“Baldur’s Gate 3”: An anomaly – also thanks to Early Access

The Belgian Larian Studios are the new darling of single player fans: After outstanding work on the “Divinity” games, Larian succeeds in breaking through into the mainstream with “Baldur’s Gate 3” – with a game that is actually not at all suitable for the masses. No wonder that the developers themselves were taken by surprise by the sensational success of their exceptional role-playing game.

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“Baldur’s Gate 3” is a behemoth of a video game. Very few people know how many hours you really put into a run so soon after the launch. Larian himself speaks of around 100 hours, which can also extend to 200 hours. According to Larian, the game has 174 hours of cutscenes alone. Multiple playthroughs are essential due to the huge range of choices and approaches.

With its DnD systems including dice, armor classes and skill checks, “Baldur’s Gate 3” is actually aimed at people who are at least as nerdy as Larian’s studio boss Swen Vincke. In recent years, many have tried to translate tabletop role-playing games into video games: Owlcat with $(LB2519303:, Obsidian with $(LB2422628:, Tactical Adventures with “Solasta” – all decent games that clearly missed the gaming mainstream And now, of all things, the sequel to a 23-year-old video game is captivating hundreds of thousands of PC screens.

Early Access supports development

This is also due to the resources of Larian. The Belgians are no longer a provincial studio that cobbles together games from some backyard in Ghent. With the “Divinity” games, Larian has already had success with turn-based PC role-playing games – and generated enough revenue to be able to handle the six-year development of “Baldur’s Gate 3”. For “Divinity: Original Sin 2” Larian still had to rely on a Kickstarter campaign. The RPG then grossed $85 million in its first year alone. The time of the Kickstarter campaigns was over for Larian.

$(LB2953698:Funded . For three years, DnD enthusiasts could pre-purchase Baldur’s Gate 3 to try constantly updated test versions of the first act of the game. So they spent their money and time to act as unpaid QA testers, effectively testing an unfinished Putting the game through its paces – a leap of faith that Larian has already earned with the development of $(LB2280704:. This role-playing game was also tested in Early Access for a long time after the Kickstarter phase before it was finally launched in 2017 and completely convinced both the Early Access supporters and the Kickstarter backers.

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For Larian, the Kickstarter model doesn’t just have financial benefits. Feedback and bug reports from early players are also important. Despite its absurd degree of complexity, “Baldur’s Gate 3” therefore has fewer bugs than many competing titles at launch.

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A blockbuster game in indie costume

Although “Baldur’s Gate 3” still uses the playbook of the small indie studios with the early access concept, the game has triple-A format. Because Larian has massively increased the workforce, 450 employees work in six countries on “Baldur’s Gate 3”. The head of the studio values ​​quality: Swen Vincke is a man of conviction who doesn’t hide behind secretaries and desks, but regularly appears in live streams and community updates with silly costumes. With his credibility, he stands for a studio that seems to focus on the joy of gaming.

“Baldur’s Gate 3” is therefore a rare alternative to the economically optimized live service money presses that are very popular with other large studios: There are no microtransactions, no loot boxes, no DLC excesses. If you buy the game, you get the full game. Balm for the single player soul, which recently suffered from the $(LB4238751:Turning off the.

This fairness has earned Larian many sympathy points and benevolent reviews from the community. In the past few days, there has been a hype on social media that should reach video game fans better than any marketing campaign. And it helps to look past the technical construction sites that still exist despite everything. Good work and a fair business model can pay off – even if pure single-player titles don’t have the financial potential of online games like “Fortnite”, “FIFA” and “Diablo 4”.

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Larian’s path is reminiscent of CD Projekt, another European studio that worked its way up with smaller surprise hits and finally played its way into the mass market. CD Projekt made the big breakthrough with $(LB3643268:, Larian now with “Baldur’s Gate 3”. The studio has a great future – and would like to remain independent, Vincke promises in an interview with Bloomberg. A takeover is out of the question: “I will older, but I’m definitely not done yet.” That’s good news, and not just for role-playing freaks.

(dahe)

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