Many people I know in the comic café we go play D&D are not really interested in D&D and the Faerun worlds per se. I mean, they like to create Capitan America, furry or that kind of characters. They go there to Roleplay, they are not interested in game mechanics, min-maxing or number-crushing; They pick their characters using the "Rule of cool" (They pick 5e rangers voluntarily, do I really have to say more) so I am not sure if they will buy into a videogame.
he videogames are more combat-centered.
That said BG3 will be a MP game, so that will attract many people. There are plenty of people playing NWN persistent world right now. And plenty of people will get a game with D&D in it. It is not easy to find groups to play: they disband or have different schedules. You can play a videogame when it suits you.
Definitely, pen and paper and video games are two very distinct markets. But D&D ist still the main reason why Swen chose to make a Baldurs Gate sequel. We know that DOS 2 sold more than 2.5 Mio copies with D&D he hopes to gain a bigger potential audience through how big it really remains to be seen.
But I disagree with your statement regarding role-playing in video games. I will always build my characters in CRPGs so that they are interesting whether they are actually good in combat is secondary to me. RPing is very important for a lot of CRPG fans though sadly most RPGs just lack the system to make roleplaying easier so most of it just happens in your imagination by restricting yourself to play in a very specific way. Sadly there really only a handful single-player RPG which fully embrace role-playing like Fallout New Vegas/basically all Obsidian games, Vampires Bloodlines or the Dragon Age games. I just hope that BG3 has lots of choices, skill checks and quest with multiple solutions to make RP interesting.
