Originally Posted by Abits
You know what annoys me about this silence? It's the fact that Larian probably has a roadmap and they know exactly how they want the game to look like, but they are keeping quiet about it.

Why? I think it's a bullshit PR reason - they want us to think we have more influence than we actually have on the final product, and by keeping us guessing they keep hope for change alive, as well as keeping the forum active and subsequently keep interest in the game without any effort on their part.

I'm sure you are right that Larian know what they want the game to look like; most likely it's basically the EA design you are playing now, which is exactly what was shown in their pre-EA advertising.

I don't expect anything to change markedly without overwhelming community support, which is difficult as most players do not actually express their opinion openly. My assumption is that Larian try to determne the opinion of the silent majority from their gameplay data, but whether this is a good proxy is hard to say.

As to why there is an EA at all, I think it is most likely that it lowers the risk associated with the game. Knowing the overall reaction to the game is positive ( and it is, regardless of whether any individual forum poster likes or hates the game ) allows Larian a degree of confidence that BG3 will not break the studio. It is also possible that their ambitions for the game were in danger of exhausting their financial resources; getting EA revenue is substantially better than taking loans against future revenue. The EA sales so far should give them several years financial buffer based on current studio headcount, or alternatively allow them to pour more resources into their vision.

It would be nice, however, if they spent some of that revenue to employ full-time staff dedicated to interfacing between the studio and their player base.