Kind of a nothing article, but I say just let them cook. Baldur’s Gate 3 was the game that pushed them into the spotlight better than any game they’ve made. And now people are going back to play their old games and realizing they are great games in their own right. They opened up a genre of gaming to people that would have never even considered it. You can’t accomplish all that without feeling an immense amount of pressure. Even if the next game isn’t on par with Baldur’s Gate 3, I’m just glad they are still doing what they do.
Their next game will be better, 5e held them back as much as its recognition boosted it’s popularity. WotC will spend the next decade chasing the success of BG3 while these guys rinse and repeat as they always have.
There’s no reason to believe there was anything special about BG3 other than any WotC funding and lore.
WotC funding? Reverse that, Larian had to pay WotC for the right to be able to make a baldur’s gate game. This has been confirmed by Larian.
That’s dumb and makes what they did all the more incredible. They would have done better if they’d done their own thing. Though it definitely wouldn’t have been as popular. But people will learn this as WotC goes back to wasting the IP rushing out flops.
There’s no reason to believe that there was anything special about one of the highest reviewed games of all time?
Their previous games, like divinity: original sin 2, were also amazing, though somewhat smaller in scale/budget
Sure, but playing through D:OS2 right now, there’s still quite a bit more in BG3 that was special.
Bigger budget means more people and more time which let you spend more time on the little details. They were capable of BG3 after D:OS2, whether they did it or not. They’re still capable of it. There’s nothing special about the BG IP that means they can’t make a game of similar quality in any other setting.
There’s more than little details that I appreciate in BG3 over D:OS2, but I think that’s just a team that got better at their craft.
Something being popular doesn’t mean it’s good just as something being unpopular doesn’t mean it’s bad. I’m not saying it’s not better than their other titles, but there’s nothing specifically remarkable about the BG IP that made it better than if it were in any other setting.
Ah, that reads a little different than your previous comment. Yeah, I’m looking forward to what they do next, but especially given that this was their best game yet, I definitely don’t agree that they were held back in any way.
They opened up a genre of gaming to people that would have never even considered it.
Can confirm, that was my case. Before this game the closest thing to a turn-based CRPG I had played was KOTOR, now I’ve already purchased DOS:2 and I’m looking forward to Larian’s next title.
Divinity was absolutely baller and I much much prefer its combat system to d&d’s.
I like how they revised their action point system in D:OS2, and I like getting attribute points every level up, but 20 hours in, I think I prefer everything else from D&D so far. Still, the D:OS system isn’t bad.
so whats the point of the article then?
To let people know not to expect a game earlier than 5 years from now.
Which is a bummer, because 6 years of development time shouldn’t happen every game. There was a previous interview where they said something like, without a new war in Eastern Europe or a pandemic, we think we can get the next game done in three years, which means we’ll probably have it done in four. BG3 is one of the best games ever made, but development time has to start trending back down.
