Game News Divinity: Original Sin has sold 160,000 copies, already approaching profitability

[clemens]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

 

[Infinitron]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

That seems unlikely to me. Just in terms of time spent in development, including Larian creating their own proprietary engine in that time, it doesn't make much sense.

How are developer salaries in Belgium compared to Southern California?

 

[Athelas]

They are paid in waffles.

I don't find it impossible to believe. Larian is a lot more experienced.

 

[clemens]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

That seems unlikely to me. Just in terms of time spent in development, including Larian creating their own proprietary engine, it just doesn't make much sense.

How are developer salaries in Belgium compared to Southern California?

I think Swen mentionned how much one of their developper costs for one year in one of his blog posts. Can't remember the figure, though. Maybe something like 80k euros ?

 

[Infinitron]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

That seems unlikely to me. Just in terms of time spent in development, including Larian creating their own proprietary engine, it just doesn't make much sense.

How are developer salaries in Belgium compared to Southern California?

I think Swen mentionned how much one of their developper costs for one year in one of his blog posts. Can't remember the figure, though. Maybe something like 80k euros ?

Can't find that, but here's something else: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/05/larian-on-near-closure-divinitys-future-gender-parity/

The financial side, actually, surprisingly, is the least interesting part of it. Obviously it helps, but it’s not sufficient to drive forward a team of 40 people for so many months. If you do a quick calculation – this is very underestimated – let’s say 5,000 euros for 40 people, that’s 200,000 euros, which gives you five months of work for a million euros. Or even less, more like four months of work. You obviously can’t do that. But the advantages in QA, the advantages from word of mouth, are worth their weight in gold.

 

[Perkel]

Belgium i think has better wages than US pretaxes and nessesites. Also if you compare EU to US wages you need to adjust that EU wages are post tax post hiden tax. In EU for example health insurance is in your wages same as retirement and other shit in US it is arbitrary depending on who you are working for and what your insurance plan is. So for example US dev getting 100k yearly can be actually lower than EU dev getting 75k yearly

 

[Morality Games]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

About 91% of Wasteland II's budget, buttttttt in development for almost twice as long (four years to what should be inXile's two and a half).

 

[Ramireza]

Good for you Larian.
So, D:OS budget was roughly the same as InXile's budget for W2 ?

Belgium, stronk, Murica, weak.

This proves once more that InXile are untalented wannabe gamedesigners.

 

[Darkzone]

Very good news, that validates my opinion about D:OS, Larian and Swen.
While the Kickstarter was running, i have predicted 200k sales, later i have doubled the number, and today i can even think off 600k-700k sales, if not more. I don't know if Larian can acquire Ultima license, because EA holds currently this brand. And i think Garriott would be the first in line for the rights. But, perhaps if Swen talks to Brian. Then can Brian (because of his connections) try to convince EA, to give Larian the rights to Ultima.

Cyberarmy
For Arcanum it is the best, if Obsidian would uses this license, for a sequel. Ohh Darksun or a similar world would be fantastic.

Davaris
Yes i strongly agree, with your statement. All the way. And now it pays off, for Larian.

 

[Morality Games]

Very good news, that validates my opinion about D:OS, Larian and Swen.
While the Kickstarter was running, i have predicted 200k sales, later i have doubled the number, and today i can even think off 600k-700k sales, if not more. I don't know if Larian can acquire Ultima license, because EA holds currently this brand. And i think Garriott would be the first in line for the rights. But, perhaps if Swen talks to Brian. Then can Brian (because of his connections) try to convince EA, to give Larian the rights to Ultima.

Cyberarmy
For Arcanum it is the best, if Obsidian would uses this license, for a sequel. Ohh Darksun or a similar world would be fantastic.

Davaris
Yes i strongly agree, with your statement. All the way. And now it pays off, for Larian.

This is the era of spiritual successors. The old licenses are tied up in development hell.

 

[Perkel]

Very good news, that validates my opinion about D:OS, Larian and Swen.
While the Kickstarter was running, i have predicted 200k sales, later i have doubled the number, and today i can even think off 600k-700k sales, if not more. I don't know if Larian can acquire Ultima license, because EA holds currently this brand. And i think Garriott would be the first in line for the rights. But, perhaps if Swen talks to Brian. Then can Brian (because of his connections) try to convince EA, to give Larian the rights to Ultima.

If TW1 can sell 1mln+ then i don't see how Larian will have problems with selling this game above 1mln.

 

[Outmind]

They have a zippy C++ engine and their art was made to suit the kind of game they were making. So it runs on low end machines and looks great, which means a huge potential audience. It was a professional job all the way.

Can confirm. My 7 yo rust bucket runs it with ease.

 

[Crooked Bee]

For those wondering, Swen just confirmed to me that Early Access is included in that 160,000 figure:

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/484664658918662144

Infinitron

 

[MicoSelva]

LoL @ Ultima and Gothic licenses. They will never get Ultima license unless they pry it from EA's dying hands, or overpay for it so the game won't be worth making any more.

Although if I were to guess, Ultima was the license they were trying to get, as mentioned in the article.

As for the Gothic license, they neither need it nor (probably) want it, not to mention Gothic games being a compeltely different type of RPG. Larian probably do not want to go back to the single-char TPP ARPG style, and I don't want them to that either.

 

[tindrli]

sadly the game can barely run on my HP 630 even with 800x600 i have like 15 FPS max

 

[t]

For those wondering, Swen just confirmed to me that Early Access is included in that 160,000 figure:

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/484664658918662144

Infinitron

And Steam Summer Sale was definitely a huge chunk of it. That's probably why they've introduced this quaint way of dollar-to-euro exchange.

 

[Infinitron]

For those wondering, Swen just confirmed to me that Early Access is included in that 160,000 figure:

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/484664658918662144

Infinitron

Ask him how much of the sales are from the Summer Sale discount.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Nah, don't wanna bother him too much

 

[sser]

I wonder if those numbers include buying the two copy bundles.

D:OS was one of the few Kickstarters I knew would be good upon seeing it. That said, the game has blown me away. It's massive, the engine is amazing even on my shitty laptop, and there's a lot of charm in the writing without it being overbearing a la most indie-crazed RPGs/adventure games.

Larian has set a pretty high bar for the rest of the Kickstarter RPG-projects to look up to, IMO.

 

[Darkzone]

Perkel this was the lower end estimate of the sales numbers at the full price (over $30). It can sell well over 2 Million times, but probably not for the full price. And i'm glad for every sale they make, because i have my fun with D:OS and Larian's kickstarter.

http://forum.vbulletin-germany.com/misc.php?s=ce4e49a1bb40a1a7160e78721fed5fa2&do=bbcode#quote

This is the era of spiritual successors. The old licenses are tied up in development hell.http://forum.vbulletin-germany.com/misc.php?s=ce4e49a1bb40a1a7160e78721fed5fa2&do=bbcode#quote

http://forum.vbulletin-germany.com/misc.php?s=ce4e49a1bb40a1a7160e78721fed5fa2&do=bbcode#quote
Yes that is true. But Brain has a hand for resurrecting things in a way or another.
Attention: I didn't say if it is good or not, and not if the product is good or bad.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't know if there's a serious chance of EA relinquishing their grip on Ultima, but it's certainly more likely today than it was two years ago.

 

[Morality Games]

I don't know if there's a serious chance of EA relinquishing their grip on Ultima, but it's certainly more likely today than it was two years ago.

Not sure I see that. EA almost certainly resents the growth and success of these indie RPGs as impediments to inflating the value of their own in-house RPG studio, as if more were needed on top of their own institutional shortcomings.

Besides, none of the executive personnel at EA are willing to be responsible if they sell a long dormant franchise and a business rival turns it into the next Skyrim. The shareholders will be out for blood. It's what we call a "career ending move."

 

[sser]

I don't know if there's a serious chance of EA relinquishing their grip on Ultima, but it's certainly more likely today than it was two years ago.

Isn't EA actually developing some kind of mobile/MMO type Ultima right now? I don't really follow licensing talk that much, but I know it has some relation to Ultima, maybe it's a... uh, "spiritual" relation.

Edit: Though now that I think about it they could go the M&M-franchise way, making various type of genre games off one brand.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't know if there's a serious chance of EA relinquishing their grip on Ultima, but it's certainly more likely today than it was two years ago.

Not sure I see that. EA almost certainly resents the growth and success of these indie RPGs as impediments to inflating the value of their own in-house RPG studio, as if more were needed on top of their own institutional shortcomings.

Besides, none of the executive personnel at EA are willing to be responsible if they sell a long dormant franchise and a business rival turns it into the next Skyrim. The shareholders will be out for blood. It's what we call a "career ending move."

Who said anything about selling? I meant licensing it to an external developer (like Larian).

I don't know if there's a serious chance of EA relinquishing their grip on Ultima, but it's certainly more likely today than it was two years ago.

Isn't EA actually developing some kind of mobile/MMO type Ultima right now? I don't really follow licensing talk that much, but I know it has some relation to Ultima, maybe it's a... uh, "spiritual" relation.

You're out of date. That was released a while ago on iOS, then bombed: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...unt-ultimas-corpse.74084/page-34#post-3268915

The developer has since been shut down: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/mythic-entertainment-is-dead.91971/

Now is a good time for a change.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So is this game any good?
Never bothered looking at it.