Owlcat's next game is an AAA title that will need full voice acting to compete with BG3

[ArchAngel]

This is pure incline, full voiceover will force them to contain verbal diarrhea to minimum.

Change my mind.

Not really when they will use AI to do it.

 

[0wca]

Owlcat founder breaks down RPG budgets and Larian’s impact on genre: “We can’t invest $200 million to make BG3”​

https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/03/18/rpg-budgets-owlcat-cannot-invest-200-million-to-make-bg3

“We made all our games with partial voiceover, because 1) it’s expensive and 2) it makes the development process extremely difficult. Especially when you have one million words,” Shpilchevskiy said. “Looking at BG3, you understand: it is becoming a must-have feature, which doesn’t guarantee you success, but if you don’t meet that bar, your game is considered one that no longer fits into the right category. So it looks like we will have to do a full voiceover for our next games.”

Based, BG3 is the new standard for CRPG's. Owlcuck and the rest need to follow or won't get good sales

Mods: is it possible to change his 'Shitposter' tag to read just 'Shit'?

 

[Rhobar121]

Personally, I wouldn't be too keen on using AI for voice acting in the near future.
Considering that legislation is always several years behind technology, it may turn out that in a few years there will be a ban from governments. If this happens, the EU will probably be the first.

Currently, AI-generated content is also very frowned upon. While a larger publisher may not give a damn, in the case of smaller ones, negative PR is quite dangerous.

 

[Harthwain]

Currently, AI-generated content is also very frowned upon. While a larger publisher may not give a damn, in the case of smaller ones, negative PR is quite dangerous.

Frowned upon by whom? What negative PR? I have to admit I didn't see any of that.

 

[scytheavatar]

Currently, AI-generated content is also very frowned upon. While a larger publisher may not give a damn, in the case of smaller ones, negative PR is quite dangerous.

Frowned upon by whom? What negative PR? I have to admit I didn't see any of that.

Frowned upon by devs. I think a lot of people underestimate how demoralizing and insulting it is for artists to see their work potentially getting replaced by computers. Many devs are good friends with voice actors and will not take kindly the idea of their friends being forced out of jobs.

"Bah bah bah fuck the devs and their feelings", well the big boys can feel that way but for the smaller studios losing talent can be a death sentence.

 

[Johannes]

The real issue is how to make sure Steam are fine with how you did the ai content

 

[Decado]

The biggest reason not to use AI voice acting is that it still sucks. It's not good enough yet. You can still tell it is AI. AI voice acting still mispronounces words, puts emphasis on incorrect syllables, etc. AI voice acting is still primarily the wheelhouse of shitty Chinese advertising and recycled podcast clips that are posted as clickbait. It sucks, and it sounds like shit.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I always have put the voice volume to zero in all Owlcat games I have played.

 

[tomphonse]

While I agree with you in general, Automata had fully voiced protagonists and most side-characters were also fully voiced. It was actually lauded for its strong VA, same as the original Nier. In this day and age, getting certain VA for your games is actually a reason for people to buy your games, especially in Japan where the VA scene is obviously quite a bit stronger due to Anime.

The big mistake the western developers continue to make, is taking actual movie/tv actors for their games to mo-cap and voice-act, and those are almost exclusively worse and more expensive than actual industry professionals.

Like someone else said, once you reach a certain budget and try to bring people into your genre that aren't already going to buy your game on the premise of its setting, franchise, style of game or dev star-power, having a fully voiced game is very helpful. Is it required? Of course not. But let's not kid ourselves that offering 4k textures and fully voicing your game doesn't help improve its mass appeal. And mass appeal is what you need when you not only want to break even, but actually turn a reasonable profit in AA and AAA development. The grognards on the dex aint enough to pay the bills.

Tears of the Kingdom: Released in 2023, sold 10 million in three days, eventually sold over 20 million.

It does have some voiced cinematics but for the most part it's like this:

I feel like the difference between games like Zelda and Nier with no VO vs. a cRPG with no VO is that the scripts of the former are around 70k words max. In these games you probably won't spend more than three minutes at a given time reading. I really don't think it's comparable to your average >200,000 word cRPG.

 

[The Wall]

Their next game will be very gay. Very very very GAY. In Warhammer 40k they can't wait for opportunity to shove nigger space marine or female Rogue Trader or female commander or female this and that. They are clearly WOKE Russian SJWs and as such have to suck 10 cocks for every 1km2 of Ukraine conquered by Russia

 

[Nifft Batuff]

While I agree with you in general, Automata had fully voiced protagonists and most side-characters were also fully voiced. It was actually lauded for its strong VA, same as the original Nier. In this day and age, getting certain VA for your games is actually a reason for people to buy your games, especially in Japan where the VA scene is obviously quite a bit stronger due to Anime.

The big mistake the western developers continue to make, is taking actual movie/tv actors for their games to mo-cap and voice-act, and those are almost exclusively worse and more expensive than actual industry professionals.

Like someone else said, once you reach a certain budget and try to bring people into your genre that aren't already going to buy your game on the premise of its setting, franchise, style of game or dev star-power, having a fully voiced game is very helpful. Is it required? Of course not. But let's not kid ourselves that offering 4k textures and fully voicing your game doesn't help improve its mass appeal. And mass appeal is what you need when you not only want to break even, but actually turn a reasonable profit in AA and AAA development. The grognards on the dex aint enough to pay the bills.

Tears of the Kingdom: Released in 2023, sold 10 million in three days, eventually sold over 20 million.

It does have some voiced cinematics but for the most part it's like this:

I feel like the difference between games like Zelda and Nier with no VO vs. a cRPG with no VO is that the scripts of the former are around 70k words max. In these games you probably won't spend more than three minutes at a given time reading. I really don't think it's comparable to your average >200,000 word cRPG.

A more reason to not have VO in cRPG.

 

[tomphonse]

A more reason to not have VO in cRPG.

To filter normalfags or cut down on word diarrhea?

 

[Dishonoredbr]

New info on Owlcat


The interview in russian.

 

[Morgoth]

Owlcat must also not forget to stuff their game with useless FF7 Rebirth style minigames, on top of the Owlcat style minigames. Fully voiced acted, of course. That will guarantee BG3 sales!

 

[Cryomancer]

Original IP from OwlCat. I hope that they use retroclone rules because lets be real, their "rules" for rogue trader where pure shit. Combines the bloat of 3.5e epic levels with the gamey nonsensical aspect of 4e. RT is the unique game of them which I din`t liked.

 

[Skinwalker]

Maybe they can try making their games less woke, and more appealing to the core audience of CRPGs? No? Ok then, full voice acting it is then. Worked wonders for Faggot Age: Cisquisition and Ass Effect: Androgyny.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I want also voice actors that describe verbally what is happening in every cutscenes, and vice-versa, every line of spoken dialog should be also acted by professional mocapped mimes.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

4 Games, full VO, 1 OG IP

Yeah this doesn't bode well, they expand too fast. WOTR and RT shown that their pipeline is also kinda fucked on patching/DLC creation. Original IP also means original system (unless they do an OGL Solasta style using 5e) and RT certainly is a baaaaaaad sign on Owlcat homebrew system

 

[The Jester]

"Baldur's Gate 3 success is totally a good thing for CRPG genre guys! Now every developer will rush to add dice rolls and CC to their game and totally NOT fully voice-acted, motion-captured gay sex scenes!"

 

[luj1]

Original IP from OwlCat. I hope that they use retroclone rules because lets be real, their "rules" for rogue trader where pure shit.

Pathfinder games were no different. These guys are mediocre hipsters known for ruleset bloat. And minigames. I trust their future games will be the same.

 

[luj1]

full VO

Hahahah. GG

They never learn!

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Yeah, four copypasta filler mob combat games being developed simultaneously. Releasing three of such "epics" plus DLC in the span of barely half a decade clearly wasn't enough.

Honestly would have hoped that they would reverse their "quantity over quality" ethos as their games show promise. But: Eastern European assembly line RPG makers gotta do what Eastern European assembly line RPG makers gotta do.

 

[Gargaune]

Future of Owlcat

* company comprises about 500 individuals.
* they are currently developing 4 games with 4 separate teams.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can all tell exactly what the future of Owlcat is...

You know, this just reminds me of all the recent uproar over mass staff cuts. The corollary, however, to "don't fire people" isn't "screw the bottom line", it's "don't stuff your studio like a pig before Christmas." Grow slowly, build up your expertise and customer base, reap reliable, gradual returns from a stable business... But no, for some reason, that penny just doesn't seem to drop in this industry, it's all more, more, MOAR! and now, now, NAO!

 

[Skinwalker]

Future of Owlcat

* company comprises about 500 individuals.
* they are currently developing 4 games with 4 separate teams.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Currently, AI-generated content is also very frowned upon. While a larger publisher may not give a damn, in the case of smaller ones, negative PR is quite dangerous.

Frowned upon by whom? What negative PR? I have to admit I didn't see any of that.

People who decide if you use AI are investors and managers. They don't know about tech. They have no idea how AI works, but they bought the stories about it creating shit out of thin air. It's happening as we speak: these managers and investors are hiring prompters that don't create anything of value, and out of a thousand generated images (for instance), one or two are somewhat usable (not fully).

So they're seeing this AI shit was techbro goobledigook, and refraining from using it. Same thing is happening with Cloud stuff: it's too fucking expensive for them (because they don't know anything about it, and don't do the correct pricing and useage measures to make it work properly).