this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Baldur's Gate 3

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All things BG3!

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)

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Baldur's Gate 3 has made bank for Hasbro, significantly contributing to a 40 percent increase in digital revenue for the company.

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Wait, you mean if it is good and worth the money it sells and if it is a cheap worthless cash grab it does not????? Someone call Corporate!

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's not forget it has no DRM either. AAA studios told us that no game can do well without DRM

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The funny thing is I (and probably many others) didn’t even consider pirating it. It had great reviews and was readily available pretty much everywhere without any obvious drawbacks. So I spent full price for it.

My point; DRM doesn’t matter if you produce and sell your game in a consumer friendly way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Not to mention that full price was up to 20 bucks cheaper than other new releases.

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[–] MagicShel 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Corporate isn't going to take away the lessons we might hope. Folks at corporate at going to ask things like, "how much money was left on the table?" They can only fuck things up through paying attention.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The takeaways that will make it to the steering group PowerPoint:

  • VideoGames based on our IP sell better than expected.
  • Sales of our other digital products follow suit
  • Larian Studios did this with minimal oversight
  • No reason to assume any and all VideoGame products based on other IPs would not follow similar pattern
  • Call to action: Fund additional Hasbro IP based VideoGames.
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You know corporate will assume the opposite on all points though

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I didn't realise Hasbro were the publisher, now I feel a little dirty. Those bastards ruined Super Soaker.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hasbro owns wizards of the coast, which is the owner of the D&D trademark.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (16 children)

wizards of the coast

Of the "sent the literal Pinkertons after a streamer" fame.

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[–] lzbz 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They didn't publish it, but they licensed the DnD brand to Larian

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wait, Hasbro owns DnD? It feels weird to me that a company can own DnD rights.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) was originally incorporated by Gary Gygax in 1973. It went bankrupt and got bought out by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) in 1997. That purchase gave us D&D 3.0 and the original OGL, which was intended to encourage third-party publications of a game set WotC wasn't overly confident in. This, after a decade of aggressive litigation by TSR's VP Lorraine Williams who'd engineered Gygax's ouster from the firm.

Hasbro acquired WotC two years later, in 1999, but was generally apathetic towards its administration outside of it being another revenue source. So WotC ran more-or-less independently until 2020 when the CEO noted on an earnings call that WotC was something like 40% of the company's overall revenue. This triggered a sizable realignment of focus onto the various WotC brands (Magic: the Gathering and Pokemon card games being two other big players).

Now we're seeing a much more traditional corporate refocusing on the WotC product line (movies and cross-promotions), a return to aggressive litigation against competitors, and a sharp increase in the price of WotC products to justify the increased expenses.

[–] lzbz 5 points 1 year ago

That is a great attitude towards everything DnD stands for, don't lose it. Theres been a great deal of controversy this year, because the executives at wotc/hasbro believe that owning a popular brand like DnD means they're entitled to shitloads of money, so they're attempting to turn it into a cash cow, completely alienating the long standing community

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Technically, Wizard of the Coast owns D&D, but they are a subsidiary of Hasbro (and have been since like ‘99).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hasbro and WOTC are rotten to the core and, unfortunately, own D&D among other headline franchises you'd probably be familiar with.

Larian makes their own games and made BG3 after Hasbro was impressed with how well Divinity: Original Sin 2 turned out (which, imo has the best combat system of their games so far). That said, Larian really rounded out the dialog, conversations, and non-battle options in BG3. I hope they take that to their next title, preferably organically developed without Hasbro/WoTC.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm pretty sure hasbro/wotc had nothing to say in the development beyond ip related stuff. With dos1 larian moved away from editors to self-product all their games since.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hope the lesson they take is "selling complete games with no online bull or micro transactions is popular and profitable"

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The lesson they'll actually take is "money? MONEY!! MONEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

"this game is a gold mine! It's being underutilised at the moment, let's improve the profitability with some in-game purchasable items and a subscription for bonus content"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m hoping a lesson they take is “let Larian make BG4” as well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I love BG3 to death. But I also don't want Larian to become the next EA under the yoke of some Hasbro/WoTC for BG4/5/6/7. I hope they continue to make their own games and forge their own path, with little to no reliance on megacorps. Their Divinity series is a treasure in it's own right, and they said their next small projects are getting them excited.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I'm curious to see if other CRPGs also had big revenue increases from BG3's success. After beating it I've bought Divinity Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium, Pathfinder WotR, and Pillars of Eternity II so far. I had never paid attention to the genre before and now I am deep into it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Larian are really the only ones that play nice with a controller.

I understand that a lot of people play at literal desktops and prefer mouse/keyboard, but a lot more (regardless of PC split, it's also almost all console owners) would rather play with a controller. Having an official control scheme for one is meaningful to broad adoption.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe Dragon Age Origins, too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I bought that on the GOG Anniversary Sale pretty much because I finished BG3 and was in the mood for something new but similar. Hadn't paid any attention to the Dragon Age franchise before.

I'm amazed at not only how well it holds up, but how much inspiration BG3 seems to have taken from it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

DA:O was made because the company that made Baldurs Gate 1&2 lost the rights to make 3

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Now you mention it, yes probably. I already owned BG3 in EA, and bought 2 similar games : Pathfinder & Solasta.

When i was a kid i player BG1 a lot. Later DOS.

And the other game above, i already finished them long ago. I think it would be an interesting data to see what kind of player play BG3 and compare our games. :)

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Watch them milk it to death, thereby ruining the franchise

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think they really can. Larian has creative control over the project itself, Hasbro can't do much beyond input regarding DnD-specific things. Hasbro can try to milk DnD (as they have been doing), but this won't affect BG3.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who has merchandising rights though? Who's going to be pumping out Astarian FunkoPop knockoffs for the next several years?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is an interesting question actually. From what I read, larian has been screwed by producers many times in its past, so they should be aware of these kind of problems. It all depends 9n the contract hasbro and larian have. And if hasbro is as stupid as Microsoft, larian probably has a favorable deal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sometimes good things are just good things my man.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

"We own something popular and profitable with a large userbase that hasn't had every penny milked from it? Hold my beer."

  • Hasbro
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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It still pains me that Hasbro owns WotC now.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I've switched to Pathfinder. They lost me on 4th edition and will never get me back.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Daragon Age Origins is awesome. It was fun playing the game where your choices affected the outcome of the game. And you got to play different characters--poor, rich, royalty, slave.

Baldur's Gate 3 is like this game and updated.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

DOS2 working so well is a big part of why I bought BG3. I mostly play handheld (steamdeck, with a little bit of switch), so controller support is a huge factor for me.

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