I like to call Deadfire "Dumpsterfire" rather than "Deadfire". Real talk for a minute: Dumpsterfire is one of the worst games to be released in the last 10 years, without question.
But what made it fail wasn't the combat system. In fact, RTwP or TB mod, people loved the combat. Dumpsterfire improved on just about every technical element of Pillars (not PoE to avoid Path of Exile confusion).
What happened to Dumpsterfire was twofold: first, Fergus Urqhart sold Obsidian to Microsoft and pissed off a bunch of the staff causing a fallout; then, to recover, they relied too heavily on fan/kickstarter content which is why you have the color-by-numbers romances and really bad Amber Scott level writing. The whole thing was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish, from the development side of things.
But Pillars literally rejuvenated interest in the genre, and is regarded as one of the best games to come out in the last 10 years, and despite a few flaws (like the Endurance system, and how small the maps really are, and their reliance on trash encounters), is a masterpiece of narrative gaming.
I am hesitant to comment on sales numbers, because I do not count high sales as being indicative of quality - only consumption. And to that I caution: Trump, Twilight, the Kardashians, etc. ... I would not like to be in the company of popular culture. But still, this is me.
The first Baldur's Gate sold 1.5 million unites in 2 years. This was unheard of for video games - if you "counted for inflation" today, you'd be looking at numbers in the tens of millions. Pillars of Eternity sold about 1.5 million units before the expansions were released.
At the very least, this shows a consistent audience hungry for that style of game.
No one is going to argue that Wizards chose Larian because they wanted wider sales. That's exactly why I say they sold out.
