Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Company News Call of Divinity? Larian plans to release RPGs annually from three different studios

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Larian Studios; Swen Vincke

The resourceful LESS T_T spotted an article in the Quebecois newspaper La Presse where Swen Vincke, while speaking of the founding of the new studio in Quebec City, detailed his plans for the emerging Larian Empire. We already know that they're working on two games now, but it looks Swen is setting his sights even higher. Here's the relevant bit, with the imperfect help of Google Translate:

For the first year, the Quebec studio Larian count ten people, a question of establishing bases here while developing business culture to the philosophy of this independent studio. They will work with the studio in Ghent and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Within three years, the number of employees will increase to 40, so the studio Quebec will work on his own title, continues Mr. Vincke."By having three studios working on each title, we will release a game every year. It is a production rate over three years, but we prefer to make quality games rather than to hurry to make games faster. What is the difference between an independent company and one that is accountable to shareholders, "says he.

"Our goal installing us here is not to lower our production costs, but to keep making quality games in a different environment to grow.We are a small player alongside the giants, but we are totally independent and we handle ourselves stages, even distribution of our games, "says the CEO of the company with 70 people currently.
Wow. Now what does that remind me of? Clearly, Mr. Vincke likes to live dangerously. Of course, it'll be years before that schedule is in place and running, but it'll very interesting to see how sustainable it is.
 

undecaf

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
3,517
Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
Sounds like a bit too much a bit too soon. Best of luck to Swen pulling this off succesfully.

Wouldn't want this to happen:

Hindenburg_disaster.jpg
 

m_s0

Arcane
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,289
How To Bankrupt Your Company in 12 months: The Ultimate Guide.
Swen's kept Larian running long enough to know better, I think. It's still a crazy idea, but if they take it slow... I guess it's not impossible.
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,012
Tags: Larian Studios; Swen Vincke

The resourceful LESS T_T spotted an article in the Quebecois newspaper La Presse where Swen Vincke, while speaking of the founding of the new studio in Quebec City, detailed his plans for the emerging Larian Empire. We already know that they're working on two games now, but it looks Swen is setting his sights even higher. Here's the relevant bit, with the imperfect help of Google Translate:

For the first year, the Quebec studio Larian count ten people, a question of establishing bases here while developing business culture to the philosophy of this independent studio. They will work with the studio in Ghent and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Within three years, the number of employees will increase to 40, so the studio Quebec will work on his own title, continues Mr. Vincke."By having three studios working on each title, we will release a game every year. It is a production rate over three years, but we prefer to make quality games rather than to hurry to make games faster. What is the difference between an independent company and one that is accountable to shareholders, "says he.

"Our goal installing us here is not to lower our production costs, but to keep making quality games in a different environment to grow.We are a small player alongside the giants, but we are totally independent and we handle ourselves stages, even distribution of our games, "says the CEO of the company with 70 people currently.
Wow. Now what does that remind me of? Clearly, Mr. Vincke likes to live dangerously. Of course, it'll be years before that schedule is in place and running, but it'll very interesting to see how sustainable this is.
:dead:
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Another recent article: http://www.develop-online.net/news/...-larian-is-opening-a-studio-in-quebec/0205100

'I'd prefer a worldwide level playing field': Why Larian is opening a studio in Quebec

'You have to work with what’s available in the world, and that’s the situation we’re in'

Belgian developer Larian Studios, the company behind last year’s hit RPG Divinity: Original Sin, has expanded from its European roots to open a new office in Quebec CIty.

The studio will initially house a core team of ten staff, with plans afoot to employ between 30 to 40 staff over the next three years. This would make the office as big as its current HQ in Ghent, and twice as big as its St Petersburg branch. The team will initially collaborate with existing teams on projects, including a new upcoming RPG, but eventually could work on its own titles.

It’s not difficult to guess the reasons why it’s opening up in Quebec City. The tax incentives it offers are some of the highest in the game industry at 37.5 per cent. Though last year it was reduced to as low as 24 per cent after the local government looked to fill a black hole in its finances, it is now being raised back up once again. It’s a key factor Larian Studios president Swen Vincke (Main picture, right) isn’t shy to admit attracted the studio.

“There’s a couple of reasons [we’re opening a studio in Quebec City],” he says.

“There’s the tax credit, which is interesting and because we’re operating from Belgium where the cost of labour is quite high. Then there’s the experience pool which is present over there, which is very large. Again we’re operating from Belgium, and other than us there isn’t really anyone else in the country.

“Thirdly there’s a time zone difference that allows us to take advantage of the fact that the day becomes longer. And as we’re trying to make bigger RPGs with more stuff in it that becomes important for us also.”

An issue of scale

A core team of 35 staff developed Divinity: Original Sin, along with support from freelancers and its St Petersburg office. But to expand further, the high labour costs in Belgium, combined with a lack of tax incentives in the country, has made it difficult for Larian to scale up locally.

Vincke says it’s not impossible to develop games in Belgium, of course, but when expanding the extra costs incurred can become a problem when studios reach a certain size, particularly when maintaining burn rate.

“We’re the type of team that doesn’t like to do the hire and fire thing, everybody that works with us and is on the payroll stays on the payroll, so we do have to take it into account otherwise it doesn’t work out,” he explains. “It’s also the reason we typically work on two games at the same time.”

Vincke says that it needed to expand to a nation like Canada as the studio had reached a certain threshold, and were it to breach that by hiring more staff locally, the risk factors to the business would become very high.

“You have to be sure you can manage your burn rate comfortably and not enter the danger zone, so it’s something you start looking at as you increase scale,” he says.

When asked if he’d like better tax incentives in Belgium – as already approved for France and the UK – he adds: “I would prefer that we have a worldwide level playing field, that would be better. But you have to work with what’s available in the world, and that’s the situation we’re in.”

Fierce competiton

Opening up a new studio in Quebec City is not as easy as it sounds mind, though arguably it offers more incentives than other governments are willing to offer. Local competition for talent is fierce and the region is home to a number of super studios, including Ubisoft’s enormous Montreal office and its growing Quebec studio.

Vincke believes however this can work to Larian’s advantage, having chosen to set up shop in the province over other options it considered in Canada and the US.

“We’re not a super studio, we’re like a more humane-sized studio,” he says.

“So people who work on our games will actually have a direct impact on what the game is and have a very big influence over it. They’ll also be very hands-on within a very flat management structure, actually there’s almost no management structure, so that also helps. It’s more like development back in the day than the modern, hyper-competitive triple-A development where each decision is scrutinised by 200 people.”

Part of the need to expand its operations is the studio’s ambition to develop an RPG larger than what it has built before. And with that, says Vincke, comes the need for a bigger team, which incurs larger costs.

“RPGs are all about choice and consequence, and whenever I add massive consequences I certainly have to make a new part of the game,” he says.

“So the more choice and consequence I can put in my game the better it is going to be received. For all of that, we need scale.”

He adds: “Compromises we’ve done in the past have always been issues of: 'we can’t do this, we want to do this but we can’t do it because we have to compromise'. So the more we can do, and thanks to the successful of Divinity: Original Sin this has enabled us to do a lot of things, the better.”
 

Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,076
Location
Azores Islands
Larian should stick to just improving their engine and licensing it to more talented developers, lets hope these new development studios are more apt than their Belgian bosses.
 

twincast

Learned
Patron
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
232
Yeah, my immediate reaction is utter dread...

Then again, Crytek has somehow managed to survive overexpansion...
 

Tzaero

DEPARTED
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
1,971
Location
The Land of Murdock and Goldman Sachs
Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
But then again we're not really sure of the size of these rpgs.
Are they aiming for Telltale sized standalone adventures, premium modules like NWN?
With an existing engine some of the work is done, might mean they'd reuse a lot of assets.
Hell it could be episodic.

Its not sounding good.
 

l3loodAngel

Proud INTJ
Patron
Edgy
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Messages
1,452
This year the true RPG market went from sellers market to buyers market. More good RPGs is great, but Larian is not a lone producer. So if they won't succeed, the world won't end.

Did anyone else notice that RPG market is extremely cyclical. Studios make good RPGs > studios over expand, change audience or some other shit happens and then go out of business. Happened in 1999, 2003 and around 2007-2009 when bio went full derp.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
inb4 Larian ports D:OS to consoles, sells a million copies, and Swen laughs his ass off at this thread

This all sounds really far off, since from what I can tell, the Russian studio isn't in a place where it can develop games on its own yet, and probably won't be until the Canadian one is fully started up.
 

GloomFrost

Arcane
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
993
Location
Northern wastes
LOL They made the very first big and successful game that made people believe in kickstarter, showed that old-scholl RPGs are still in demand and now THIS???? Will see.
Oh and BTW hire some decent writers for goodness sake.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,048
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I doubt Swen would go the decline mass appeal route, he fought to become independent for so long. These are long-term plans. If they don't go as well as planned, he'll adapt and change. I have quite some faith in Larian to succeed.
 

hiver

Guest
:lol: first result for abandon ship:



Mayday Mayday
The captain lost control again
The fucking ship is breaking up
We're going down in flames
Mayday Mayday
Man overboard again
The sharks already circling
They only eat the brave
The SS Death lost everything
No one here can fucking swim
So baby, baby hold me tight
While I drown myself in you tonight
Mayday Mayday
The ship has hit the rocks again
This isn't going to fucking work
We're heading to our graves
Mayday Mayday
The captains lost his way we're sinking in the river sticks
No one can escape
Ladies and Gentlemen
May I have your attention please
This is the captain of your ship
I'm sorry we depart this way
You left me broken hearted
But I never loved you anyway

:lol:



-

also, obligatory

vnzOGBa.jpg
:P
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,165
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
My guess is Sven figures that the best advantage he gain over the other indie companies is releasing games that scratch a lot of itches before anyone else does. Realistically, are you going to *not* buy Larian's sci-fi RPG during the whatever number of years it takes for Obsidian or inXile to get around to making one?
 

Nael

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
11,384
Location
Indy
Scientific Science: The Zero Point Energy Crisis
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom