Larian is the new CDProjectktRed. And by that I mean they are projected to be a perfect, infallible, manifestation of developer perfection that gamers will worship and praise blindly until Larian proves themselves to be mere mortals by making a mistake.
I‘m starting to get the impression people build them up precisely to watch them fall and kick them down. It‘s in our DNA, I‘m afraid. I mean the praise they get for the most mundane claims (and often they are just that) is ridiculous to the point they‘re becoming the developer version of the life of Brian. And deep down we‘re already anticipating to watch them bleed out at a cross.
In what bizzaro world did the witcher series fail to live up to expectations? The first one was a masterclass of atmosphere and had zero expectations, the second were just fine and the third one still is the gold standard for quest design in open world games.
Making things with quality often takes more time, but almost always pays off in the long run. It's important to me in my own work. Companies that do it earn my respect, and my business.
I have it but I haven't even taken it out of shrink-wrap because I'm a terrible boardgamer. I'll let you know in five years once my frosthaven campaign wraps up