Larian General Discussion Thread

[KeAShizuku]

Belgium: Dutch decadence and degeneracy but with the Southern European work ethic. They're perennially broke but much to the despondence of their northern neighbours somehow Belgium continues to survive. It is a nation and people that defies economic law.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Haha the squirrel talks. Guess what, if you attack the barrel it explodes with goo and anyone who stands in the goo gets the +1 goo effect.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/ba...mbitions-of-the-one-we-want-to-release-first/

Baldur's Gate 3 studio wanted to make 2 RPGs at once, but its devs "got swallowed by the ambitions of the one we want to release first"​

Making 2 games at once is pretty much as hard as it sounds
Baldur's Gate 3 studio Larian is supposed to be working on two new RPGs at once, but it seems that's easier said than done.


Speaking to PC Gamer, Larian CEO and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke explained that developing two RPGs at the same time is proving a challenge for the studio. "We had some people who were dedicated to the other one, and they just got swallowed by the ambitions of the one that we want to release first. So we will try and do it concurrently, but we have to figure out how to leave people alone."


For a studio as ambitious as Larian that makes games as sprawling as Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2, perhaps that steep learning curve isn't too surprising. Vincke notes that "we always say we do [want to rein in our ambitions], but then we start thinking, and the machine is meant to make large games. We were made for making large, ambitious RPGs and to try new stuff."
"One of the core problems - it's not really a problem - but one of the core problems to do what you're suggesting is that we actually know what we want from our gameplay systems, how to evolve them, how to do new things…and they're all big."

Vincke is still keeping quiet about what either one of those two RPGs is, but we do know that neither one is Baldur's Gate 4. The studio did begin prototyping ideas for a sequel, but "they didn't excite us. Instead, D&D owner Hasbro is looking around for new partners, with the hope that a new Baldur's Gate game doesn't take two decades to come out. It'll be interesting to see how that timeline shapes up with Larian's own schedule, but something tells me we'll probably be seeing both of those new RPGs before a new Baldur's Gate.

 

[Swen]

https://nl.ign.com/baldurs-gate-iii...in-2028-2029-maar-releasedatum-blijft-onzeker

Expect next game 2028.

 

[cioran]

 

[Infinitron]

english mf do you speak it https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-studios-head-suggests-next-game-2029

Baldur's Gate 3 Dev Suggests Next Game May Come in 2029, but Maybe Not: ‘Don’t Hold Us to a Date’​

Larian Studios head Swen Vincke says these are big games and they take time to make.​

Larian Studios head Swen Vincke suggested during an acceptance speech at an awards ceremony in Malaysia today that fans could expect the studio’s next game in around 2028 or 2029. Speaking on stage at the SEA Game Awards 2024 where the company received a Special Recognition Award, Vincke said, “We need to work hard on the next game so we can be back here in five years”.

But speaking to IGN immediately afterwards, he walked it back, saying with a chuckle, “I knew you’d pick up on that. It was just a joke. I don’t know, we’ll release it when it’s ready. They’re big games and it takes time, so don’t hold us to a date.”

Larian Studios opened multiple development studios around the world to aid with the development of Baldur’s Gate 3, as part of its “following the sun” concept of 24-hour game development, with teams handing off work to the next time zone at the end of their work day to speed up development without the need for crunch. In addition to Kuala Lumpur, the company also has studios in Barcelona, Dublin, Guildford, Quebec, Warsaw and its original home of Ghent.

“We make very large games,” observed Vincke, explaining how the global teams work together for more efficient development. “An easy example to understand is testing the game. Our KL team can give the game to Europe at the end of their work day, and then Europe can give it to North America, and then they can give it back to KL – and that way we can test Baldur’s Gate 3 in a week, whereas usually we would need a month to test it. It doesn’t work for every element but it works for quite a lot of things.”

Vincke chose Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as the location for Larian’s Asia studio after he was impressed by the city’s large English-speaking talent pool. “There was also a very vibrant art and animation industry here, so we thought there was a grounds to build from,” he said. “The studio in KL owns quite a lot of the game. Dark Urge was made in Malaysia, and the lead scripter for House of Hope was here too.

“One of our team members told me yesterday that she used to feel she was just an outsourcer, but now she feels like a game developer, so a shift has happened in their heads, which is nice to see.”

Regarding its next project, Larian has previously announced that it is making more than one game, at least one of which will seemingly be a brand new title instead of an entry in the Baldur’s Gate or Divinity series. At the SEA Game Awards today, Vincke declined to comment on which of their multiple projects will be next or what kind of game it will be. But in more general terms, he said that following up a hit as massive as Baldur’s Gate 3 is “very stressy”.

 

[KVVRR]

to surprise of no one

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Yeah would match the timeline more or less.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

If Swen's still after his Dream RPG to Dwarf Them All, he better hurry. No wonder he abandoned D&D though, job of getting into the spotlight fulfilled.


Dev cycles have become completely out of hand. Even the entire Asses in the original Ass Effect Trilogy had still been crapped out for a single generation of console hardware. Meanwhile: Starfield, 8 years. BG3, 7 years (and roughly a decade if you include the first failed pitch to WOTC and effort put into getting the deal done). Take a look at what happened to Cyberpunk when a studio refused and tried to "rush" it (5 years). By the time Toddster rolls the last bugfix for TES VI out, kids made on 11/11/11 are gonna have their driver's license. And on smaller scales, even the last major Obsidian release is now half a decade old.

And what for? All for a few lousy upgrades in visual fidelity, inevitably developed on the newest, but least tested tech. Show me ONE experience that's gotten this much better because of higher visual fidelity in the past two generations of hardware. Exception being simulations and the like, where digital realism is the core of the gig. Oh, and Jen-Hsun Huang's return on pixel perfection investment. People gotta justify paying hundreds of bucks for mid-range hardware these days SOMEHOW.

 

[Swen]

If Swen's still after his Dream RPG to Dwarf Them All, he better hurry. No wonder he abandoned D&D though, job of getting into the spotlight fulfilled.


Dev cycles have become completely out of hand. Even the entire Asses in the original Ass Effect Trilogy had still been crapped out for a single generation of console hardware. Meanwhile: Starfield, 8 years. BG3, 7 years (and roughly a decade if you include the first failed pitch to WOTC and effort put into getting the deal done). Take a look at what happened to Cyberpunk when a studio refused and tried to "rush" it (5 years). By the time Toddster rolls the last bugfix for TES VI out, kids made on 11/11/11 are gonna have their driver's license. And on smaller scales, even the last major Obsidian release is now half a decade old.

And what for? All for a few lousy upgrades in visual fidelity, inevitably developed on the newest, but least tested tech. Show me ONE experience that's gotten this much better because of higher visual fidelity in the past two generations of hardware. Exception being simulations and the like, where digital realism is the core of the gig. Oh, and Jen-Hsun Huang's return on pixel perfection investment. People gotta justify paying hundreds of bucks for mid-range hardware these days SOMEHOW.

AI going to change all that. Also Larian is a much bigger studio now with almost 500 people.

 

[scytheavatar]

If Swen's still after his Dream RPG to Dwarf Them All, he better hurry. No wonder he abandoned D&D though, job of getting into the spotlight fulfilled.


Dev cycles have become completely out of hand. Even the entire Asses in the original Ass Effect Trilogy had still been crapped out for a single generation of console hardware. Meanwhile: Starfield, 8 years. BG3, 7 years (and roughly a decade if you include the first failed pitch to WOTC and effort put into getting the deal done). Take a look at what happened to Cyberpunk when a studio refused and tried to "rush" it (5 years). By the time Toddster rolls the last bugfix for TES VI out, kids made on 11/11/11 are gonna have their driver's license. And on smaller scales, even the last major Obsidian release is now half a decade old.

And what for? All for a few lousy upgrades in visual fidelity, inevitably developed on the newest, but least tested tech. Show me ONE experience that's gotten this much better because of higher visual fidelity in the past two generations of hardware. Exception being simulations and the like, where digital realism is the core of the gig. Oh, and Jen-Hsun Huang's return on pixel perfection investment. People gotta justify paying hundreds of bucks for mid-range hardware these days SOMEHOW.

Don't forget COVID fucked every dev and added 1-2 years to the development time of every game. Also it was only 1 year after DOS2's release that WOTC signed the deal to allow Larian to make BG3. I expect 2028 as when Larian's next game will be released, 2029 is probably a worst case scenario.

 

[StrongBelwas]

https://www.independent.ie/business...profit-after-runaway-success/a2033961431.html

Dublin firm behind Baldur’s Gate game posts €249m profit after runaway success​

non paywalled summary
https://web.archive.org/web/2024112...d260-million-profit-of-baldurs-bucks-in-2023/

The Irish Independent (users may encounter a paywall) has reported that Larian has posted a €249 million pre-tax profit for 2023⁠—that's almost $260 million freedom dollary-doos for those of us without adequate digital privacy protections. The runaway success of Baldur's Gate 3 saw Larian increase its overall revenue almost twentyfold from 2022.

The figures were posted by Larian's Dublin-based holding company. Though still primarily headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, the Independent reports that Larian runs its revenue through its Dublin office, which also houses much of the studio's writing team. Favorable Irish tax laws have seen a number of corporations base their European or worldwide headquarters in Ireland.


Larian brought in €427 million ($446 million) in overall revenue last year, with the Independent citing 15 million copies sold of Baldur's Gate 3⁠—though Larian itself hasn't released precise sales numbers. In December of last year, SteamSpy estimated there were 20 million owners of the game on Steam alone, while Larian publishing director Michael Douse referred to Baldur's Gate 3 having "way over" 10 million players in February of this year. For its part, Dungeons & Dragons owner Hasbro took home a tidy $90 million in revenue for Baldur's Gate 3.

This is all in contrast with a pretty quiet year for Larian in 2022: The company reported €22.7 million ($24 million) in total revenue, with Larian actually operating at a €214,000 ($223,000) loss. It's a pretty stark reminder of how volatile the business of making games can be, with developers having to spend a great deal of money over a long period of time before (hopefully) making it all up and then some with a successful launch.

In Gameumentary's 2018 documentary on Divinity: Original Sin, Swen Vincke and Larian employees spoke at length about their wilderness years of being an independent RPG studio in the 2000s. Larian went through several lean periods, suffering layoffs and contracting on educational games before finding stability with the Kickstarter and sales success of Original Sin 1.

But those days are long gone⁠—Larian's building quite the war chest for its development of two yet-to-be-announced RPG projects. It also remains an independent studio, the largest of its kind with perhaps Valve as the only other comparable example in the industry. Though Tencent is a major investor and minority shareholder in the company, founder and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke is still owner and CEO.

In a piece shortly after BG3's release, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier credited Larian's continued flourishing in the face of the industry layoff crisis to the company's independence and Vincke's leadership⁠—absent the competing incentives imposed by a publicly traded company's many shareholders, Larian and Vincke's main financial constraint becomes just making payroll, not making a line go up.

And 2024 looks to have been a similarly bountiful year for Larian: Whatever the sales numbers are, Baldur's Gate 3 has seen more daily users on average than last year. After a lifetime of getting used to my beloved hardcore CRPGs not selling well and their developers going under, my crusty, Grinchlike heart has grown three sizes at seeing Larian take home W after W.

 

[MerchantKing]

AI going to change all that.

I seriously doubt that.

 

[duskvile]

They could dive into non-isometric realtime RPG. Think of Ultima but in first person open world action RPG. They should make new IP beside Divinity.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...entire-videogame-industry-at-the-game-awards/

Larian boss Swen Vincke calls out pretty much the entire videogame industry at The Game Awards​

Vincke returned to The Game Awards to share the secret formula of running a successful studio: "It's stupidly simple, but it keeps on getting lost."

Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke took the stage at The Game Awards, not to claim an award this time but to present one—the biggest award of all, in fact, Game of the Year. But he used his time in front of the microphone to first share some thoughts about the current state of the videogame industry, and where it's all gone wrong.

Vincke started off by saying that not only will he be the first person to know who wins game of the year tonight, he also knows who will win the next year, and the next year, and the year after that. He learned this information, he said, from an oracle, who told him that change is coming.

"The oracle told me that the Game of the Year 2025 is going to be made by a studio who found the formula to make it up here on stage," Vincke said. "It's stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost. A studio makes a game because they want to make a game they want to play themselves. They created it because it hadn't been created before. They didn't make it to increase market share. They didn't make it to serve the brand. They didn't have to meet arbitrary sales targets, or fear being laid off if they didn't meet those targets.

"Furthermore, the people in charge forbade them from cramming the game with anything whose only purpose was to increase revenue and didn't serve the game design. They didn't treat their developers like numbers on a spreadsheet. They didn't treat their players as users to exploit. And they didn't make decisions they knew were short-sighted in function of a bonus or policy. They knew that if you put the game and the team first, the revenue will follow. They were driven by idealism, and wanted players to have fun, and they realized that if the developers don't have fun, nobody was going to have any fun. They understood the value of respect, that if they treated their developers and players well, the same developers and players would forgive them when things didn't go as planned. But above all they cared about their games, because they love games. It's really that simple."

This isn't the first time Vincke has spoken out against profit-driven industry practices that have led to a decimation of the videogame industry over the past few years. In March, he blasted the corporate "greed" that's devastated game studios, saying. "I've been fighting with publishers my entire life, and I keep on seeing the same mistakes, over and over and over. It's always the quarterly profits. The only thing that matters is the numbers."

The situation has grown pressing enough that even Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, who faced criticism for avoiding the topic in 2023, addressed it directly during an early portion of the show. The first-ever Game Changer award to be handed out at The Game Awards was in fact given to Amir Satvat, for his work in supporting laid-off game developers as they seek new employment in the industry.

As is his way, Vincke ended his story on an upbeat note. "Winning Game of the Year turned out to be a life-changing event for us. It was an amazing thing. To those who will win game of the year 2024, you have no idea what's waiting for you. It's an incredible honor, and you're in for a heck of a ride. And remember, should you be told to wrap it up for tonight, you can always come back next year and chat for three minutes."

Vincke was famously hit with the "please wrap it up" sign during his Game of Year acceptance speech for Baldur's Gate 3 in 2023. It's nice to see he doesn't hold a grudge. And, believe it or not, Baldur's Gate 3 did win yet another award at The Game Awards tonight—for Best Community Support.

 

[Drakortha]

More game awards propaganda to indoctrinate consumers. And of course throw 'influencers' and the Youtube algorithm another bone to chew on.

 

[Harthwain]

I may not share his sense of humor, but I respect Swen Vincke as a fellow gamer (it really shows he is one). Larian as a game developer will die the moment he is gone, mark my words.

 

[Swen]

 

[Swen]

Chink retards review bombing BG3 because they thought Larian decided who got the GOTY award and they thought the speech was about their chink devs or something.

 

[0sacred]

Based. Let's get to 2 billion downvotes fast.

 

[Swen]

They're review bombing dos2 too now...

Look a this sh*t, do chinks think that high sales automatically mean a game is good or something?

 

[Infinitron]

https://advent.larian.com/

 

[Infinitron]

Posting the gifts:

The tree has been decorated, the presents have been prepared, and a megaphone has been gift-wrapped. Naturally. Join Aoife as we kick off Larian’s 2024 Advent Calendar with very special messages from all of our studios around the world, and maybe a surprise treat…

 

[Swen]

Posting the gifts:

The tree has been decorated, the presents have been prepared, and a megaphone has been gift-wrapped. Naturally. Join Aoife as we kick off Larian’s 2024 Advent Calendar with very special messages from all of our studios around the world, and maybe a surprise treat…

As you can see MERRY CHRISTMAS instead of happy holidays.

Larian is not woke