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

Well, it really depends on who are you talking to, I guess.

I want good games, which is why I don't like Bethesda.

Their "open world" games feel almost like a mockery. Fallout 4 is a good example.

The main hub "city" has 52 npcs. It just destroys immersion, there shouldn't even be raiders in the game because there is no one to raid... Skyrim had similar issues.

Meanwhile of you go play New Vagas is actually feel like a living world.

Bethesda needs to do better imo the Witcher 3 was Skyrim but better in every way.

/imo

For me, BG3 has a clear advantage because DOS2 was surprising delight and I’ve enjoyed the EA, where I was tremendously disappointed by Fallout 4 and nothing I have heard about Starfield is setting my reservations to ease. I hope Starfield is good, but I can’t blindly trust a Bethesda game will be good after their last missteps. I’m sure that to some extent that doubt is prevailing amongst many other gamers.

I'm with you, but many consumers will have to make a choice between games if they cannot justify $120 dollars in discretionary spending. Further, you can only play one game at a time, stream one game at a time, post about one game at a time.

I will be buying Starfield day 1 probably, as I have already bought BG3. But I can only play one at a time, and be fully immersed in one at a time.

At least my reason for caring is that if a game in a genre I like does well, there is an increased likelyhood more games in that style will be greenlit.

You are correct, in that on hindsight I should not have included your post as a quote in my post. My post was a response to the thread overall, and not specifically to your post. Apologies for that.

Bioware confirmed sometime last year or so that DA:I is their highest selling game of all-time. We also know for a fact that ME4 has sold over 10 million. Therefore, the correct conclusion reached by people is that DA:I has sold well over 10 M.

I have no doubt that DA4 will outsell DA:I. Some of you really need to get past your personal animus towards (recent) Bioware games and understand that a lot of people out there see those games very differently. I am on record as saying I passionately love the original BG games. And yet I am also someone who loved all three DA games, yes to even include DA2.

Also for the record, CDPR recently announced that The Witcher 3 has now sold well past 50 million. And CP2077 more than 15 million. CDPR is doing just fine with its fans.

Eh... I can see where you're coming from, but I have probably played more Skyrim than any game ever in my life. Maybe if you combined all the hours I put on Paradox games together it might come slightly close, but not really.

Bethesda is the only developer that produces worlds where you can be anyone, go in a particular direction, and create your own coherent story from a mix of hand-crafted and procedurally generated material. It's not just the world; it's how you can seamlessly situate your own story within it. While I can understand not being a fan of Bethesda's take on Fallout, Elder Scrolls has to be one of the most engaging open-world RPG settings out there. I find it hard to fathom what you would be comparing Skyrim to. Every open world RPG that came out after Skyrim was inspired by it in some capacity.

People are of course welcome to enjoy/not enjoy any games by any studio and to say that here, as long as they don’t attack others who don’t/do enjoy the games they do/don’t (delete as applicable!).

In general, we’re best sticking to expressing our own views rather than commenting on others’. Though of course, if there are specific factually incorrect statements made by others, we can correct the record. But in that case it’s best to quote to show exactly what we’re talking about.

(For the record, I also loved DA:O, DA2 and the Mass Effect trilogy and very much enjoyed ME:A and DA:I despite thinking they were less good than their predecessors for different reasons.)

Me too. But my copy will sadly have to sit unplayed for several months because my current gaming machine can't run it. I plan on buying a new gaming machine. But because I want to spend whatever I need to spend to get the most cutting-edge machine I can, I have to wait until next spring to do it. Given the stage of life I'm at, I have other financial obligations and responsibilities.

Larian actually got a win with Microsoft making Starfield exclusive. BG3 is basically counter programing for PS5 players jonesing for a new RPG. Same day release is marketing Gold. I'm not sure if they planed it that way, but it is basically free advertising (and vice versa I suppose).

By the time Larian sorts out the Series S issues, Starfield hype will have died down a bit. Then a little marketing push and word of mouth will sell BG3 on x-box when it releases there.

ME4? You mean Andromeda? I doubt that it bombed so hard it didn't even get dlc

Edit: Also cyberpunk should on sheer hype and good will from tw3.

The real test will be to see how phantom liberty does

Yes, and yet it managed to sell 10 M+. You shouldn't underestimate the pull of those games based on your personal feelings toward those games. And to be clear, at least on the ME games, I have no personal stake. I've never played any of them and have no interest in them myself. I only like Bioware's DA franchise. In fact, thus far I have only exclusively played RPGs that are fantasy-based. Starfield will be my very first sci-fi RPG.

Inquisition was 9 years ago.
Since then, they've put out a ME Remaster, Andromeda, and Anthem.
Laidlaw, Darrah, Hudson, Ohlen, Gaider, Karpyshyn, Walters, and most of the veteran Dragon Age and Mass Effect staff are gone.
DA4 has been rebooted at least twice and has lost at least 2 creative directors since the first reboot.
The only good news about this game came out in 2021 where arstechnica reported that Bioware had "wrested" control of DA away from EA after an internal "struggle" of some kind, ensuring the game would be strictly singleplayer, only to be followed by more veterans leaving.

Origins, 2, and Inquisition are good games. Origins is great, seminal even. But one can hardly blame people for losing confidence in Bioware after 9 years of glitches and live service, the hemorrhaging of veteran talent that made those franchises in the first place, and the news of repeated reboots and internal power struggles within EA.

It's fair to love Bioware, but they're in a pact with a Fiend.

EDIT because this sounds harsh:
There HAS been recent good news about new creative leads on DA4, some victory for remaining Bioware veterans in the rumored internal struggle, and the development of and investment in some promising new talent. I WANT DA4 to be good. I really really really do. But I'm worried that EA has other plans.

I have to doubt those numbers then I loved Andromeda and yet it wasn't even sucessfull enough for dlc on launch.

This "ranking" says 5M+ to Andromeda, with DAI and ME3 being the most successful at 7M+.
https://gamerant.com/highest-sellin...how-much-sold/#mass-effect-2---5-million

ETA:
That's "units" not "dollars."
Andromeda never sold more than 6M. It's most generous lifetime prediction was 9M, but there is no evidence it even came close to hitting 9M units. Most articles cite the 5M unit number for Andromeda.

For me it's not even a question of having confidence in Bioware. I simply find that given a choice between not playing EA games and performing a double login for EA games I own on Steam, I choose not to use their app. That doesn't mean I won't play Bioware games once they're available on GOG without needing to use the app (DA:O), but I'm not impatient enough to play them that I'm not willing to wait.

Bethesda I deem *terrible* at plot and story - But incredible at making exploration and a sense of true roleplay that speaks to the imagination. For some reason, the stories you find in computer terminals and books and scrolls and such are way better than the game's story. Now. I certainly agree with the quality issues you present, but I *love* the modding community for it. I recognise exactly what you point out, but then, someone else did too and made a mod for it. Tailoring the game to your wants and needs is something I love about those games. That with their sense of freedom, I loose myself entirely in those worlds.

Notice how on these forums we all want something else out of the game? Often we see eye to eye, but what I find necessary, someone else find ludicrous. Not a problem in Bethesda games. There is a Skryim to be made for everyone, even if you want Thomas the Tank Engine or Lightsabers.

And, even aside from mods - They do something really right, too. I worked at a little game studio when Skyrim came out. Half the office had requested leave, there wasn't a creative in the building. Same with the TV guys a floor above us. The next week as we all dripped back in, and this became the only thing discussed over coffee - many of the colleagues that never played games suddenly got into it, and were hooked. And stayed hooked.

They only have to drop $120 to play both if they want to play both RIGHT NOW! There are plenty of really sweet old games on discount that they could play right now instead, and then play BG3 and Starfield after they too are discounted.

Fair enough, but for me these are not necessarily bad or problematic things. I am of the belief that even the most talented people eventually become stale and start losing their creativity. So for me it's a good thing to have turnover of people at RPG studios and for them to bring in new talent. The people who made DA:O were also "new" at one point, weren't they?