Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General BG3 potential sales and what this means for D&D and CRPGS

The only part I am not satisified with that statement is the nudity part. I guess I have to wait for some mods that eventually might fix this... it could be long wait even to year 2023. If I would get my wish done BG3 would be a game for adults only and this due to nudity reasons would be enough to give it rating adults only 18 years age rating. No and I am not very romantic person:

We've been over this, Terminator. Enough with the absurd irrelevant tangents and obsession of finding the most obscure opportunity of talking about your peculiar fondness of Asian women. I think you've had enough chances and warnings to warrant a little break from posting to reconsider how relevant your private interests are to anyone else on the forums.

I'm not calling you a liar, I simply cannot wrap my head around that after DA2 and ME3.

But D:OS2 didn't even come close to selling 5 million ....

There's no way DA:I sold more than Mass Effect 3. Maybe they mean launch numbers? Who knows, maybe i'm talking out of my ass. I loved DA:I but i had no idea it was that popular.

edit: Wait DA:I?? I hated that game lol. I thought we were talking about the original lol.

DAI won some awards, got alot of press, and appealed to a bunch of new gamers who likely never heard of the other games. It was a case of “right place, right time” I think. God, it was abysmal in terms of writing and combat compared to DAO tho. An ok game…but a major let down for long time DA fans for sure.

However, I too am shocked it outsold ME3. Is that confirmed?

it's no way confirmed. All I've seen is a vague "most successful launch in BioWare history,". So that could be expected sales vs actual sales, total sales for a weekend, for a week, who knows?

I wonder how much the Legendary Edition of ME sold? Personally will never buy after I saw the shot of Eden Prime without a red sky. Blasphemy!! And after MEA…uggg…we shan’t speak of it.

Sorry…going off topic!

we don't know that
all we know is that the game just sold 1 million after 1-2 months of its release and that is it

It sounds super super strange to me as well. From my experience though, and I might be talking out of my ass here as well, it seems like the dragon age series was super popular with women compared to mass effect that for some reason had less appeal so perhaps that's the difference? I honestly can't tell for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me that DA:I did well commercially tbh, I unironically enjoyed it quite a bit at the time. Sure I have some criticisms too, one of my main ones is in fact that I think the writing was "too good" (Whoa! Hear me out!) - If you're a lore-buff and play games mostly for the story, there's a lot of foreshadowing and clever little teases and details throughout the game, which only makes sense once you know how it ends and the "cliffhanger". So in a way, some of the lore and storytelling was too convoluted and clever for the majority to really even notice in order to appreciate.

"Origin characters / companions, whith their bad consequences on the story telling"

i don't think this contributed on how i feel baldur's gate 3 being less baldur's gatey than said DOSier.
i do agree with you that i feel origin characters seems out of place. it would mean that ANY of the origin characters can be the hero (or even if it does not, it means
your role in the story basically just insignificant). I like owlcat approach in making companions.. being companions.

"Start on a beach"
while DOS2 start on a beach. I think it's not the issue. perhaps it's the color pallette and art direction? it has striking similarity on how it looks being a DOS2 game
than i felt being in the Forgotten Realms. i think it has to do with the heavy re-use of the DOS2 assets such atextures / objects (chairs, tables, terrains, etc.)

"Control with the terrible chain"
i concur this basically reassure me it's being more similar to DOS2 gameplay and pushing my feelings of playing a DOS game.

"Party size of 4"
earlier baldur's gate game had 6 party characters. while i heavily in favor for 6 party characters, i think this may not be the reason why i don't felt it being
a baldur's gate game.

"No D/N cycle, bright colors because it's always 14 o'clock"
i recalled someone actually explained before that this design decision were due to multiplayer if not mistaken. again i don't think this is a valid reason
that made me feel that larian lost its touch in making this a baldur's gate experience for me. i would say music also plays a signifcant role in setting up the
mood and feels for reviving the nostalgic feels of the old baldur's gate game.

i'm definitely 100% in favor for a D/N cycle but don't think this is the reason making me lost touch of this game.

...

basically i think larian really failed me in this regards. but it doesnt matter for them as they already got my money and they will be successful for getting
many more sales due to the pulling of the hype for the baldur's gate fans, DOS and perhaps the D&D audience in general.

larian may see themselves successful and even proven to WoTC. But my opinion is that WoTC should have chosen Owlcat (which i think they are more capable
than Larian in treating this franchise with respect). I have to give the credits to Larian though. Their engine for verticality and visuals are indeed
impressive.

If Owlcat has access to new technologies and the engine with enough resources like Larian, i believe Owlcat can be the next big devs.

At the moment i don't have much hope with Larian. I'll just keep an eye. I don't foresee Larian is going to change much or any further. They will just
probably push on for more of the same till the game gets released.

It is a fact that DA:I is Bioware's best selling game of all time. This comes directly from Bioware, so those of you questioning it should take it up with Bioware. And as Bioware's best selling game, it's sales are estimated at OVER 10 million because we know for a fact that ME3 has sold 10 million. And yes we're talking about DA:I and not DA:O, where the latter sold only 5-6 million.

As for whether DA:I was a good game, that is obviously subjective. I liked it quite a bit. The fact that it was a party-based game that still stuck with RTwP means automatically I will give it a high grade. Thank God we RTwP fans at least have that franchise still left for us.

Edit: And I'll even add further that DA4 is one of the games that I am very eagerly anticipating and looking forward to.

Yes, BG3 could potentially sell 5 million. I myself have ceded that possibility. But D:OS2 did not come even close to selling 5 million, which is what the post I was responding to was claiming, by saying since D:OS2 sold 5 million so can BG3. Well, D:OS2 did NOT, in fact, sell anywhere near that amount, so ....

I am just saying we do not have any facts about the sales of DOS2 at all
you keep saying DOS2 did not even come close to 5 million
based on what?
Steamspy?

we don't know if the game sold 5, 4, 3, or even 2 million
Larian just went radio silence after the 1 million milestone
so everything we keep saying here is just based on assumption, not a fact

There is no real data, only speculation. Steamspy says 2-5 M for PC only. Using NB correction by year of release you get 3.3-4.5 M for PC only.
https://vginsights.com/insights/article/how-to-estimate-steam-video-game-sales

But honestly, I find it hard to believe the overall sales is far from 5M. Just indirectly considering the overall good media reception and publicity across the internet, the jump in budget from DOS2 to BG3, the acquisition of new studios and the fact they tripled their number even before BG3 EA sales, I think it is a fair estimate.

As far as I remember, by the time it was said to be Bioware's most successful launch.

This.

Also, I'm not sure where he's getting his Bioware numbers and facts, frankly.
Even looking around, this was one of the sources with the highest numbers listed:

https://gamerant.com/highest-selling-games-developed-bioware-ranked-how-much-sold/

I also very much enjoyed DAI. So much that, just a short month or two after finishing my first playthrough, I did a second. It doesn't quite hold up to my nostalgic memories of DAO, but honestly it's hard for any game to do. DAI had good companions, fine story, relatively fun combat, sufficient dragon fights, lots of lore to read, and fun cameos of characters from DA1&2. Obviously too heavy on the collectathon, but that part of the game is optional.

I was very worried when I heard, way back when, that there were serious problems with DA4 and it was effectively cancelled in order to put developers on Anthem (ugh). But the recent promo materials and the news it's dropping multiplayer and live service aspects are excellent. Hopefully DA4 will be able to take the best parts of its previous entries and be even better than DAI.

I did not enjoy DA:I at all.
Well, I still played through its entirety, but there are so many things of its core design that I found downright terrible from top to bottom.

The way it managed an extended cast of companions is quite possibly the only good thing I have to say about it. The quest design in particular was more often than not downright atrocious.

But this has nothing to do with recognizing its commercial success, in the end.