In context to that post, it was showcasing the different ways pushing the release a month early was made for financial reasons. If you know the last Act is shaky, ensuring that you 'get ahead' of reviews and patching quickly is a financial decision. You said both that you saw no reason for Larian worry about Starfield and had enough money to not need to release BG3 early for financial reasons. Clearly, their sales numbers DID matter when it came to the impact reviews might have on it, so the assumption that the other moves MUST be caused by something else like a license agreement or 'just because' independent of Starfield is an assertion with no basis.
I say 'just because' as you previously stated that you saw no reason why Larian would move up the date to avoid Starfield. Now you have apparently done a 180 on your stance saying that Starfield was a threat to BG3. There is no point for you to make here. It is MY point that I made already. Please pick a position and stick to it so I can avoid posting redundant messages in the future.
I know what you are getting at. However, Occam's Razor is a thing.
1) Sven is on record for expecting vastly more modest numbers from BG3. It makes 0 sense for Hasbro/WOTC to be pushing Larian for a 'win' that the head of the company has no problem admitting they didn't expect.
2) Unless we're assuming both Larian's and WOTC's legal teams are wildly incompetent to not set expectations for release, and I don't see why we should, you are left with the fact that by law, Hasbro/WOTC cannot arbitrarily cut Larian's time short on the development of BG3 to boost revenue numbers. It makes no sense for them to even ask for it, given point 1).
3) If Hasbro/WOTC had a release date that they needed BG3 out by, that would have been stipulated in the contract from the very beginning. That is how it worked for Obsidian making Fallout: New Vegas, for example as well as other contract work (and Larian would also be paid for it with funding provided). It's been in development for 6 years. You went to a lot of effort of reminding everyone that the current CEO has only been in his position for 1.5 years. There is no 'win' he needs to show, because the agreement was not done under his watch. In fact, Sven said that they would release it 'when it is right' back in 2019. [quote=Vincke]FL: What is your publishing time frame?
Sure, that's great, again you are welcome to speculate. You think I am trying to win an argument, but I am just introducing an alternate point of view based on solid data points. My biggest challenge was really getting to the point here where I would be allowed to introduce that alternate point of view without interference. That has been accomplished, so I am done.
I don't think you have the full picture of things any more than I do, and the thing is I am comfortable with the ambiguity.
Also, you make a lot of emotional accusations in the above about I said this or that which I am not in agreement with, as well as a lot of statements without any proof - anecdotal versus empirical - but I think it would be a mistake to engage with that anymore, and would just cause more drama. So given that there is nothing more to discuss I would say it's best to leave it as is and continue with our separate points of view.
Originally Posted by Blackheifer
Did Larian make a statement saying they were adjusting their release date to get in front of Starfield? I understand that is what people assumed but I can't see a good reason for them to have done that. The teams exhausted themselves to try to hit that date with a decently playable build. Understanding what was going on financially at Hasbro seems to me to make more logical sense - but again this counts as speculation to a certain extent.
Is there something preventing you from keeping what you said straight? I did notice your lack of response earlier to the last time I had to quote you saying what you said you didn't say.
We can read the thread.
As for my statements, I have a lot more proof than you do. Anecdotal vs empirical is for statistics, qualitative and quantitative data. The reason why BG3 released early is not an experiment. I also did not claim to know everything, just that my explanation is a lot more likely than yours. I do not believe you can say 'speculation is fine' and then attempt to say what I was providing was "anecdotal" and not empirical and therefore didn't count, while not matching the level and quantity of support for your view point.
You have yet to produce these solid data points. Considering your history of just forgetting about your arguments when pressed about evidence, I am very skeptical about how solid they are. Your data points is that Hasbro/WOTC is not doing well financially = they pressured Larian into releasing early and Sven's statement. If said statement implied anything about Larian's relationship with Hasbro, someone on the internet would have picked up on it already that you could post. You have not, therefore I can only conclude that it doesn't exist and I am not inclined to believe it on your say so that this is a valid interpretation. If you have nothing further to contribute, then yes, we are done here.
Also, please stop referring to every argument you have no rebuttal for as 'emotional'. Not only is it wholly unfounded, it's bad faith.
