It’s been a few weeks since Baldur’s Gate 3 came out. I’ve been playing it on and off in that time, and I really like it! It’s polished, it has a ridiculous amount of depth, and the story is engaging. If you’re fan of good Western RPGs, this is a must play!
Yet the game has caused a significant splash in the developer space. Devs aplenty have come out to complain about it! “It’s Rockstar level scope,” they whine. “Don’t compare other games to it, it sets too high a bar!” they’ll moan. Instead of… I dunno… celebrating another developer’s success, they’ve been making every excuse under the sun to keep your expectations low.
One thing has become clear: massive game studios are not going to learn from Baldur’s Gate 3 and it’s success. They may as well have shouted at the top of their lungs, “Yeah, we ain’t doin’ that shit! We wanna keep makin’ more money for less work!” Incredible as it is, it isn’t going to be the new standard for the industry.
But you know what? It should be.
Now, let me be clear: I’m not expecting every game going forward to be as big as Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m not saying every game needs millions of lines of dialogue and thousands of hours of content and be infinitely replayable, all while being so polished you can see your reflection in it. No one with half of a brain would expect that much.
It’s not the scale that has everyone singing this game’s praises. It’s something far, far simpler: its honesty. Its purity. Its respect for its players.
Larian Studios has one objective whenever they make a game: make something they themselves would want to play. They’re in it for the passion, not the money. As if to prove that point, they’ve sworn to remain independent. When these guys make a game, they go as hard as humanly possible to make it good.
But making games is hard, and independent studios need some way to make money. Surely Larian employs things such as microtransactions, season passes, battle passes, or loot boxes to try and maintain a steady income, right? Wrong! They’ve made it perfectly clear that their games do not and never will feature any additional monetization practices. You buy it, you have it. The end.
How, then, do they make money? Simple. By making good games that people would actually buy.
And probably a few other ways, but if I were business savvy, we wouldn’t be here.
Passion and respect. That’s what the new industry standard needs to be. That’s what it used to be! Larian is one of the few studios that still understands that, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is proof!
Should it be the new standard for scope and scale? No. We don’t want every game to be massive. We just want them to be finished and consumer friendly. Is that so much to ask?
Honestly, I don’t even see why people are complaining. Blizzard had even more money and resources than Larian, and no one was complaining about Diablo 4!
Aside from the players, that is.
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