[quote=dwig]
Put very bluntly, no non-D&D AAA cRPG will ever have (even the possibility of) BG3-like sales success. Never ever.
I will not say never but I agree with the basis of your premise. The use of the DnD franchise as well as the Baldur's Gate legacy was easily worth a more than doubling of the sales from those two aspects alone.
As for a model, well the only real breakout from the mainstream was announcing no microtransactions and likely no DLC. This is a huge change for gamers today and stands out. However overall it is, as you seem to note a minor model change as many games have done this in the past.
The "model" I think that could change CRPGs is the use of the idea of the 'Adventure Pack'. No expansions, but rather whole new adventures using the same base game. A few games have taken this approach and it has been fairly well received.
Oh, I see. Yes, of course, D&D helped with the popularity, but I do hope, that it might stir people towards the genre in general and changes studios views on crpgs.
I do think the success has made them take notice but the extra cost and complexity of designing a CRPG will turn off a lot of studios. The profit ratio for a CRPG is just gonna be lower. I am hopeful the smaller studios that have already shown some skill at this like Obsidian, Tactical Adventures, Owlcat Games, inXile Entertainment and Hairbrained Schemes will step more heavily into CRPG. They will have to temper expectations however as dealing with WotC will be a turn off for studios to seek out DnD liscencing.
