How Baldur's Gate 3 Humbled AAA (And What's Next!)

[@BellularNews]

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[@GethWho]

875K now

[@bootdotdev]

So happy we can support the gaming community!!! So many gamers want to get into coding. Thanks Bellular :)

[@enderrzvx1461]

@@bootdotdev i havent checked the website yet but does one get a certification after its done or is this an app just to practice ?

[@bootdotdev]

@@enderrzvx1461 there are certificates for each course!

[@TheRealCaptainLavender]

DRM was always anti-user. Anyone who tells you different is trying to take money out of your wallet without earning it.

[@Regnier191]

It's even more now. Larian deserve this.

[@RubyRose23328]

Brought my Key from G2A. Would do it again

[@jeanschyso]

@@RubyRose23328 You may as well pirate the game if you're going to buy it on G2A

[@imawallass]

875,000 now... So great!

[@kaijuultimax9407]

@@RubyRose23328 G2A keys don't support the developer, shame on you

[@bgill7475]

It’s more and it’s not even counting GoG sales. It’s still going to come out on PS5 soon and then Xbox next year. Larian deserve all this success and more. They make fantastic games.

[@mightylink65]

Doing all this with no DRM sure puts a nail in all the piracy arguments.

[@luciusETRUR]

I dont think its to say piracy isn't a concern. Shareholders see it as lost money but indie/AA devs see it as a cost of doing business.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

People that buy will buy, people that pirate will pirate. As it is and will ever be.

[@dylanfae]

DRM is not a big hurdle if people want to pirate they will pirate@@luciusETRUR

[@Zero60133]

@@marcogenovesi8570 Yeah, they already did research on this. Some might wait a bit, but if they intended to buy it, they either did it, or are waiting for discounts, bug fixes, etc.. But you cannot explain this to higher ups they have their own "logic".

[@Eltener123]

@@luciusETRUR the vast vast majority of pirates either don't have a way of getting the content legally or can't afford to. In either case it isn't a lost sale

[@ight001]

This video is out of date, it is now at 875k concurrent players. It just keeps growing as word of mouth about how good Baldur's Gate 3 is just keeps growing Edit: Also there is no requirement to use steam or GOG to access the game. You can run the exe from the folder without having Internet connection or one of the aforementioned services turned on. In other words, you buy the game, you own it

[@JStack]

I never tell any of my friends to try a game because they're so subjective and our overlaps are limited. Anyone I know with an Xbox or decent PC I advised to check out BG3

[@Random_dud31]

Yeah. I really wonder why companys consider word of mouth a good way to market a game

[@CatManOfTaste]

​@@Random_dud31who do you trust more, your friends recommendations, or steam ads?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@CatManOfTaste Steam ads of course

[@moodswinggaming2972]

@@CatManOfTaste THIS. God its so good to read that as someone with a small company for 10 years. People always ask me why i dont pour money into marketing and i basically say what you just did. Nothing beats it for sure.

[@forsaken650]

Admitting that they (Game studios and publishers) are "dependent on the market" is such an underrated statement. The fact that SO MANY people willing to buy and support games that aren't full of micro transactions, battle passes or in game currencies, speaks to supplying the customer with what they are demanding. I am ecstatic to play Baldur's Gate 3 on PS5 when it releases in September and am leaning towards preordering the deluxe edition. Take my Money, you've earned it 🤩

[@hoacruix]

I purchased early access on PC trust me you will not regret it

[@bijacz9679]

There is so much depth and detail in this game, it's amazing

[@bobross8585]

But they aren't willing to buy games that have no microtransactions and shit. If you bought games solely on that, then Forspoken would've done extremely well.

[@caylarabdk8389]

The "industry standard" isn't just about making the most profit as possible, but also to fucking up every consumer. The people in power of the gaming companies are the same people in control of banking and media, their goal is to make your life as miserable as possible.

[@Centrioless]

Meanwhile, activision laughs with their billion dollar mtx business.

[@jaxonfreeman1756]

Just to updates, BG3 beat it first weekend high with a total of 875,343 concurrent players on Sunday. What a masterpiece this game is. Epic.

[@O-D-X]

And just imagine all the players playing without opening their Steam client and the GoG users(that is me). Guarantee that the concurrents were over 1 million.

[@bijacz9679]

I guess numbers are 2 times bigger if you count all pirates

[@miriamweller812]

And? that's not much for a decades old franchise that is overhyped by all the internet monkeys.

[@nightfears3005]

Wow! Number went up! So profound!

[@monalisa-bs4zs]

Yep, and 6 of the 7 titles above bg3 were steam exclusives at time of their concurrent player record.. lol. Steam dodgy af @@O-D-X

[@VioletElite4]

The fact that you can run the game without Steam open is awesome!!

[@Wimikk]

I can overlook minor inconveniences for a game as astoundingly good as this one. There are trash games you can play with Steam closed if that’s what you want 😂

[@SirDubbs]

@@WimikkThat’s not an inconvenience. It means that you own the game fully and can play it whenever and wherever you want without having to log into Steam…

[@MaximumCarnage-]

Wimikk I think the point was there is absolutely no DRM. Not even Steam's let alone something like Denovu. Meaning it's a joke to pirate and shows people will buy your game if it's good. Other devs implement Denovu that can ruin people's experience with older CPUs and just end up hurting their paying customers.

[@amanawolf9166]

@@MaximumCarnage- I swear I hate Denuvo so, SO much. It disgusts me that games are integrating this software like no tomorrow, some people even believing it's "uncrackable" when a 3rd world script-kiddie could crack the damn thing. Time and time again Denuvo has proven to have an influence on performance, but that's the "price" you pay anymore. I'm worried it'll get even worse where you have to register your street address, name, cellphone #, etc... in order to play some newer titles. Truth be told, I'm also in the belief, conspiracy theory BS here mind you, that developers are using Denuvo to watch people/stream their gameplay to computers. They do it to monitor gameplay, gather data about our play habits, and the like to use for market research. Oh, also, that horse-shit about Denuvo not being a backdoor to your computer system, BS. It is a backdoor like any other program.

[@patrickshaw411]

Do you need the larian launcher? I would rather skip that if possible

[@XionSteel]

Its the kind of game that makes you appreciate actually buying a game and owning it. It's not online only that can shutdown at any moment, not full of anti-cheats that'll bog down or potentially brick your system, and not a system that uses paid battle passes to give you more content. It's just a game that you can buy, install and just play from now until you die.

[@Ugouka12]

Just a clarification on your concern about the Mask of the Shapeshifter, it does not grant you access to the character creator at will. It gives you the disguise self spell at will, which is an effect that can be achieved through multiple other means (Feats, Classes, other items)

[@Nomadith]

Yes very important distinction, it's important to not conflate the two because some people will take it at face value and lambast larian for 'pay to win' behaviour, instead of it literally being a helmet that gives you a free charge of a level 1 spell.

[@mitchellhorton9382]

@@Nomadith also you can respec yourself anyway? I *accidentally* respecced talking to Bonesy

[@Nomadith]

@@mitchellhorton9382 respec class, not background, appearance etc. But aye ye. Is a good distinction to make - as whilst the class can be redone with withers (same for all your companions btw) you cannot alter appearance, background, race etc. Even hair and makeup are permanent.

[@MaximumCarnage-]

I did see a post on reddit today that a dev responded to a tweet asking to please allow character appearance changes after. He said things are being cooked so I guess it's coming.

[@Nomadith]

@@MaximumCarnage- I'd imagine or hope for something like a barber, or maybe the magic mirrors from DOS2

[@SirDubbs]

BG3 doesn’t have any DRM, including Steam DRM. So once you download the game, you can back up the game on another drive on in the cloud since the game can be launched directly from the EXE file without having Steam up and running. So you don’t own just a license, you own the actual game indefinitely.

[@eudyptes5046]

True, but I don't think you get an offline installer on steam, only on GOG.

[@jakobebroke]

love to see the success of this game. i’ve never played a DnD game in my life but when i heard about all the commotion this game was causing in the AAA scene, i just had to buy it to show my support. went in not knowing what to expect and was blown away

[@yucarin]

BTW, Mask of the Shapeshifter doesn't grant you access to character, it allow you casting DISGUISE SELF spell to change your appearance.

[@brilobox2]

Which basically sets your appearance to the default character creation look for whatever race/gender you choose to disguise as.

[@rb98769]

Yeah, it's a level 1 spell.

[@Remilation]

This he and many others seem to think you can change your char appearance post launch getting their racial and passives and its not that it's a simple spell on a stick and you will find a ton of items like this and scolls with the same spell so its in no way a big deal.

[@thephilvz]

It synergizes well with a ring I found that grants 1D4 bonus to all saving throws provided you're disguised. Also lets you crawl in a few holes if you don't have a small race companion.

[@Deffekas]

Mask of shapesifter is DOS:2 item and its works same way in there

[@RazkilZ]

Just wanted to say, the mask does NOT give access to character creation, it allows you to cast the "Disguise" spell as much as you want, effectively. Still somewhat good, but you can't customize the way you look, you just get a default Drow if you swap to Drow for example.

[@CharterForGaming]

Fun fact, they're all the default looks of the race when you open CC

[@sokar_rostau]

@@CharterForGaming I was surprised the other night, when I used the Human Female (Half-Elf?) disguise, to find that it turned my character into the black Paladin(?) girl from the trailers. I thought it was a clever way to get lots of footage from a single playthrough and make it look like it's from many.

[@cernunnos_lives]

I hope the company that owns D&D (Wizards of the Coast) take notes from Larians success. And why this happened. Ideally they would change their leadership. But that'll never happen.Their CEO is from the world of micro transaction hell and live service. And she will run that company into the ground. Being close to your community is why this happened. The company were fans of what they were working on. Passion is why they made this. Making a living doing what you love is why we supported them.

[@aSinkingShip]

Check your facts Bellular: the mask of the shapechanger casts Disguise self on the user, which is a spell that allows you to change your character's race and gender, but gives you a random look. The spell is readily available to many caster classes. Early access backers got the in-game items for free.

[@CharterForGaming]

It's a reference, like the red prince painting and cape. Sybils dagger, the pirate hat. Love it

[@quququq7223]

it’s even better when you use it to talk to the dead of people you killed

[@SirDubbs]

I mean, them missing the minor details is not uncommon. You just get used to it.

[@cattailsunrise7176]

🧐

[@via_negativa6183]

These guys often get details like this wrong, cause they talk in depth about things some times they haven't actually experienced yet, some of his Diablo 4 coverage was a bit cringe, it's not a big deal though most of this channels commentary is solid.

[@rb98769]

Just a heads up about the Mask of the Shapeshifter, it's really not that unique. It allows you to freely cast a spell to change your appearance temporarily, which is equivalent to the Level 1 Illusion Spell Disguise Self. It's mostly a reference to the mask used by Fane in Original Sin 2.

[@Dandy671]

Larian showing what Triple A really means. Great job!

[@TheLordDracula]

Without even saying AAA. Reminds me of that line about actions speaking louder than words.

[@Swiftit6225]

It went up again to around 875,000 I think

[@simrock_]

While not wrong that it's the systems, it's not the entirety. Multiple different storylines that mesh with each other almost no matter which decisions you made before, to just swapping sides midway through in the conflict, you can do it. It's just the attention to detail, I've found a single outhouse, the character sits down and the game plays a custom sound effect, just the talking to animals bits with them having gone to the effort to script and record multiple conversation tracks, most characters reacting differently to how you treat them and their acquaintances. It just signalizes a "labor of love" effort from the devs, where the whole teams seems to have been very invested. It also didn't seem that they spent (*cough* wasted *cough*) half their budget on PR, marketing and hype like some other recent studios, as well as not having to integrate and mesh whichever predatory "systems" into the game that takes away from actual gameplay. Also it's a 10er less than "modern" AAA games, just to add insult to injury with AAA devs complaining that they had so much budget and time (boo hoo).

[@TheScrubExpress]

Larian has been my favorite studio since DOS. That game tickled an old school gamer itch I didn't know that I still had. Then they came back bigger and better with DOS2....and now they upped the stakes again with BG3. Honestly I'm almost worried for them because at some point they won't be able to meet wild community expectations based on past successes.

[@zuluhawk]

I have had Baldurs Gate since 2020 for the Beta, now over 100hrs in the full release. I'm going to buy it again on my PS5 because screw those other greedy money hungry studios. I'm gonna support Larian whenever and wherever I can.

[@jakquinn4207]

My group were talking about this last night! 100% buying at least 2 copies each to show support.

[@kyIethefish]

This game is such a breath of fresh air. I’m only 23 hours into it and barely reached the goblin camp in act one, I’m loving it lol

[@eshannumin]

I absolutely love pushing goblins off of a roof. Top tier gaming.

[@a_troll_]

I put almost 300 hours into the ea, played every race and class combo, played good and bad, and I'm buying the ps5 version as well.

[@agnuswulf]

Be prepared for a rough experience in the second to third act tho. Game's still great, but the bugs, gamebreaking ones even, begin to appear there. Also, more rough edges than never. Still a great game tho. Just remember to have back up save files.

[@erivon2234]

23 hours and you aren't too the goblin camp? Holy shit what are you doing? Lol. Didn't know there was that much to do before there

[@saltyexxer8253]

I think I had nearly 400 hours in early access.

[@jasoncopley1842]

For "expansion" i think it would be easier to do new act 1/2's where all roads lead to the same final act, adding new race/subclass options.

[@j0nnyism]

That’s what he said he might do although I imagine they’ll be considering working on a new ip. Hopefully sci-fi as that would be awesome and the subject needs a good one after starfield

[@tehbeernerd]

We saw this song and dance last year. Elden Ring made games media ask if the AAA companies would learn something from its success, and they responded by doing the same old thing, with some dev temper tantrums on social media thrown in for good measure. I’m not minimizing the impact of Baldur’s Gate 3 at all, but it will never resonate in the C suites of the big company HQs.

[@alfred9805]

Why would they, they're only looking at sales numbers. The C suits won't change if the customers don't change. Stop buying battle passes, stop buying skins, stop buying overmonitized games. With the sales Diablo 4 did there no way in hell blizzard will go any way different about Diablo 5

[@JoshDragRace0688]

Hopefully it resonates in the consumers minds, the companies will never change unless people stop buying their garbage.

[@matthewgiglia643]

My understanding is that economically speaking, it doesn't need to; the model of "we can absorb thirty massive failures if the one success ends up bringing in Fifa Ultimate Team revenue" still holds, at least for now. That's absolutely terrible, of course, but for the bigger companies whose only focus is the bottom line that's what they're gonna do until it doesn't work.

[@crisnmaryfam7344]

@@alfred9805 Sales and players are two different things. People (like myself) bought into d4 because it was "Diablo" and the art was amazing, and the story looked great.. then the game that supports all this is complete and utter hogwash. You cannot run a company off initial sales alone, that is dependent on those microtransactions to provide their Yachts....

[@addylameire1773]

The development cycle for these games is years long. Successes, even from last year, haven't had one cycle to impact game development.

[@YoWassupFresh]

I still fondly remember the days where "feature-complete" wasn't in the gaming lexicon... BUT, Larian did it right. Here's hoping other studios follow suit.

[@cocobort]

Ah, Baldur's Gate. I was there when the first 2 came out. They were highly acclaimed back then as well, often called best RPGs of all time, only you had to read about it in magazines. :) I am really greatful for their success on the new game and no microtransactions policy is soooo refreshing to see. So glad people are acknowledging it and supporting the devs!

[@elzorro.5923]

It's just hard to believe how games changed over the years. Old generations, like 2000-2010, had very good and polished games. Now that we have so many technological advances just a very few Game Developers manage to give polished games, no microtransaction or season pass crap. I hope this changes and hopefully focuss more in the players instead the money.

[@FriezaReturns00001]

Yeah they'll clown us for not giving them enough money I know from a gamerax video by Hawk it stated that MTX/Live-services are essentially, you get nothing out of them but you just pay into it constantly... as if its miniuman wage job what a joke. And as soon as a game releases like BG3 or Elden Ring not looking like every other game with its insane thumbs up their asses in terrible UI which the dev consider a after thought or completely not communicate this in the FUCKING GAME FOR US, it's just show incompetence.

[@bennett475]

It's truly sad that a game having no monetization is labelled as "shocking" nower days

[@rappakalja5295]

Late stage capitalism.

[@keenfire8151]

I bought the game with no intent to every play it, I just want to see these ideas become more mainstream.

[@thebeatts]

I'd love to see a future episode where you & Matt break down what makes the combat in this game so satisfying. What made so many people go from, "I don't like turn-based games," to "this is one of my top games of all time." What really impresses me is how consistently tight and on-point the difficulty curve is just on the normal balanced mode. I've been playing just about as close as you can get to a completionist run, doing like 90% of available quests (i.e. almost everything not locked out by prior choices) so far in Acts 1 and 2. I keep worrying that by taking so long to get through the story, I'm going to be over-leveled. But on the contrary, most fights feel perfectly tailored to my current strength level. (I don't think there's level-scaling but I could be wrong?) I go off and do a random side-quest involving a big fight and barely survive. Run into some random baddies while exploring? Barely survive. Big fight for the main story? Barely survive. I can't tell you how many fights I've been in thinking: this is probably pointless, no way I make it through, I should probably just reload. But then I don't reload because I'm having fun and want to see how far I can get. And then I win with like 1 party member alive at 5 HP. And this happens over and over again! I feel like in most games you feel pretty satisfied to get like 1-3 really close, memorable encounters in a 50-100 hour game. But in BG3 (and I just remembered Elden Ring was like this too) that's the whole game! Memorable fight after memorable fight. It's insane.

[@jakquinn4207]

Thoughts on the hardest difficulty? I’ve had to lower to the middle to better enjoy the story but fuck me the combat is very. Very hard on the hardest difficulty. A lot of brain power required. Saving that for my second play though for sure.

[@LiquidfirePUA]

Play Divinity 1-2 and you know why it's so statisfying. I'm surprised why people are suprised this is a good game? They haven't played any of Larian's previous games? It bring us back to the oldschool cRPGs quality :) Baldurs Gate, PlaneScape Torment etc... genuinly good games... how I know games growing up (90-00)

[@soylentgreenb]

The best advertisement a game can get is for AAA studios to say in unison that they are unable to compete and we shouldn't expect anything this good and feature complete from them. They don't think that is what they said, but it's what the rest of us heard.

[@octane2001]

Or that if they CAN compete, they simply don't want to.

[@kellynine7438]

@@octane2001 The people who put in the raw labor of making the games absolutely want to. When they say they can't do the same thing, they're saying they're not allowed to.

[@spaghettisploitation1029]

@@kellynine7438 Not our problem. They can always switch teams instead of whining and downing Larian. STFU and make my 8-10 game is the ONLY way I will feel about devs. They get 0 sympathy from me. Also, many a great games was made with "dicey" workplace environments, don't give two shits about that either.

[@Derah_OG]

Small correction man, The Deluxe Edition Mask of the Shapeshifter doesn't actually allow you access to the character creator. All it does is give you access to an infinitely recastable shapeshift cantrip that lets you disguise yourself as another race. But you cannot customize the appearance of that disguise in any capacity, it just chooses from preset looks.

[@Vioblight]

BG3 is amazing. All Devs should take notes not complain

[@kevinbaldeosingh5965]

70 hours in, still in act 1 😅

[@Fujikawa-hw6ij]

I normally wait for the first discount before I buy a game. With Baldurs Gate 3 I did buy it on release at full price, just to support the devs and their stance on games

[@ardentdfender4116]

Mayst I will say, I was one of the 875k players both this past weekend and last weekend who helped set all those record numbers. Just living the game and not even in a hurry in its play thru as so much to explore in game.

[@lupinelp9226]

Comically large sword? He was wielding a pretty standard looking two-handed great-sword.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

Right? Shouldn't a WoW player understand what comically large armor/weapons look like?! 😂

[@jeanschyso]

Owlgames did such an amazing job with their two Pathfinder games, but Pathfinder will probably always be a bit more niche. They went super deep into the mechanics of Pathfinder, which is an absolute unit of a system. I'm hoping my familiarity with DND 5e will make the BG3 experience better than what I had in Kingmaker.

[@lancefernandez1434]

I just wished bg3 implemented the class preview that wotr had. As someone who isn't familiar with 5th edition ruleset it's kinda annoying not knowing what perks you get for a class unless you search a wiki for it.

[@kellysamuel3383]

Really want a pf2e crpg so I can learn the system that way

[@Nomadith]

Agreed. Absolutely LOVED wrath of the righteous, but it stuck quite solidly to pathfinder - which is to say it was really mechanically rich and a bit dense. BG3 does feel like what 5e is to pathfinder 2.0/DnD 3.5: different systems and designs, different playstyles, but absolutely fantastic in their niches

[@miafiolekova5817]

i loved Pathfinder, and i love BG3. i am gonna enjoy the hell out of both.

[@aeidengtfo6758]

They really didn't do that great of a job the game is riddled with massive bugs, the final few acts in wrath are beyond awful, encounters and dungeons go on for far way to long to be enjoyable for a video game, the way owl cay translated the tabletop into a video game is faithful but just a really unenjoyable experience in the chosen format.

[@nightfears3005]

What? They are the largest game developer in Belgium and one of the largest in Europe as a whole by employee count. It's not an indie studio by any means.

[@Nomadith]

Fantastic video lads, but one correction so people don't lambast larian too bad: 17:13 the mask of the shapeshifter gives you access to the Disguise Self spell for free, which just means you can change your character TEMPORARILY to the preset of another race, like a dwarf, gnome, halfling, Gith, etc. There is as it stands NO WAY to access character creation once you've decided on a character, even to change appearances, hair, makeup, race etc. Don't conflate the two, because it makes very very little difference in game as racial interactions in dialogue are very sparse outside of the underdark or with Gith, and those are literally one or two lines. The most use I've gotten out of the mask of the shapeshifter is just turning into a halfling to get into small character-sized burrows that normal height characters can't.

[@cernunnos_lives]

Guys I've been playing this for almost 3 years. I got more than my money's worth. And now I wanna give back to them. It's a phenomenal game. I wanna get the Pale Beyond next

[@inkblotCrisis]

The absolute panic this game caused for AAA companies is hilarious! Kick their ass Larian! Get that bag!

[@potfrr]

It's 875k now. God I'm happy for Larian so much.

[@RNTV]

This game is going to take me a year to beat, and I'm totally fine with that 😅

[@Xoulrath_]

Lol, welcome to the club! Most games take me months to beat, if for no other reason than I can't stick with one at a time. Examples: I bought a SNES Mini back in 2019. I started up A Link to the Past. I played until I got stuck not knowing where to go next, so I moved on for months. I came back to it after COVID hit in 2020 and I was stuck at home a lot. Most recent example: I started Final Fantasy VII Remake at the end of 2022. I played it for a week straight and put in 25 hours and exactly halfway through the main story. I stopped playing at the beginning of January because I was frustrated with the weird balance the game chose for real time ans turn-based systems. Fast forward to June of this year, and the Final Fantasy XVI hype got me wanting to go back and finish VIIR lol. So yeah, unless it's like a 10 hour game, I almost never finish it without some several month delay, whatever the reason haha.

[@sonjaR2]

Speaking of Starfield.... I've, in fact, been cautiously optimistic about the game, but I have to be honest... I'm not sure I'd want to be in Bethesda's shoes right now, releasing in BG3's very long shadow. Certainly, in terms of subgenre, theme, mechanics and art direction (in sum, pretty much everything), they could not be more different, but we all know that comparisons will still be made. So.. I definitely hope for Bethesda's sake that the reports we've seen about Starfield being more polished and bugfree than their previous releases are accurate. Similarly, I hope that CDPR knocks it out of the park with Phantom Liberty; those guys, somewhat like Bethesda, very much need a redemption arc. Regardless, what an awesome year for gaming. No matter who wins GOTY, or whatever else, us gamers are the true winners! :)

[@AlwayzFresh]

After playing this game, Diablo IV is 100% an amateur bargain basement game worth maybe $30.

[@alfred9805]

Too late you already gave them your money

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@alfred9805 most of the money for live services isn't the entry fee, it's the battle passes, skins, boosters and whatnot

[@HavokSolo]

"How Baldur's Gate did the exact same thing Elden Ring, but AAA studios don't care/won't get the message" should be the title.

[@Wiper020]

It's lovely having this sort of experience at your beck an call. I've been playing every Tuesday at 20:00 with my friends like a regular DnD campaign and it's been stellar. Larian has knocked it out of the park. :)

[@Kevin_850]

I've been playing with my brother and cousin, but we've been doing it almost nightly for a couple hours since its release. We are wrapping up act 2 with over 50 hours of gameplay so far. It's been so much fun and we're all rolling a D4 for sleep every night. The choices and consequences have made for some amazing memories for this campaign. It really does feel like we're playing a true D&D campaign, missteps, goofs, and all.

[@Wiper020]

@@Kevin_850 Mistakes and all is RIGHT! We've been accidentally murder-hobo:ing our way through it, despite our best efforts. :D

[@jeremyhorner9531]

I can say this for sure, i played early access for 2 years. 2 things about it. When you best early access you got a video message from Swen and his team thanking you for trying the game. Second, launch day. I have never been in such a food mood as i was launching BG3.

[@seraphin01]

commentators love to talk about how BG3 is putting AAA sutios to shame and how those studios are trembling and whatnot. fact is, BR3 is huge and the devs should get praised for it and get a ton of money. BUT, in the world we living in, the next random CoD will make BILLIONS per year just adding cosmetics and releasing basically the same game every year. So yeah BG3 not gonna change anything, most studio will play the lazy greedy card, and most gamers will pay and ask more of this crap. Wallet speaks louder than reviews

[@kay_keik7842]

The only reason why cod makes that money is because it's a money laundering scheme disguised as a video game, that's why lots of publishers want a piece of that pie. Same with all mobile games that are free to play. They just don't wanna talk about it because it would ruin it for everyone that benefits from it.

[@alfred9805]

100%, speak with you wallet, with Diablo 4 sales blizzard has no incentive to change and bobby can buy a new yacht. Don't buy overmonitized games. Dark and darker announced a cash shop, don't buy the game unless they remove it

[@eshannumin]

I do think it is important that other developers see the success. The FFF developers will always make games for people with no standards that buy off of social pressure not reputation of quality. I just want more devs to set their sights on this, not feeling they have to adapt shitty models to be successful.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@alfred9805 the game targets the console plebs and also there is a raging money laundering industry in skin trading. No amount of "not buying" will make it go away

[@Kornelius707]

The only thing that would "humble AAA" is their profits being effected. Otherwise Baldur's Gate 3 is just another amazing gem that is just current buzz and hype.

[@LavonMoore]

W and I’m glad they included a Mac version for us! I gotta pick this up this week to support the devs.

[@alfred9805]

Whoopi Goldberg is gonna be happy about that

[@LavonMoore]

@@alfred9805 there’s dozens of us!

[@Sarcastro_78]

I played BG2 when it cane out and didn't do BG1 until getting back into gaming in 2020. I know BG3, while in the same sphere, is it's own, however, I am so thankful Larian had the faith and trust in the community to use this time to build a better mouse trap. They have not only rewarded the faithful but seen their masterful game spread to those intrigued and willing to explore Ferun and The Sword Coast with them!

[@MBEG89]

So nice to see such a great game get actual acclaim.

[@revmaillet]

I consider Larian more a Triple I dev group instead of a Triple A dev group.

[@DragonheadPR]

Thank you for the nice, clear and concise point. I love seeing BG3 doing so well and I am having a blast myself! Just two "akshually"s though: * CRPG = Classic Role Playing Game not Computer Role Playing Game * Mask of the Shapeshifter doesn't allow you to costumise your character, it just gives you the 'Disguise Self' spell without having to spec for it. (Change race / gender as long as it lasts but cannot customise)

[@shallendor]

There are TTRPG's(tabletop role playing games) and CRPG's(computer role playing game)

[@TheMrbrettster1]

I don't think many people will agree with your first point. Just about everywhere you look you'll see BG1, BG2, BG3, DOS1, and DOS2 referred to as computer role playing games, for example. BG3 is amazing though, love it!

[@DragonheadPR]

I stand corrected! I’ve heard Classical Role Playing Game being used quite a lot and it made more sense to me. But I looked it up and learned a thing today. Thanks for pointing that out.

[@Etrieh]

If im not mistaken, the mask of the shapeshifter is not a "re create character" button like the way Bel somewhat described. I believe he said it let's you access the character creator. But from what I've tried and seen...its not that? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong. It would be so cool to change your character permanently.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

You're right. Bel is mistaken.

[@minine6508]

I know it’s not much, but for anyone wondering, the Mask of the Shapeshifter does not let you customize your appearance. It lets you disguise yourself as another race with vanilla customization option

[@ashroskell]

Just waiting for the console version to come and I’m going to enter the world of DnD for the first time in Baldur’s Gate 3. I have been waiting for this, (single player if you want it) a game that doesn’t want to rip you off, or keep dipping into your wallet or deliberately waste your time.

[@telenNG]

I'm just hoping this acts as a jumping off point for other games in the genre I really want to see the shadowrun games do a lot better than they did

[@shallendor]

The Shadowrun games were so much fun!

[@jbutler8585]

After this success, DLC and BG4 are guaranteed. Wizards will definitely keep partnering with Larian if not buy them outright.

[@joeferreti9442]

I'm pretty sure Larian will make a DLC for BG3 sooner or later. But it's actually way too early to ask for that. But that DLC will likely just more content and likely not a higher level cap or a story continuation. It should be fairly easy for Larian to add more quests, dungeons, NPCs, companions, items, conversation alternatives and so on. And then they can do anything what they want, but ... if they want they can make spin-offs of BG3 on the side. Icewind Dale 3 based on the engine and systems and graphic content of BG3 would surely make some amount of profit. It's a nobrainer.

[@jaxonfreeman1756]

I just want to say this in as many places as possible. Wouldn't you like to see Larian's take on Mass Effect?

[@LiquidfirePUA]

Not only Mass Effect. With Larian's attitude, I want to see WestWood, BioWare etc etc.

[@e2rqey]

It is a perfect example of the value the comes with progressive iteration on a single type of game. Where you dont end up throwing away all your work between releases.

[@TheLordDracula]

I'm wondering if this is going to give Starfield problems. I know I won't be done with bg3 by the time it comes out and I'm not starting another game until I'm done with this one.

[@patzuk3463]

Won't be buying Starfield for many months - you can't be sure they won't monetize it after the review period is over. The abomination that was Fallout 77 also gives me pause in dropping $80 on their games.

[@Xoulrath_]

It's an easy choice for me. I won't be buying Starfield. Primary because I've only got a PS5 and Switch console side. PC-wise, my lap top is decent enough for some older games that I bought a decade ago on Steam, but it's not about to handle Starfield.

[@heatherharrison264]

I know better than to buy a Bethesda game at launch. They are better experiences a few years afterwards, after some of the bugs have been fixed and modders have done their thing. Additionally, there is a serious concern that, given what happened with Fallout 76, this game could stray into microtransaction hell, so it would be wise to wait a while and see what happens on that front. They probably won't roll out the worst of it on day one - they will wait and sneak it in later. The only other upcoming game that I have been following is Cities: Skylines 2. It looks good, but it is Paradox, so micro-DLC spam is to be expected. I'll wait and see on that one to find out how feature complete the vanilla game is and how the DLC spam plays out. Some micro-DLC has already been announced, and the game isn't even out yet. To be fair, some DLC is justified in that type of game, but it would be better to put out larger, better integrated DLC packages than to spam out a lot of horse armor. Since these other games are wait-and-see affairs, I'll stick with Baldur's Gate 3 for a while.

[@direnova6284]

I've been playing games since Pong in the 70's and this is my No.1 now, I've never been so into a game.

[@Caligulove]

Huge grats to Larian on this W. I loved Divine Divinity, Divinity:Original Sin and Original Sin 2. I thought the soundtrack in the first two was BiS (RIP Kirill Pokrovsky) but they've been killing it for a while. They very much deserve this success.

[@ether4211]

I think a lot of people forget that this wasn't just any DnD game....this was a sequel to Baldur Gate 2!!!... just the trailer was huge news that they would be attempting to continue a game from the 2000s that already had 200+ hours and a cast of break out NPCs - plus introduced a entire generation to Dungeons and Dragons. What was most shocking about the transition from early access to launch was that Larian already did 'good enough' to deliver on a genuine sequel amid the limitations of having a modern looking adaption of a 2D game yet went further then the original by bringing the crafting system and multiplayer support from their prior games. Larian showed that they 'got' what was needed to make a amazing DnD game when they gave Divinity 2 'DM mode' - complete with a D20 dice roller! What is going to be really interesting is once we get full mod support and a DM mode for BG3 it starts crossing the line between 'videogame' and 'virtual tabletop system'.

[@taiga_dono]

Baldur's Gate 3's success is ever-growing, and they sure as hell deserve it.

[@chrisborges7344]

As a big fan of these kinds of games, I'm really happy for them. As a solo parent struggling atm, I can't afford the game. I could pirate it, but in this scenario I'd feel so incredibly guilty that I just won't. Feels kind of crazy to say that now, but I so much support that they're going against the BS mtx of the industry.

[@LiquidfirePUA]

If you pirate and buy it later I do not see the problem? What I do often anyway since you can't trust DEVS now-a-days anymore. If I don't like the game I don't buy it so I don't have to waste money on a purchase that I can't return.

[@Avigorus]

NGL if I ever make a game, I'd want to make the EULA basically be something along the lines of they are purchasing a copy of the game and access to an online backup of said game's most current official version with an agreement not to distribute to others, rather than the normal license wording, including that the game can be inherited and that one can do whatever one wants with their copy. Regardless, big studios need to understand that the new standard is not drowning players in a storefront, but creating an actual game.

[@remigusker6024]

Mask of the Shapeshifter doesn't let you redo your appearance, it's just the disguise self spell on a helmet, that's it.

[@theeharkness]

It is currently up to 875,343 players as of yesterday. So it is doing even better

[@roycealgonquin8139]

I bought my copy last night after reading the reviews. Im excited to try it out after im off work.

[@Robot-Overlord]

It only took a decade to create 1 successful example of a game that will do well enough without microtransactions. Unfortunately reality is a bitch, the sales of this dont compete with financial titans that use microtransactions still. Like GTAV.

[@AliceinEntropy]

I havent been able to play baldurs gate yet, but playing Pathfinder has been such a great experience. Really excited for bg3

[@mylarus]

I can’t sing the praises of this game highly enough. As a D&D playing child of the 80’s this game is superb and I wonder what my 11 year old self would think if he saw it now. Larian and FromSoftware have put the nail in the coffin of any desire I had to play Blizzard games anymore, and they were for a long time my favourite game studio.

[@j.d.4697]

Sven is absolutely right. If the game you are making doesn't sell, either your publisher will be mad at you are parts of your contract won't be fulfilled, or in the case of an indie studio you go bankrupt. Obviously it is a much less cruel fate when you have a publisher, but from what we have been seeing you have to wonder if the business influence that comes with that is worth it. I think it's not worth it. Art is a risky endeavor, you can easily go broke, but adding business for financial security to it just seems to destroy the art part, no matter what.

[@JAndersonGhost0326]

Larian absolutely should give every single employee a bonus for their phenomenal work. Not only would it be the right thing to do for their employees, but can you imagine the goodwill they would get with the gaming community for doing that? They make great games that are fairly priced, there are no microtransactions or predatory shenanigans, AND they treat their employees well? Larian would make ALL of the money by doing that.

[@eudyptes5046]

I have no insights into the company, obviously, but Sven seems like the kind of guy who would do that anyway.

[@SaffsVids]

This isn't even my kinda of game and I'm loving it so far

[@eudyptes5046]

Now it is your kinda game, resistance is futile.

[@anevkristinsson101]

Mask of shapeshifter is not deluxe exclusive and can be found somewhere (don't really remember where) in game. This game is awesome!

[@fuzzydragon]

It's so weird playing the entire game through being psyched to start your second Game.

[@i_grok_u2902]

Dragon Age Origins did that for me too, loving it so much and thinking what I will do different next time.

[@wmv8996]

I hope it humbled AAA. I love Halo Infinite and Sea of Thieves. They are in great spots right now, but they did NOT release that way and thats a huge problem.

[@dillanschmidt7459]

I recently got into TTRPGs and Dos2 is one of my favorite games on Steam, so getting BG3 was a no-brainer. It was a little buggy 3 years ago, but that was early access, that was to be expected. Ever since early access, they've been adding meaning full content, fixing bugs, listening to player feedback, and remained faithful to the source material. Larian Studios is just a group of nerds passionate about their games and i think that's beautiful. Seeing AAA devs upset about this game that released as a finished product with no micro-transactions is kathardic. I don't expect BG3 to make massives changesnto the industry as a whole, but i hope it's a 'wake up call' that people are getting tired of the current market's minimum effort.

[@JeanMauriceB1C4RD]

Early access was part 1 of 3 and even before the official launch Larian added 33% more into the first act. I am at 71 hours of play time and not even into the underdark and just finished the Druid stuff… amazing story and ambiance and fun and human characters is success for me. ❤ the dice rolls, the table top identity and the turn based combats are big winners too!

[@TheRealCaptainLavender]

Pillars of Eternity 2 flopped because instead of leaning into the Fantasy element it instead opted for modernity and the many pitfalls associated with it including it's ham fisted clumsy analogies and commentary on colonialism. It felt more like a lecture than an actual Table-Top adventure when compared with the first, and when you see who was responsible for the writing of the second game you start to understand real quick what happened with that game. That and the fact that the market was flooded with a small Crpg renaissance right after the original Pillars came out there was an uphill battle to slog through. DoS1+2 made PoE2 look much less interesting by that point, not to mention Kingmaker, which was phenomenal. Honestly, obsidian should have pressed Wotc over a decade ago to make a Neverwinter Nights 3, as I still claim that Neverwinter Nights 2 was the best DnD game made for it's time. Those days and that particular version of Obsidian is long gone however. Thank Lathander's light that Larian have take up the torch to guide the way forward.

[@fenderslasher]

I didn't even know the mask of the shapeshifter did that, lol. It only costs 100 gold to change your character in game.

[@biske85]

It doesn't. It lets you cast Disguise Self for free, just like any caster with Disguise Self casting it as a ritual (or at will potentially for Warlocks)

[@Ramsay58]

I think you missed that the Digital Deluxe upgrade is there to let late comers (like me) get the early access bonus. A little extra content seems a fair way to reward early backers.

[@astrealove1]

Quite sick, you make a good game, without a battle pass, without any lootboxes, without any microtransactions, without any bullshit at all, and it's being a massive success. This is a win for ALL gamers.

[@AEGISDEFENSE]

Man, just hit act 2 yesterday at level 6. The level of discovery and problem solving has been clever, cheeky, and feels like im actually playing a tabletop campaign with the level of freedom I have.

[@Goose8585]

I finished my first playthrough at around 140 hours. Now it's important to note that the "time playing the game" can be a bit deceiving due to all the extra dialog/cinematics and the very slow pace movement speed in the game, inventory management and clicking lootables around the map. With that being said, I also believe turn based combat really isn't for everyone and a lot of people struggle to find the same enjoyment they get out of modern real time action combat in video games generally speaking. The game was a solid 8.5 or 9/10 for me overall. Im running a 4090 relatively modern PC and ive encountered a good amount of bugs. Cinematics looking all messed up was the more common one towards the end of the game. Also experienced a few instances of combat getting stuck after "ending turn", and i had to reload a previous saved file in order to fix the issue. Closing and opening the game didnt fix the frozen combat. I've also has my character get stuck inside a small wall frame and i couldn't move or teleport anywhere or use waypoints. This also caused me to have to reload a previous save. The game scope is pretty large so i also notice the game getting laggy after like 4-5 hours playing when in big towns with tons of npcs doing things all the time and such. The story was really good in my opinion and i enjoyed the impact of my game choices alliances and characters in the end. Sound track was very good overall. Some of the combat sound tracks are sick. Particularly the end of the Raphael questline oh man that gave me some goosebumps! Combat is enjoyable and being able to tailor my builds and have mix match classes feels great. I love that aspect of rpgs in particular. Looking forward to make an Evil playthru in the future but its crazy how many games are coming up that i want to play soon... New poe league, starfield, classic HC wow leveling with friends and more!

[@sandroabate]

I bought the early access version for PS5, not because I was dying to play the game early, but because I wanted to reward Larian Studios for selling a great game without micro transactions. We need to reward companies that treat us with respect.

[@FilthyCasualVR]

BG3 really is a diamond in the rough thought. It's incredible what they pulled off as far as choose your own adventure narrative driven experiences go. It's like a classic Bioware game on steroids.

[@Диего_де_ла_Вега]

When I see the success and recognition Larian got with that game, I wish Kirill Pokrovsky were still with us, his work would have been fire on that game I bet.

[@hondoshaver7651]

So glad I got a SE, so many times I have purchased a SE and the game turns out to be just OK. 400 hours and counting in BG3, LFG! 🎉

[@Slvrbuu]

To be clear, the mask of the shapeshifter does not give you access to the character creator. It is a similar item to their other game, in fact its a homage to it, where it let's you assume the form of another race. But, as far as I know, you don't get to customize, they are predetermined.

[@mars7357]

Support games that have good values. Stop pre orders and stop buying bad games and funding bad practices

[@Ohhelmno]

Yes, I love the point that the game doesn’t apologize for being a game. I feel like developers have really abandoned that games can go beyond what’s possible in real life and Larian really swung into the fact that this is a game and it worked tremendously. Like, the dice rolling is cool, telling you why you missed or hit basically is cool, knowing the mechanics of the system is awesome. It doesn’t have to be off the charts immersive or not remind you it’s a game, Baldur’s gate does an excellent job of doing both, at times deeply immersive world building and story and at other times clear indicators you’re in a game with rules and those rules can be manipulated and exploited to your favor and honestly I love the idea of turn based combat but just a whack-ton of options whereas so many games have gone away from turn based combat to action combat and that’s fine for some games, but I love the intricacy of the system and the vast amount of choices of how you want to play both in and out of combat and it gives you a deep sense of ownership of your story and your character

[@DislocatedDesign]

How about a Neverwinter Nights sequel? The continent of Faerun is huge, or perhaps a Planescape rpg. So many possibilites beyond adventures centered on Baldur's Gate. I hope Larian continue to make D&D games set in Faerun, that would be how to follow this game, when they're ready and perhaps after some smaller projects, as I think has been mentioned or rumoured about the studio's next direction.

[@desperado4367]

not a big dnd person, but now I want to play this game.

[@jonathanrothmare3509]

My Internet went out the other day... I didn't notice cuz I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 .. man. How refreshing