First of all: Any term of success, your own life as well, is a mix of own doing and circumstance. Sometimes you're at the right time in the right place (and vice versa). But if this one was purely marketing and hype, it wouldn't be still as popular by now. Clearly people tried. And unlike with Starfield released at the same time, sticked around. Though Larian sure know how to sell their games. Clearly even the bear going viral wasn't a bait&switch. It seemed to have been a bait&promise fulfilled. Namely, that nothing, no matter how crazy, would be off-limits. Including playing through the game as a wheel of cheese.
And whilst the IP was meant to be a BIG part of it from the go (and it was, D&D also fitting their sandbox-y gameplay), they're now a name regardless of what they're doing next. See FromSoftware.
Originally Posted by Ixal
Its quite interesting how full vo made PoE2 into a failure but helped BG3 immensely because of the different target groups.
Full VO had been a thing in Original Sin 2 already. As that big time outsold Original Sin 1 already, Obsidian figured they'd to the same (plus ramp up their production value + game quality) and follow: big time outselling PoE1. That didn't happen, but then PoE has always been pitched on (Infinity Engine) nostalgia. Larian never did that. Even with Original Sin 1. Back then, going turn-based combat in an RPG couldn't be seen as merely "outdated", but nostalgic in itself... only the tiniest of indies had still be doing it by the mid 2000s. The notion was that: "Go TB, go bust."
But legend has it that back when conceptualizing Original Sin, it started out with something more action-based, as prior Larian games. Then Swen Vincke was in the shower one morning and supposedly went something like: "Wait a minute! Gazillions of people are playing turn-based games on their mobiles! This doesn't make sense. We always wanted to do this either way, let's do it."
I think in doing so they've aditionally cornered a market that is untapped in on their level of production (outside of maybe a few JRPGs). Whilst people who absolutely detest turn-based anything are vocal: If you think about it, it doesn't get more accessible than this. You don't need any reflexes, you're not bombarded with feedback and you have zero pressure. The market overall may not be as big (who knows). But if you're the only guy around... It also fits their cozy couch (coop) type of experience targeted like a glove. That's not to say that they're gonna make TB games exclusively.
Still, give those guys another ten years, and they may be the most popular RPG studio around -- except maybe, unlike Bioware, without going: "We want Call Of Duty's audience" and throwing it all out. It's not as if BG, in particular BG1, had ever been a game that had much to throw out to begin with. Currently replaying this. Safe for a few AD&D 2e quirks, which are not of Bioware's own making, it's almost as straight forward as Diablo meets Warcraft 2. Quests are mostly FedEx, with rarely multiple angles to take them on too. And then from Jade Empire/Kotor onwards, there was no turning back.
PS: I think Warhorse may be next in line, unless they bust their launch of KCDII. Maybe not in terms of popularity total. But certainly in gearing up a level. And it'd be probably no coincidence that all of these, FromSoft, Larian and Warhorse, started out in a niche and grew out of it over many years, rather than a big studio exec going like: "Ok, how can we double to triple our target audience as quickly as possible? By reaching out to Call Of Duty's, World Of Warcraft's, Gears Of War's audiences perhaps?" https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bioware-10-million-sales-is-a-hit
