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

[tuluse]

Bioware - 600+ employees
Bethesda Game Studios - 100+ employees
Larian - 30+ employees

Plus outsourcing from multiple locations. Plus all the resources under the publisher's wing.

Are you really counting all the studios EA branded as "Bioware" as actually Bioware

 

[Haba]

Pray do tell me, what kind of games do they make? Military shooters?

 

[tuluse]

Pray do tell me, what kind of games do they make? Military shooters?

The company that made The Old Republic wasn't Bioware. It was studio EA already had and they slapped the name Bioware onto it.

And yeah, since it's all owned by EA, Battlefield and Madden money was being funneled into it's dev budget.

 

[Haba]

So you do admit that Bioware is an RPG studio that currently employs well over 600 people? Cool.

 

[tuluse]

So you do admit that Bioware is an RPG studio that currently employs well over 600 people? Cool.

No, I don't because I'm pretty sure there are significantly fewer bioware studios these days than there was at the heyday.

Infinitron keeps track of these things better than me

Also, "getting bought by one of the 2 largest publishers in the world and having them slap your name on unrelated studios" is such an absurd comparison to this situation, one that you would lose the argument anyways.

 

[Haba]

Nice denial bro.

 

[Infinitron]

Sorry tuluse, BioWare Austin didn't have the name "slapped on it". It was actually founded as a spin-off BioWare studio before the EA buyout.

But in any case, even BioWare Edmonton alone has more employees than Bethesda does. Larian now has 70 employees according to the OP article.

 

[thesoup]

Next up: Australian studio making Divinity: Stones of Arnhem

 

[DraQ]

Next up: Australian studio making Divinity: Stones of Arnhem

That's inconceivable.

 

[thesoup]

Next up: Australian studio making Divinity: Stones of Arnhem

That's inconceivable.

I believe a golden baby can fly.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

I'd rather see Eastern European studio making Divinity: Kurwa edition. Just not the King's Bounty guys though. They somehow managed to hire worse writers than Larian.

 

[DraQ]

I wonder what's wrong with Larian's writers, BTW, I really enjoyed Divinity 2 snark.

 

[Roguey]

The company that made The Old Republic wasn't Bioware. It was studio EA already had and they slapped the name Bioware onto it.

Edmonton people worked on The Old Repubilc either on location or remotely e.g. James Ohlen, Georg Zoeller, Drew Karpyshyn, Jennifer and Chris Hepler, Mary Kirby.

I wonder what's wrong with Larian's writers, BTW, I really enjoyed Divinity 2 snark.

Divinity 2 had Rhianna Pratchett scriptdoctoring.

 

[DraQ]

I also quite enjoyed DC dialogue.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

In Dragon Commander they were able to just focus on a small cast of characters instead of dozens of NPCs like they usually do.

 

[thesoup]

The company that made The Old Republic wasn't Bioware. It was studio EA already had and they slapped the name Bioware onto it.

Edmonton people worked on The Old Repubilc either on location or remotely e.g. James Ohlen, Georg Zoeller, Drew Karpyshyn, Jennifer and Chris Hepler, Mary Kirby.

I wonder what's wrong with Larian's writers, BTW, I really enjoyed Divinity 2 snark.

Divinity 2 had Rhianna Pratchett scriptdoctoring.

That basically means she didn't write any of the jokes or snark.

 

[DraQ]

In Dragon Commander they were able to just focus on a small cast of characters instead of dozens of NPCs like they usually do.

Meanwhile in Divinity 2 they had a larger cast of characters, so they focused on protagonist and some lulzy side encounters. It worked.
Why didn't they do a comparable write-up in DOS?

As it is, I'm enjoying DOS but still consider that other game where I can't make DIY fuel-air explosions with poison clouds superior which definitely shouldn't be the case.
Just because I could yell "Maxos!" at an asshole or make dimwitted bandit's brain sore (before I made it into an abstract artwork).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

As it is, I'm enjoying DOS but still consider that other game where I can't make DIY fuel-air explosions with poison clouds superior which definitely shouldn't be the case.
Just because I could yell "Maxos!" at an asshole or make dimwitted bandit's brain sore (before I made it into an abstract artwork).

I'd endure any damn shit from Larian's writers just to yell "Maxos!" again.

 

[vonAchdorf]

You don't have to play them. Just buy it.

That's how a fair share of PnP rule and source books get sold. And I'm pretty sure that works for games too.

 

[krist2]

You don't have to play them. Just buy it.

That's how a fair share of PnP rule and source books get sold. And I'm pretty sure that works for games too.

Yeah, I have quite a few games I have bought but havent played that much. I don't have that much time to play all the games I would like to play, but I have the means to support them even if I don't play them

 

[Zeriel]

I think Sven can manage. If they've lasted this long, I think they can endure. How they managed to stay afloat in the first place is pretty fucking baffling to begin with considering how many studios who have produced much more popular games went down the toilet.

People really underestimate Swen's pure hardheaded business sense. When Troika couldn't get a game contract for a few months, they just folded and broke up. When Larian couldn't do the same thing, Swen shrugged and started doing education shovelware for government and outside businesses. Guy has his looming ambition to make that RPG he hasn't made yet, and just doesn't give a fuck about the obstacles in the way or his "integrity" or whatever the fuck holds back most RPG developers who complain instead of just doing.

 

[Modron]

When Troika couldn't get a game contract for a few months, they just folded and broke up. When Larian couldn't do the same thing, Swen shrugged and started doing education shovelware for government and outside businesses.

Didn't Troika look into going down the same route with an army sim project or something? They were just way too far away from kickstarting to have made that a viable long term plan.

 

[Zeriel]

When Troika couldn't get a game contract for a few months, they just folded and broke up. When Larian couldn't do the same thing, Swen shrugged and started doing education shovelware for government and outside businesses.

Didn't Troika look into going down the same route with an army sim project or something? They were just way too far away from kickstarting to have made that a viable long term plan.

Yeah, they did, but ultimately decided not to. Most independent studios who fail go that route: they realize they'd have to work on something they don't like, then call it quits and reorg to new studios instead of trying to do piecemeal work on stuff they dislike. Swen has talked about that era in the past, as I recall he said they did lose a number of good devs in that period, so it's pretty impressive they managed to recoup and still make quality games.

 

[Infinitron]

When Troika couldn't get a game contract for a few months, they just folded and broke up. When Larian couldn't do the same thing, Swen shrugged and started doing education shovelware for government and outside businesses.

Didn't Troika look into going down the same route with an army sim project or something? They were just way too far away from kickstarting to have made that a viable long term plan.

Yeah, they did, but ultimately decided not to. Most independent studios who fail go that route: they realize they'd have to work on something they don't like, then call it quits and reorg to new studios instead of trying to do piecemeal work on stuff they dislike. Swen has talked about that era in the past, as I recall he said they did lose a number of good devs in that period, so it's pretty impressive they managed to recoup and still make quality games.

It helps when you're the only major game developer in your country, instead of being surrounded by them in SoCal.

 

[Roguey]

People really underestimate Swen's pure hardheaded business sense. When Troika couldn't get a game contract for a few months, they just folded and broke up. When Larian couldn't do the same thing, Swen shrugged and started doing education shovelware for government and outside businesses. Guy has his looming ambition to make that RPG he hasn't made yet, and just doesn't give a fuck about the obstacles in the way or his "integrity" or whatever the fuck holds back most RPG developers who complain instead of just doing.

Tim Cain had plenty of offers for game projects, he just had zero interest in working on them.