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

[Jarpie]

{snip}

Yet I still don't have mine nor heard a word from Larian in over four days...

Same here.

 

[Roguey]

"You dumbfuck."

It was a sarcastic post, Volly.

inXile is smaller than Larian and they figured out the box problem by contracting it to people who know how to do it. Cargo cult, etc.

 

[34scell]

inXile is smaller than Larian and they figured out the box problem by contracting it to people who know how to do it. Cargo cult, etc.

Is this one of those comedic non-sequiturs? I don't get it.

 

[Roguey]

Is this one of those comedic non-sequiturs? I don't get it.

Vincke's had it up to here when it comes to the effort involved in making boxes and Steam-DRM drama and retail-driven release dates so he said he's not making boxes anymore. Larian fanboys are excusing this by saying Larian is too small for boxes to be viable. Meanwhile, over in the states, inXile just had a publisher come in to handle everything box-related. Obsidian did the same thing. As JES said

Yeah Paradox isn't funding or directing our development in any way. They're handling things that would be very hard/time consuming for us: physical fulfillment and general distribution. Over half of our backers are in Europe. I'm not sure why anyone would want us to spend their money and our time personally handling fulfillment. It was heartwarming to see Stoic figuring out how to get thousands of Banner Saga posters out of their house and shipped out to people but that's not really what developers are built to do.

As I understand it, Stoic is barely a company and yet the much-larger Larian is making decisions on par with theirs.

 

[Darkzone]

Yes Roguey it is an undeniable truth that Larian made some small mistakes, like:
Do not include an option to upgrade a Kickstarter pledge.
Do not let a publisher / dedicated company handle their physical goods and sending it to the buyers / backers.

But they have the option to learn from their mistakes, and like Apple copy others good ideas. InXile and Obsidian understood to manage this better.
They are a game development company, and they should only develop games, and not send packages, for this are others there.

Also to add:
40 people involved in the same project at the same time, does not make them small, but rather a medium sized company with a medium sized project.

 

[Coboney]

Vincke's had it up to here when it comes to the effort involved in making boxes and Steam-DRM drama and retail-driven release dates so he said he's not making boxes anymore. Larian fanboys are excusing this by saying Larian is too small for boxes to be viable. Meanwhile, over in the states, inXile just had a publisher come in to handle everything box-related. Obsidian did the same thing. As JES said

Yes Roguey it is an undeniable truth that Larian made some small mistakes, like:
Do not include an option to upgrade a Kickstarter pledge.
Do not let a publisher / dedicated company handle their physical goods and sending it to the buyers / backers.

But they have the option to learn from their mistakes, and like Apple copy others good ideas. InXile and Obsidian understood to manage this better.
They are a game development company, and they should only develop games, and not send packages, for this are others there.

Also to add:
40 people involved in the same project at the same time, does not make them small, but rather a medium sized company with a medium sized project.

I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us. Its like being surprised their writing is light hearted, silly and sometimes a touch wince-worthy when it fumbles on those points - its something the company has right now. It could stand to improve it but the lack of the business person has on several occasions led to Swen and Larian taking chances few would for better or worst. On the better side we have D:OS which being an all in gamble has turned out pretty good. On the bad side we can see things like the original release of Ego Draconis or as above the box issue.

And yes, Larian is part of an emerging mid-tier game developer market that had been getting drowned out by AAA markets. They aren't a large company but they are far from some of the smaller ones (and yes its tier based and while inxile might be a bit smaller its in the same general area). Crowdfunding has helped these - as has Early Access and other alternative funding streams as well as the fact that they tend to look at niches more and the fact that the AAA market tends to continue to flanderize itself further all the time from the original successes they are attempting to imitate.

 

[Darkzone]

Larian and InXile are very difficult topics. Both were at times nearly at the end, and both are flying now.
What Swen lacks, is in my opinion is only some experience with this new model of game development, but he can learn to better manage things.
Also he has shown, that he can listen to his targeted consumers, and that is enough for me to buy / support their projects / games at Kickstarter. (As long as this are such kind of RPGs like D:OS.)
I have never doubt that they will not deliver a good product, because their way of doing the Kickstarter, has proven that they can do it. In my opinion this was the best Kickstarter for a computer game, and in this aspect InXile and Obsidian can learn from Larian.
On the economic side of business, Larian have made a smart thing by splitting the risk on concurrent / intersecting development of two different projects. But splitting the risk, can sometimes also mean to splitting the chances (and not to double it) or risking the quality of both projects.
This 'ALL IN' thing is not a good decision in economy, but for a newcomer or a aspiring group, it may pay off, if they have nothing to lose. And that happend with D:OS.
One may think that this was a despair decision, after the Problems with DC, but i would rather state, that Swen has seen with the success of the D:OS Kickstarter, where Larians priorities should be.

Depending of the realease quality of W2 or PoE, Larian will be more or less in the main focus of the RPG players and communities. And that is a victory for Larian.

 

[Volourn]

"I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us. Its like being surprised their writing is light hearted, silly and sometimes a touch wince-worthy when it fumbles on those points - its something the company has right now. It could stand to improve it but the lack of the business person has on several occasions led to Swen and Larian taking chances few would for better or worst. On the better side we have D:OS which being an all in gamble has turned out pretty good. On the bad side we can see things like the original release of Ego Draconis or as above the box issue.

And yes, Larian is part of an emerging mid-tier game developer market that had been getting drowned out by AAA markets. They aren't a large company but they are far from some of the smaller ones (and yes its tier based and while inxile might be a bit smaller its in the same general area). Crowdfunding has helped these - as has Early Access and other alternative funding streams as well as the fact that they tend to look at niches more and the fact that the AAA market tends to continue to flanderize itself further all the time from the original successes they are attempting to imitate."

Oh, shut up. Larian isn't some tiny developer with no experience. They've been around for years. Thsi is like the 6th or so game in this franchise. They've had games sell over a million copies. They've had quite a bit of experiences. Stop being a lameo.

 

[mindx2]

Yep, it looks like it's impressive run atop the Steam charts is over. It's fallen to fourth but one can't help but be impressed that it stayed at the #1 spot for so long, considering it was such a Codex Favorite "niche" game.

 

[:Flash:]

I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us.

It's a little funny saying that Swen lacks the management skills because his company has hit hard times, and citing Urquhart and Fargo as positive examples, when they ran their companies into the ground during the same time Larian was in trouble, but managed to stay afloat.
How many independent mid-size game developers from 1996 are still around? Wouldn't that feat alone make Swen one of the most acute management dudes in the industry?


I have followed Larian since before the release of Divinity (back then their fan base was almost exclusively German, because of the LMK Dark Eye game). And it doesn't surprise me at all that their way of running the kickstarter went so well. That is just the way that company was run even back then, with very tight community integration. A whole lot of characters in the original Divinity are forum members, and even the way those characters behave was according to a in-forum RPG were everyone posted in-character. We had chats every Friday night, were developers participated, it was a great time.

BTW, I still think we need the drunken Swen smiley:

 

[Irenaeus]

Wow, that sounds cool.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Too bad.
Does anyone have any recent sales figures?

 

[commie]

Larian is a small time dev and by ordering boxed set you've created additional pain and expenses for them. Thanks for contributing . They will not do it ever again.

Makes no sense. If you're too cheap to buy a boxed copy of a game that's your business. If Larian didn't want people to buy boxed versions they shouldn't have offered them. If they don't do it again then great! Means that I have an even more unique piece of gaming history on my shelf!

It was a great deal though, when you think that the beta became a full retail, it means that I got 3 copies of the game plus physical goodies for less than the price of a digital collector's edition on Steam.




Oh and when the rest of the crowd get theirs they will be pleasantly surprised by the errors on the back that were fixed for the retail collector's edition. This makes it like the Inverted Jenny stamp, a real rarity, gonna be worth Squillions!

 

[HiddenX]

Yep, it looks like it's impressive run atop the Steam charts is over. It's fallen to fourth but one can't help but be impressed that it stayed at the #1 spot for so long, considering it was such a Codex Favorite "niche" game.

mindx2, after all the success and great reviews from major sites I wouldn't call D:OS a "niche" game anymore. It's a fantastic modern game that sells oldschool values and mechanics in an ergonomic GUI and some new innovative ideas as well. It's an anti-streamlining non-casual interesting and challenging CRPG.

 

[Darkion]

BTW, I still think we need the drunken Swen smiley:

Why is this not a thing Codex?


If it's for lack of space we can swap it for this unnecessary one:

 

[JarlFrank]

All in all, the game has been way more successful than Swen would ever have imagined (he was already pleasantly surprised when the game broke even in the first few days after release already) and even if it stops being a top seller now, it already made shitloads of cash for Larian AND it will continue to do so over the next months and even years, every sale will bring money directly to Larian with no pesky publisher to take his share. Even a steam summer sale next year can give Larian even more money. This is their biggest cash cow as of yet, not only because of the popularity but also because of the lack of publisher.

THIS IS A TOTAL SLAM DUNK

 

[Athelas]

I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us.

It's a little funny saying that Swen lacks the management skills because his company has hit hard times, and citing Urquhart and Fargo as positive examples, when they ran their companies into the ground during the same time Larian was in trouble, but managed to stay afloat.

Ran into the ground? Last time I checked, Obsidian and InXile were still around. Not that I would agree with the sentiment that Larian has bad business sense, mind you.

 

[:Flash:]

I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us.

It's a little funny saying that Swen lacks the management skills because his company has hit hard times, and citing Urquhart and Fargo as positive examples, when they ran their companies into the ground during the same time Larian was in trouble, but managed to stay afloat.

Ran into the ground? Last time I checked, Obsidian and InXile were still around. Not that I would agree with the sentiment that Larian has bad business sense, mind you.

I meant Interplay and Black Isle, which were still at full steam when Larian was founded. "Ran into the ground" is possibly not the right choice of words, though, sold to Herve would be more precise.

 

[Athelas]

I think its safe to say that Larian is weaker when it comes to the business management side of things in a lot of ways. They aren't Doublefine but they don't have someone like Feargus or Fargo with the business experience and understanding to go with the clout to make the right industry choices in several areas. At times that has helped them with doing unexpected things that work out - at other times like the boxes, Dragon Commander or such it has really hurt them. On this type of thing we can also see how they've almost hit the bottom a few times that Swen has remarked so its not like the fact that Larian lacks raw business savvy should really be a surprise to us.

It's a little funny saying that Swen lacks the management skills because his company has hit hard times, and citing Urquhart and Fargo as positive examples, when they ran their companies into the ground during the same time Larian was in trouble, but managed to stay afloat.

Ran into the ground? Last time I checked, Obsidian and InXile were still around. Not that I would agree with the sentiment that Larian has bad business sense, mind you.

I meant Interplay and Black Isle, which were still at full steam when Larian was founded. "Ran into the ground" is possibly not the right choice of words, though, sold to Herve would be more precise.

Well, selling to Herve would still fall under the definition of 'ran into the ground'. Of course, Interplay with its hundreds of employees and shareholder structure was a very difficult beast to manage and IIRC the problems were already starting to pile up in 1996.

 

[Makagulfazel]

Cargo cult, etc.

 

[mindx2]

Yep, it looks like it's impressive run atop the Steam charts is over. It's fallen to fourth but one can't help but be impressed that it stayed at the #1 spot for so long, considering it was such a Codex Favorite "niche" game.

mindx2, after all the success and great reviews from major sites I wouldn't call D:OS a "niche" game anymore. It's a fantastic modern game that sells oldschool values and mechanics in an ergonomic GUI and some new innovative ideas as well. It's an anti-streamlining non-casual interesting and challenging CRPG.

Thus the sarcasm...

 

[Volourn]

"How many independent mid-size game developers from 1996 are still around?"

Bioware.
\

Also, has the game sold a million+ yet? 'Cause it hasn't it means it failed to live up to DD and if they can't even outsell that EPIC FAIL.

 

[Athelas]

"How many independent mid-size game developers from 1996 are still around?"

Bioware.

You have a strange definition of the word 'independent'.

 

[Volourn]

But, they were independent in '96. The question was how many independent mid size game developers FROM 1996 are still around. Cearly, that is BIo even if they aren't independent any more. LMFAO

 

[tuluse]

Of course Black Isle was not independent, which is the biggest reason it's not still around (since it remained profitable to end).