annoyed they won't take my money for dlc. Like c'mon bro, charge me 69.99 and I'd buy it. I just want proper endings, not like my actual campaigns that never finish 😮‍💨

[@barcster2003]

My guess is that looked at dealing with Hasbro and said you know what we will just make another good game than worry about this. I totally wanted subclasses but i doubt it will happen now.

[@andyt1313]

I think one of the most significant things Larian has done is to reset expectations in millions of gamers minds. Gamers have been fed shit for so long that they either forgot what high quality is or they were too young to even know what hight quality was.

[@Draconiangem]

Want a successful game, give the players what they want. Simple. Not rocket science. The formula works.

[@phant0mdummy]

Has anyone noted the '20 dollar shipping' for the physical edition? There is no other shipping option, and it's an absurd scheme. Just sell the damn physical edition for 100 dollars if you want to do that, don't pretend it is 80 and then have 20 flat rate shipping only... the place it ships from is less than 2 hours from my house! So I gotta pay 20 to ship it here and so does everyone else who lives farther? Total BS, and the actual shipping isn't more than 10 so they're just pocketing the rest like an ebay dealer.

[@justyce_yt]

Financial responsibility? Never heard of it 🤓

[@MrHulthen]

Lmao

[@sarahnachtrose]

I don't understand how firing experienced staff can be profitable for the company when hiring new staff is sooo much more expensive later on. As far as I have heard, it is very difficult to get good staff in the USA. There is a whole industry that specialises in recruiting staff. It can cost tens of thousands if not more than a hundred thousand dollars to place a new employee. Just for recruitment fees.

[@ANPC-pi9vu]

It's a numbers game to manipulate their stats for stock market bullshit.

[@davidglenn2739]

I was just talking to my boss today about retaining talent and although it's at the project level, not the enterprise level, it take anywhere from 6 months to a year to train people up on how a project or product works, and that's not even to an expert level. When you put $$$ before anything else, it actually costs you more in the long run.

[@naenre21]

I was at a small company most of last year and they are mostly a seasonal job depending on weather. Pay is okay. Benefits are rather on the poor side with a very high deductible. You're treated like crap unless the big wigs are around. The big wigs spout pretty words and ethics but lay off lots of rank and file every winter. I asked 3 times to discuss a raise and was blown off...so I found a new job right before xmas but I decided to wait til after the first to move on. They laid me off right on Dec 31 lol. They don't care about talent or people that show up. Companies big or small just want someone that shows up and keeps their mouth shut, talent does not matter. I wish I learned this 20 plus years ago. Though on the upside my new job is 4 blocks from my house and pays me 25% more!

[@IsaacAutumn]

Been made redundant a few days ago by a large game selling company recently based on their terrible business practices. A lot of the time the people at the bottom of the company see so many problems that are ignored by higher ups. Every time I’ve try to help things and offer perspective its shut down. Its a pattern that wont be broken until all the companies fail and are done.

[@LindyMover]

Several was to see the business model.. For example, movies are temporary corporations. Get investors, hire a bunch of talented people, make the product, and then the company is dissolved. During that process there are Producers (CEO), managers, HR, lawyers, sales, etc... everything a company would have. Most game studios make one game and then they go out of business.

[@00ddub]

Great video, thank you! If I had been lucky enough to work for a company like Larian Studios, I’d probably still be in the industry.

[@isaacpulido9586]

They honestly don't need dnd anymore, they proved time again that they can make great games. I'm sure the next game they produce will be very well received by the community

[@jeydaness]

As someone who literally experienced this in the game industry, I agree so much with him. People like him rarely end up at his position though, or rarely survive that position with a personality like his. I sincerely hope it changes

[@PandemoniumGameDev]

It's sad that these publishers and companies in general are forgetting such basic things like taking care or their employees and not firing them ASAP when profits start to go down. Props to Larian though, I hope more game dev studios start taking their path.

[@odenmora7574]

We got duped by CDPR thinking they were the black sheep of the games industry only to show us they are exactly like everyone else. Larian are here making history and putting their hard work and success where their mouths are. They are all about working together. And putting their people and workers and talent over greed. As long as the people working at Larian are happy. Their games will always be a success. They’re amazing. And a breath of fresh air. I hope they stick around like this for a long time. And keeping giving the corporate games industry and higher ups the middle finger.

[@Twilightbill]

it always confuses me how these big companies don't do the most basic moral choices not just cause its the right thing but because it has the higher success for more long term financial game

[@samf.s.7731]

Remember the writers and actors strike last summer? The film industry was haemorrhaging millions of dollars on a daily basis, but they weren't willing to admit they were at fault. Sometimes you gotta wonder if it's greed, or if they're just stupid .. I've noticed that a lot of times it's the "stupid" that's the explanation.

[@brandongratta9040]

An all too common trend I'm glad some people are taking a stand against. You have Ubisoft's of the world upping price and saying it's because it's AAAA, dumping insane amounts of money into being the only ad you ever see, and then fire everyone that worked on the cash grab. Yet here are Indie devs constantly showing what is possible when creativity and enjoyment are put ahead of pure profit. I'm actually excited for the AAA game reckoning. it's gone on too long and i'm tired of every game becoming a bland open world task simulator that takes 100+ hrs to complete.

[@pennydreadfool]

Wow imagine your work relocating you to address a crisis instead of laying off and screwing you over in addition to dealing with the crisis. I’m not even a dev but I would be so loyal to a company like that.

[@rockowlgamer631]

Larian and some others are the standard that ALL game studios AND developers should follow as best as possible, I shouldn't have to pay $50 more just to get a finished game that I already paid $60. (or in Nintendo's case pay $70 for BotW 2.0 and have no DLC that expands the game for better QoL stuff). So far from what I've heard and seen Larian, Pocket Pair (maybe they're new so probably not), Ghost Ship Games are the three who keep players in mind when they make their games.

[@grast5150]

No, companies do not layoff because others start to do it. Layoffs are fact of life as a contractor in the IT, Programming, and Game Development industries. I agree with Larion that some layoffs are due to lack of reserves OR lack of planning OR culture of company after every project to streamline their books. It could also be because the studio did not put time. MONEY, and effort into the next project or contract. This is called pursuit. It takes money to pay people to bid on future projects. These people are extra load on the current projects as they are cost center. What I am saying is that everyone in the contract gigs understands this reality. I personally in gaming and IT work over the last 35 years have been laid off 7 times. Every time I knew it was coming and had prepared. Every time, My next job allowed me to get a higher pay scale significantly based on work from the prior job. If I had stayed at the same company for 35 years, I would NOT BE MAKING AS MUCH MONEY. So, layoffs are a reality. Brain drain is a reality in a company. The goal should be to retain the relationship with the employees in a postiive matter and look for them to come back later with more skill and experience. I have worked for the same contracting company 3 times. Each time I work, finish project, laid-off, go somewhere else, when that ends, I go back to check this company, and the cycle repeats. There is a reason it is called CONTRACTING.

[@TheTraveler980]

Larian can brag after they fix Act 3 of BG3 pertaining to quests and a certain combat encounter at a fireworks store.

[@gdjets]

This speech should be told to all businesses. Not just gaming! Well done Larian!

[@GiantTalkingTree]

I think mainly it was because of the massive layoff at wizards of the coast which pretty much axed any future for the game as all his contacts there were gone.

[@Vulver]

I remember the same hype for CD Project RED and most of the game developer studios I remember 15 years back that made at least one masterpiece. If they weren't swallowed by larger companies, they turned into greedy corporations themselves or just went dark. Don't ever be a fan of company. Be a fan of product or specific way of doing things as people change jobs. The company that did someting good one year can spit you in the face few years later or they pretend to be cool just to gain as many potential investors as possible before going public. Then things will go south surely. Baldur's Gate 3 is a good game but come on people. Don't be that naive. How many times does someone have to be deceived to reach any conclusions in life?

[@Childofbhaal]

I’m a big fan of From Software. They’ve never disappointed

[@glowinTHX]

Actually, the layoffs create a chain reaction on employees as well. People won't do their best, won't feel safe and motivated if they can be fired either way, regardless of how well the product they created performed. This is why loyalty doesn't exist anymore in companies, this is why smaller studios with small budgets from the past created the masterpieces. There is a before and after when silent quitting became a thing.

[@michelletoni3067]

I am concerned & nobody is really talking about this, back in the 70’s, their were floods of games & when they flooded the market with games that are a lesser quality, the entire thing almost went belly up, if not for Nintendo showing up at the right time, to basically save the gaming industry, Its getting harder and harder, to find the good games, from these indie, kind of games or lesser quality, to be nice & I hope we don’t see a repeat, of the 70’s.

[@austinbrooks9676]

Larian should acquire some of the people that are laid off from well known devs and have them make the games that used to be what made the companies worth buying from

[@delta-gg]

Baldur's Gate 3 is Game of the year. It's Game of the decade. It's the single best game I've played over the last 40 years, and I've played everything. Thankyou Larian!

[@AlanStrandbygaard]

By keeping and maintaining the staff Larian will also be able to produce the same kind of content everyone is so fond of. You will probably see the same elements done in the same way as always. That gives players confidence and makes them 'relax'. There's nothing like coming home after a long vacation and find everything as it should be, right?

[@buffalosoldier2623]

We said the same thing about CD Project Red.

[@samf.s.7731]

Time will tell though. And CDPR did patch the heck out of Cyberpunk... They went ahead and fixed their F up. While I don't think it should have launched in *that state* I do think that some devs would just ... Not care as long as they made money. They should have released it as a beta. That would have solved the issue. Don't promise something and don't deliver. BG3 was priced at 60 USD as a beta, but that's the thing, Larian was fully transparent about the product they were putting out into the world, that it wasn't the real game... Not the finished product.

[@bobowon5450]

im so happy his speech wasn't about wars that have nothing to do with the award show. Or social issues that have nothing to do with the award show. I don't mind when people give speeches about those topics when they're relevant but if I won a contest for "best cookies" and went on some tangent about ukraine that would strike me as extremely weird and jarring.

[@sackara]

Larian is what CDPR was a couple of years ago and what Blizzard was in the 90s and early 2000s. I'm so happy for them but after all those studios went to the dark side I'm just waiting until they too can no longer resist. This is not just gaming it's corporate greed sipping through every aspect of society like a pest that nobody can contain.

[@Katie-vv6ff]

Ya but him saying no dlc is a big problem too because of ending 🤦‍♀️

[@bobowon5450]

whats wrong with the ending? seemed fine to me

[@Katie-vv6ff]

@@bobowon5450 they showed withers saying till next time he calls for us because there's more to be done

[@Hoigwai]

Stock was never supposed to be this yearly flood of income. It was supposed to be a long-term investment that grows slowly over time in value and provides a very small income per year. The super-rich having millions of shares turned it into this bad idea of providing huge profits that drive up share prices and dividends that are incredibly unrealistic.

[@thomasmann9727]

I sat through the whole video, I want you to straight tell you that lamenting over lay of is dirt cheap and everyone who asked the question: "who was layed of" & started digging you realized something: Tip It has something to do with ESG loans and their re-negoatiaton as the lenders where forced to ask for higher interest from the studios. The only oddball is nintendo in which I not looked into.

[@jatwood9648]

The layoffs are a direct result of the pursuit of the cheap ESG money. Studios primarily hired based on demographics instead of merit. As a result, existing veteran devs had to pick up the slack, and corners had to be cut. Sometimes studips had to hire even more people (based on merit) in order to complete development. This resulted in studios having way too many employees. Thus comes the mass layoffs. The problem is that they still need the ESG money. That means the skilled people get laid off instead of the DEI hires.

[@debrickashaw9387]

The video game industry NEEDS to unionize. they wouldn't be treating developers like this if they had severence packages and sane worklaws. I love Larian because you can tell that Swen Vincke is an actual gamer who still has passion, which is a rare thing for lead developers these days. And he treats his employes well and with respect. Imagine what kind of games you can create and the reputation your studio can cultivate when you are not an absolute piece of shit *cough* ubisoft- *cough* blizzard- *cough* EA *cough* Microsoft etc etc

[@davidglenn2739]

I think a great comparison to see coming up will be the success of Ubisoft's new Star Wars game. It may end up being a commercial success, but I imagine not a critical one. Ubisoft doesn't get their players any more.

[@mr.fghjkl4871]

All I know is that any games that are released have bugs and need patchs. But every game should carry the standard of being playable and released on proper deadlines. I don’t need more content just good content!

[@user-ii9bl6de2j]

A Good AI can do the work of fifty developers, and artists. Layoffs in gaming are going to get worse as AI expands. The truth is your mechanic has better job prospects than any white collar degree. Until we have cheap robots, then every single person is f'ed.

[@Pugiron]

Remember how good CD Projekt Red's rep was before Cyberpunk?

[@justinp9170]

As much as people love to shit on other devs it's rarely the fault of devs themselves. It's the number crunchers and bean counters who want to please shareholders that ruin what we love as gamers. They want to use tried and true game mechanics that any novice can pick up and understand to maximize potential buyers and player base. Want to include any kind of monetization after the game's initial purchase to further increase revenue and push out the game to the public in the most fragile state of "completion" with the mindset that it can get patched later (unless it does completely terrible on launch, which could've been avoided if the game wasn't rushed out in the first place). With all of these factors playing against the dev team, they still get punished with layoffs and the general public hating them for the broken game.

[@anthonymorris1360]

Appreciated this video, many thanks. Larian, the last bastion of honest deveopment.

[@shiftstart]

Do you remember Dragon Age: Origin? It came as a storm and went away with a whimper.

[@Jote_09]

4:25 I find it hilarious that this modded head is the most iconic head in the game, my tav also uses it

[@ANPC-pi9vu]

Yeah, the peerson heading the charactor creator development made some weird choices. Still decent but one of the weaker aspects of the game... that and the player character's animations and motion caps are so over acted and awkward sometimes.

[@Jote_09]

@@ANPC-pi9vu the game has two downsides: not enough pretty heads and drow prostitute scene is all dark

[@frenchie_maple]

I knew that BG3 would shake up the market, but would have never imagined (or hoped) for such a revolution! Much love to Larian for using their newfound influence to promote positive changes in the industry

[@musicilike69]

Wise words and blunt from the CEO.

[@Kvitravn.]

BG3 is infact NOT a singleplayer game. BG3 is a Co-Op Game. And it is beautiful. i bought it, i tried it, i got two of my mates to buy it, we play together.

[@OGWardenofMyHeart]

Looks at BioWare. Fires all of its senior staff last year and then this year needs to start to hire people again......

[@critcal]

So refreshing. Thanks for sharing this. Now if I could just find people to play bg3 with.

[@SamuraiShampoo77]

bg3 exceeds almost every game I've ever played in my 24 years on this planet and the fact the studio behind it has integrity is amazing

[@vidar5762]

Publicly traded companies are set not up to incentivize quality production. Thats not the point

[@Johnny_Tambourine]

"Mr Vincke, The ESG Industrial Complex calling on line 2" - Mr Vincke's Secretary

[@michaelmcnamara1839]

Dammit, this guy is putting me in danger of starting to believe in a company again!

[@SaiyanKnight]

I'll tell you what, delivering a "full product" sure is a spicy way to refer to a game with a six-year development cycle, three-year early access period, AND THEN 6 core patches and 25 hotfixes with literally several thousands of bugfixes that still has dead items, poorly-functioning menus, crash issues on modern hardware/software, one of the least free-form Character Creators of any modern title devoid of sliders or hex-value selectors... I've got about 250 hours on record right now, most of which is redoing stuff from Act 1 and Act 2 because of routinely deleted save-data. Like, it just blows me mind to stumble across content like this absolutely stroking Larian Studios-- a company of over 470 people across 7 studios-- who've outwardly stated how excited and relieved they are to not be working on DLC for a game they're clearly tired of working on. A game where item and spell descriptions are so clearly misleading, level-up menus have a startling lack of clarity, most of the choices you make in the course of the game are largely irrelevant (i.e. kill the tiefs, or save the tiefs, but they're 90% dead anyways so YOLO. i.e. the startling lack of endings, even compared to things like Chrono Trigger from nearly 30 years ago. i.e. "Rogue" and "Barbarian" and "Arcane" special dialogue choices offer about half a sentence of new dialogue and then jam you back on the same path you would have gotten regardless of class, race, etc.). I'm just as much a proponent of killing shitty microtransactions as anyone else, rest assured, but absolutely gawk-gawk Grapefruit Method 9000™-ing the studio for this 80% complete game seems like such a caustic, misguided course-correction in the opposite direction.

[@erinwhitlock7166]

These companies are so big and only want more and more money it’s really scary….

[@Elite_Tauren_Chieftain]

Wow. Larian HELPED move out devs from Ukraine instead of just firing them, that’s just… To see a company which values its workers more than money, that’s very refreshing, I’ve seen something like this only one time, in my parents company, and that was because it’s a relatively small family/friendship run business, not like some larian-level transnational company. This is what a corporation should mean when they tell you bulls**t like “a company is a family”. I don’t like this word very much, but it’s just very fit to say that Larian Studios is a true gigachad

[@mitchjames9350]

My biggest concern with Larian is there partly owned by Tencent.

[@alanhamilton3789]

I want to give Larian Studios more money.

[@kylepennington-hirth9129]

It's like, "Thank you for helping us produce this great game, but yeah we don't need you anymore so bye." Glad Larian is different.

[@JaxonianRex]

We’re all glorifying him for doing this, but at the same time, I definitely feel like there are things in the game that could still be improved, such as act 2 having almost nothing to it compared to act 1 and 3. I also don’t understand how fighting Orin or gortash did not feel anywhere near as exciting as fighting kethric thorm, it felt like kethric thorm should have been the last netherstone you got. Also, Karlach’s endings are still not great, she deserves at least one good ending.

[@Cristbell76]

❤ thank you for posting this

[@JoeyCentral]

Imagine if Larian Studios and Fromsoftware teamed up? That would literally revolutionize the entire gaming industry.

[@Zelorp]

No thanks. I don’t want a crappy Fromsoft game getting in the way of my Larian game.

[@JoeyCentral]

@@Zelorp sounds like you have something called skill issue

[@Medieval_Arpad_cooks]

this is jusr traditional old fashioned business sense.

[@JasperPerri]

I hope they give us another dragon knight rpg.

[@Oozaru85]

I swear, if they made the combat action based instead of turn based, BG3 wouldve been even more successful.

[@davequaschnick2559]

game devs = tv/movie crews. So not sure why folks are shocked when the layoffs come around

[@OctopusOwl]

Except that the structure of gaming studios and the work done isn’t the same as the project based crews in movies/tv. So the layoffs don’t have to happen.

[@IQISHIKI]

I always look what people do instead of only listen to what they say, Larian says one thing and does exactly the thing they said thats how you know they dont try to bullshit you

[@Gilgwathir]

Building a long-term sustainable business? Pffft... are you mad bro? That would involve actually caring about anything else than money and actually doing my job as a manager. I can't be asked to do that. I'm a manager for a reason.

[@Silas_Kow]

A complete game, with a complete experience for a full price. Thank god

[@dustinhersey7449]

Larian still got shafted during production and never got to implement the final stage, upper city. That’s the real reason they aren’t doing anymore Balder’s Gate content. They had zero issue adding content to Divinity 2, but because the got pushed to finish by the higher ups they said f it and they won’t do anymore after.

[@stephenhahn8284]

Can’t believe how much I enjoy this game and the d&d universe

[@darthmocap]

Larian is the only thing I follow on Steam.