Originally Posted by HenryDoughnut
But now we see that following their hearts is what brought BG3 so much success.

I'd argue that BG3's success is built firmly on a "Follow the money" approach. Given that Larian specifically sought out the BG IP and are not big fans of the actual DnD ruleset (Which shows in the game design)

Following their hearts is more what they're doing now. Going away from the monetary decision of utilizing a big, well known, IP that will generate intrest purely from its name alone, to instead work on things that they desire to work on.

This overall lack of interest in the DnD ruleset is likely a reason why Larian is done with the IP, having to constantly fight a ruleset that you don't want will become tiresome pretty quickly. Not only does it limit creativity, but it will also be annoying to have to deal with its intricacies whenever you need to work on anything in the game...

Originally Posted by HenryDoughnut
It almost feels like Larian, as a private company that doesn’t have shareholders or a board of executives or anything, is forced to follow wherever the whims of Swen lead them without there being any other input.

Which is for the best. Given that 99.99% of shareholders and executives want pure money. Not a good product, but pure profit. Which would mean stuff like MTX, crappy half-baked DLC and a phoned-in sequel.

Having a leader who's even somewhat interested in the product they're working on is so far above literally every major company in terms of delivering something worth playing it's crazy.