Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Gangrelrumbler]

I wouldn't bet on Starfield. Bethesda doesn't have brand power behind them this time and hype for Starfield seems pretty mild compared to Skyrim or Fallout 4.

Not the best of predictors, but Skyrim's trailer is at 15M views in 12 years. Starfield's trailer is at 18M views in 2 years.

Youtube was smaller in General when Skyrim trailer dropped and there were major competitors in gaming sphere like Gametrailers and Destructoid. Also I predict that because of Fallout 76 the press and gamers won't be as forgiving about their signature jank. Similarly to how everyone was forgave Bioware all their faults until Mass Effect 3 ending.

Bioware's audience was focused on good-looking characters you could romance, so jank cut exactly into that target demographic
Bethesda's audience cares about exploring and basically living in big world, a little bit of junk won't stop them

the only way Starfield can fail is if it doesn't manage to provide that massive world feeling where you can go off to do your own thing. If they manage that, they will make shitloads of money

IMO the proper Bethesda audience is just a tiny minority, most of the sales go to people who just go and buy whichever big release is popular. Like RDR2, Witcher 3, Hogwarts Legacy, etc. People who bought The Elden Ring despite not playing any previous From Software title. I might be delusional but I predict more people being put off by outdated gameplay, streamers making bug compilations after release, middling reviews and another andromeda in the end.

On the other hand AC has mechas and normies are allergic to these.

 

[Tweed]

If you look at those achievements that keep track of player progress you'll find that most never finish the game.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I can't wait to see all the butthurt on steam forums and review bombing from people who think that they can play it with camera ovet the shoulder, like Dragon Age. Our good man Tuco Benedicto Pacifico was trying to preach to the crowd about how deep they have their heads in their assess, but they wouldn't listen. So they are in for a very nasty surprise.

Right? Imagine getting ANGRY with the messenger only because you're told that an imaginary feature of the game you are hyping up simply doesn't exist.

 

[Elthosian]

I think sales when all is said and done will be Starfield > BG3 > AC6

Journalist are riding the nuts of BG3 almost as hard as the codex is. Combined with all the degeneracy that is so popular everywhere, BG3 will sell very good because of it.

Of course Starfield will sell more copies, it's a game designed for casual players first and foremost. Larian needs to develop another 2 to 3 games before they dumb down their systems to the level of BGS.

AC6 is a toss-up, the franchise itself is not among the bestselling ones but it has the big advantage of being an action game coming right after Elden Ring and being released on three platforms instead of merely two, plus being a From Soft game gives it immunity from idiot casual journos that would otherwise bitch about not being able to beat the game by pressing the same button ad nauseam.

Edit: just remembered that Starfield is in Game Pass Day 1 so you won't be able to compare sales numbers. Even then, I think it'll probably sell the most out of the three.

 

[ferratilis]

You would be surprised how many people who had no experience with RPGs got into DOS2 and loved it, because they were looking for something with tactical combat. If you read the Steam forums, sometimes you'll see that people are looking for games similar to nuXcom and DOS2, they don't really care about C&C, character building, itemization and such. Those people probably won't be bothered by the camera. But many console players will be butthurt, that's for sure.

I know a guy who has a small twitch/youtube channel that was focused on DOS2 when it came out, thanks to all the newcomers and beginner guides he made, he went from being completely unknown to making a living from it, just because of how many new people that game brought in. I'm guessing BG3 will have an even bigger effect, which is something I don't really like, because BG3 might dictate what people expect from RPGs going forward.

 

[Darkwind]

While the companions have generally been less shit during my EA playthrough than I expected (admittedly a very low bar), Karlach really is wasted potential. Her idea is cool, but then they waste it on a manic pixie girl. It's by far the most Dragon Age: Inquisition thing in the game that I've encountered. On paper veteran uber-soldier with war scars has the personality of a teenage instagrammer.

My deep concern is that all of them will be like this because modern writers are all cringe millennials writing fanfic basically. You see it in all media. Everything is ironic, sarcastic, they are all "in on the joke", and even when the world is ending nobody is ever serious. Faggot NPC tier cringe writing is the norm now and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

 

[Cohesion]

Chris Roberts should do an RPG next. Star RPG or something like that. It's never finished, but you can buy just about anything in the game from characters to plate mail to customized swords to entire castles and the like.

It alone would fund the RPG industry for years to come.

Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott - ultimate ((game))dev combo.

 

[Tweed]

Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott - ultimate grifter combo.

fix'd

 

[Elthosian]

You would be surprised how many people who had no experience with RPGs got into DOS2 and loved it, because they were looking for something with tactical combat. If you read the Steam forums, sometimes you'll see that people are looking for games similar to nuXcom and DOS2, they don't really care about C&C, character building, itemization and such. Those people probably won't be bothered by the camera. But many console players will be butthurt, that's for sure.

I know a guy who has a small twitch/youtube channel that was focused on DOS2 when it came out, thanks to all the newcomers and beginner guides he made, he went from being completely unknown to making a living from it, just because of how many new people that game brought in. I'm guessing BG3 will have an even bigger effect, which is something I don't really like, because BG3 might dictate what people expect from RPGs going forward.

Yeah, DOS2 sold super well on PC. I'd be honestly surprised if this doesn't get at least a couple more millions than that game.

Conversely, it put out like 500k copies across PS4 and XOne. Combine that with the fact the ideal PS5 game is either Uncharted-derivated popamole crap (FFXVI, GOW) or Ubisoft-style sandboxs (Spidey, Horizon, Tsushima) and I don't see them doing any better there even after going full cinematic.

 

[Ryzer]

Chris Roberts should do an RPG next. Star RPG or something like that. It's never finished, but you can buy just about anything in the game from characters to plate mail to customized swords to entire castles and the like.

It alone would fund the RPG industry for years to come.

Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott - ultimate ((game))dev combo.

 

[The_Mask]

 

[Barbarian]

I think more important is a general number of customers. A Hundred people, each with a different identity, is still only hundred. WoTC had good time for past few years, but I heard that now tables are changes and company has financial problems.

I have been actually thinking of buying Hasbro stock. It seems cheap and at a bottom. As much as I hate the wokeness, I see that their intellectual property is pretty valuable. That includes Wotc subsidiary and D&D(about 20% of their total revenue).

The D&D movie and now this(probably 10/10 GOTY and "best rpg evah" by the way journos and casuals are moving) proves it. Even the shitty D&D mmos and casual videogames they have been releasing last few years were profitable even though they were total crap. Licensing is cheap and easy money.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott - ultimate ((game))dev combo.

"Origin finally reborn", but it's a monkey paw wish.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

blessed king of longing

Ah, my favorite Baldur's Gate 3 schizo chanel:

 

[cpmartins]

Chris Roberts should do an RPG next. Star RPG or something like that. It's never finished, but you can buy just about anything in the game from characters to plate mail to customized swords to entire castles and the like.

It alone would fund the RPG industry for years to come.

Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott - ultimate ((game))dev combo.

Relevant Video:

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Relevant Video:

I don't care what kind of classic game dev he is never trust a man who dresses like a 70s porn star.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/504477/global-all-time-unit-sales-fallout-games
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1391058/skyrim-games-sales-worldwide
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-4-surpasses-skyrim-to-become-bethesdas-mos/1100-6447621/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DivinityOriginalSin/comments/151gx6k/dos2_sold_at_least_75_million_copies/

With the first release of the action role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in November 2011, game developer Bethesda Studios released one of the single best-selling video games of all time. As of June 2023, Skyrim has sold over 60 million copies across virtually every gaming platform, excluding mobile, since its release.

The graph shows data on all time global unit sales of selected games in Fallout franchise as of March 2020. As of the measured period, the Fallout 4 edition was the highest-seller in the franchise, with 13.51 million units sold worldwide. The figure includes sales of Xbox, PlayStation and PC versions. In 2016, Fallout 4 was also one of the leading paid games on Steam, where the title generated 35 million U.S. dollars in revenue. Additionally, it was one of the most anticipated games in 2015, as Fallout 4 managed to generate 750 million U.S. dollars in sales within its opening weekend.

In Swen's recent interview on Eurogamer, he mentioned that DOS2 sold around three times as many copies as DOS1. He couldn't recall any exact numbers on the spot, but back in a 2019 GDC talk he also claims DOS1 sold a total of 2.5 Million copies.

Since 2019 DOS1 has certainly sold a bunch more copies, so the 2023 numbers could be very different, but taking those two numbers together we get a rough minimum of 7.5 Million units of DOS2 sold to date, making it by far the best-selling CRPG in history.

Taking hype into account it sounds like an easy "win" for Starfield.

Bonus comment:

Baldur's Gate 2 was very boring game and this fact deterred me from bying BG 3. They should rename this title or name it DOS 3, but instead they decided to associate their game with this stupid BG 2 =( why...

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Relevant Video:

I don't care what kind of classic game dev he is never trust a man who dresses like a 70s porn star.

Garriot with his porn outfits, self-inserts, constant lying and generally wasted potential teach us, that boomers were source of all modern cringe.

 

[Herumor]

I want you to know that I don't mind the song, I just hate their faces.

 

[KIss My Ass]

Calling it now. Total BG3 lifetime sales wont surpass 3 million. It will be respectable numbers because of all the queers and furrys, but not a major blockbuster. Also trying to wrap my brain around how Armored Core 6 came into the discussion. It's not even a RPG, lol.

 

[The_Mask]

I want you to know that I don't mind the song, I just hate their faces.

I don't know why they're trying so hard...

I kinda like the song, but I just kept laughing at how tryhardy they looked.

 

[Tyranicon]

BG 3 already sold around 2-4 million units during Early Access, according to steamdb.

I do wish some kind of super fan does a comparison for dialogue when the game comes out. I know I'll be spamming that skip key just like in DOS.

Also, are they doing the narrator shit again? I hated the faux British narrator from DOS2. It was like reading a bad Neil Gaiman book.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

It's almost here bros. My cock is FUCKING HARD and Shadowheart's even HARDER!!!!

 

[Ryzer]

It's almost here bros. My cock is FUCKING HARD and Shadowheart's even HARDER!!!!

Will she pound your character in game?

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Calling it now. Total BG3 lifetime sales wont surpass 3 million. It will be respectable numbers because of all the queers and furrys, but not a major blockbuster.

Depends on how buggy it is at launch. If it's Cyberpunk 2, it's dead in the water for the time being, sure.

But if it's even remotely playable, I think the amount of buzz could push it well over that.