While sales numbers are important for the company to keep up development or do new development, these numbers to me are not the big factor. BG3 has changed the conversation when it comes to CRPGs and the RPG genre in general.
The last time we saw a game cross genre and work it's way into the world outside of gaming was Skyrim. Skyrim brought an extra spark to the world of RPGs and generated a lot of interest in the genre outside of those that typically play. BG3 is having a very similar impact and goes further as it is creating stir in who a game should be made and released.
Yeah, and Skyrim is a game full of very simplified one-click action combat, puzzles and quests tweaked to "solve themselves", an in-game GPS guiding you at any step, smallish one-way dungeons and a character (creation) system barely worth analyzing in-depth. Hey, I played that too. But Skyrim is the TES formula tweaked to a degree so that even those who'd never touched a TES game before were encouraged to pick it up asap. BG3 meanwhile at heart is a release still harkening back to Origin Systems/Interplay 1990s design ethos heavily, despite its CoOp and systemic design also found in Zelda. Which is the more remarkable thing.
And not a bad one, if you ask me. This is not a discussion about quality. But: A lot of RPGs in particular bigger budget have become this streamlined, it's no wonder
there's so much discussion about what still qualifies as one. That's the natural progression though, as
any genre's core audience is finite -- if you STILL want to further grow, you have to reach beyond that. Either way, this won't influence any other AAA studio left, mind. Except for them trying their hardest to copy all the motion captured (bear) sex in the hopes of one-upping their own sales perhaps.
Like Larian, studios are usually specialized, and most bigger studios haven't made a game quite like this in many many years. For which Larian, too, can be grateful in a sense. If it hadn't been for studios abandoning this market, DOS1 would have been not as succesful as it were already, starting right the added funds aquired on Kickstarter.
I'm curious about what happens to Larian next though. The last time they
directly competed with the big dogs (
in parts due to investor pressure), that didn't work out. Plus, if they start developing different kind of experiences meant to get bigger and bigger, they too may leave their own brand niche they've carved now ever since -- for somebody else to possibly step up. They should perhaps rather best follow the FromSoft route. There's been what seems a fairly natural growth in audience ever since DOS1, similar to From. And whilst Elden Ring is in many ways far more accessible than any Dark Souls Game -- they still didn't toss it all out in the hopes of earning quick buck. As a result, they've sort of created a genre and brand recognition for themselves.
