The funny thing is I (and probably many others) didn’t even consider pirating it. It had great reviews and was readily available pretty much everywhere without any obvious drawbacks. So I spent full price for it.
My point; DRM doesn’t matter if you produce and sell your game in a consumer friendly way.
Corporate isn't going to take away the lessons we might hope. Folks at corporate at going to ask things like, "how much money was left on the table?" They can only fuck things up through paying attention.
I won't lie. I flew the black flag on BG3. I'll pick it up when it goes on a Steam sale, but I'm just not going to spend $60 on a video game no matter how good.
Hasbro and WOTC are rotten to the core and, unfortunately, own D&D among other headline franchises you'd probably be familiar with.
Larian makes their own games and made BG3 after Hasbro was impressed with how well Divinity: Original Sin 2 turned out (which, imo has the best combat system of their games so far). That said, Larian really rounded out the dialog, conversations, and non-battle options in BG3. I hope they take that to their next title, preferably organically developed without Hasbro/WoTC.
I'm pretty sure hasbro/wotc had nothing to say in the development beyond ip related stuff. With dos1 larian moved away from editors to self-product all their games since.
"this game is a gold mine! It's being underutilised at the moment, let's improve the profitability with some in-game purchasable items and a subscription for bonus content"
Steam could absolutely tamp down on this, by changing early access refund policy to be more restrictive.
Early access money should not be guaranteed. If someone wants a refund outside of the two hour or whatever game time they should get most of their money back. The timer should also reset at release, and players get a full refund if the gameplay isn't what was promised.
I'm curious to see if other CRPGs also had big revenue increases from BG3's success. After beating it I've bought Divinity Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium, Pathfinder WotR, and Pillars of Eternity II so far. I had never paid attention to the genre before and now I am deep into it.
Larian are really the only ones that play nice with a controller.
I understand that a lot of people play at literal desktops and prefer mouse/keyboard, but a lot more (regardless of PC split, it's also almost all console owners) would rather play with a controller. Having an official control scheme for one is meaningful to broad adoption.
BG3 plays awesome on both kn and mouse and a controller!
It reminds me of a few other games that are able to do both, and makes me sad how many game devs over focus on one or the other (probably due to crunch, but still).
They are also the ones doing multiplayer as far as I can tell. After my singleplayer playthrough I have two other ones going with different groups and it is just as much if not more fun.
The beam dog remasters on switch have pretty good controller support. It's a piss off that those controls don't exist in the PC versions, discovering that after attempting to play on steam deck
I thought Pathfinder kingmaker and Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous supported controllers? I haven't played them yet but intend to if I ever manage to put down bg3 (400 hours and 5.5 plays in, lmao)
I bought that on the GOG Anniversary Sale pretty much because I finished BG3 and was in the mood for something new but similar. Hadn't paid any attention to the Dragon Age franchise before.
I'm amazed at not only how well it holds up, but how much inspiration BG3 seems to have taken from it.
Now you mention it, yes probably. I already owned BG3 in EA, and bought 2 similar games : Pathfinder & Solasta.
When i was a kid i player BG1 a lot. Later DOS.
And the other game above, i already finished them long ago. I think it would be an interesting data to see what kind of player play BG3 and compare our games. :)
I don't think they really can. Larian has creative control over the project itself, Hasbro can't do much beyond input regarding DnD-specific things. Hasbro can try to milk DnD (as they have been doing), but this won't affect BG3.
Daragon Age Origins is awesome. It was fun playing the game where your choices affected the outcome of the game. And you got to play different characters--poor, rich, royalty, slave.
DOS2 working so well is a big part of why I bought BG3. I mostly play handheld (steamdeck, with a little bit of switch), so controller support is a huge factor for me.
It sucks, because I want to buy this game, but I refuse to give WotC/Hasbro money, and I don't want to pirate it because I want to support Larian.
It really sucks.
Do Larian deserve your money less because they licensed trademarks from a company that considered and then backed down from a license change? And for this you'll rob yourself of a fantastic experience? What a strange value system. Wait until you find out how they made sausages, or your phone.
Look man, initially WotC didn't move on with Larian's pitch and only changed their minds later on. I get it, you don't like WotC but you're robbing yourself of a fantastic experience because of this stance you've held. Baldur's Gate 3 oozes with passion and creativity, you only do yourself a disservice by ignoring it.
It's probably my favourite game of all time and loads of people refuse to play it because they know it'll make other games feel bland by comparison. You have nothing to lose but your money.
I will continue to buy stuff that Hasbro has licensed to people who care about the games they make even if Hasbro indirectly profits from it to show support for doing it right. Like the DnD movie and BG3, but not Beyond or the tabletop stuff until they reverse course on those.
If nothing else there is an opportunity for Hasbro to catch on at some point and the people they license to get to make quality stuff to enjoy in the meantime. It isn't like Hasbro is Nestlé and ruining countries.