GameStar Podcast: Mittelfinger an die AAA-Industrie: Baldur's Gate 3 war kein Zufall

GameStar 10/10/23 - Episode Page - 1h 46m - PDF Transcript

Transcript
Show Notes

Major phone carriers make you sign contracts with rigid data plans to trap you into a kind of forced phonogamy.

Sounds pretty insecure, if you ask me.

At Consumer Cellular, we believe in a more consensual and healthy form of phonogamy,

free of contracts and more flexible to your data needs.

This way, you stick around not because we force you to with contracts and fees,

but because you love our phone plans.

Like ardently love our phone plans.

Phonogamously.

Consumer Cellular, when freedom calls, we're here to answer.

Call us at 1-888-FREEDOM.

And even Volition, the Saints Row Studio, doesn't exist anymore.

At this point, we want to concentrate on good news.

We also want to make a podcast about this release.

It's already planned.

Now it's time for a studio to go, from which there have been very nice news recently.

Let's see from the controversy whether His Majesty should now have a case or not.

Insider knows why.

Of course, I'm talking about Larian.

The studio from Belgium has grown internationally.

It's behind Baldur's Gate 3, the summer hit of the year.

And Larian is an incredibly exciting studio,

because the AAA industry shows the middle finger.

They have managed to develop a great, extensive role-playing game

without a publisher and without a cosmetic store or something like that.

And that's no coincidence.

Today, we're talking about what Larian is so special about,

where they actually come from and how their future could look like.

Because they are currently at a point like the CD Projekt after the release of The Witcher 3.

As always, when it comes to studios and their structures,

my first guest may not be missing.

He is a company advisor at 1789 Innovations

and a podcaster at Corporate Therapy as well as Critical Infinity.

Welcome, Humana Gafi.

Good day.

Yes, it's nice that you're there.

I can still remember your face in our last interview about innovation

when I told you at the end that Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have a publisher.

That's how it came to this topic today.

And you still have to make up for that. What does that mean now?

Yes, yes.

We'll talk about that, of course, with my second guest.

And I'm very happy that she's here today.

She's the head editor of my MMO

and has briefly visited Larian before the release of Baldur's Gate 3.

Welcome, Leia.

Hi, I'm very happy to be here.

I'm also very happy to see the topic and I'm very happy with you

that it's just nice to talk about something nice with the industry.

Yes, then start right away. You were at Larian.

How was it? How chaotic was it?

I have to ask directly, because I heard it was chaotic.

Oh, it was incredibly chaotic.

Yes, I was there at the time before the release

where they gave their last community update.

You have to say that they also did something very unusual.

Most gamers hate the Early Access system.

We bring out a game that isn't finished yet, but you pay for it already

and then we'll see where the journey goes.

And that's something that is more normal in the service area.

For example, Survival Games like Arch Survival Evolved

is a very popular model by the publisher.

But they did it for their massive role-playing game.

That was very unusual.

They weren't that much focused.

They had a little bit of a bludgeoning, and the summer came out of nowhere.

I met them when they went into Early Access.

Back then they were in Nürnberg, near Munich.

I was an hour in the train and looked at it.

Then I thought, yes, that looks awesome.

I will never be busy with it again until the release.

I kept that in mind.

Then the request came before the release.

You wanted to come by and take a look at it.

I thought about it, because we had tried to write articles in between.

It didn't work out that way.

I thought, to be honest, I didn't plan it for my MMO.

In the sense that it would be a big cover.

I thought we might make a nice game.

Maybe we could take two stories with us.

One bigger guide.

And then the topic for us as my MMO was done.

But I was personally very interested in this studio.

Because I had a very interesting conversation with them in Nürnberg.

And B, I also liked them from Divinity Originals 2.

So their first big breakthrough game.

So to speak.

Because they also had a lot of attention.

Then I tore it a bit back and forth.

And I thought, yes, I'm going to do it now.

Just because I was curious.

And then I was there.

And in the end I was just very happy that I did it.

And to answer your question honestly, it was damn chaotic.

But that also made it so beautiful.

Because you just didn't have the feeling that there is the big next publisher here

with several locations, with several hundred employees

distributed all over the world and employees.

But these are all role-playing players who want to present their game.

And yes, where do I start with chaos?

I'll start with one story.

There was a presentation of the new content.

That means what was shown in this community update.

We saw that as a press and the influencer and influencer.

And the studio boss, Sven Finke, comes to the stage

and says, yes, I did something really great for you yesterday.

And I really have to show you that now.

He prepared a kind of prison break and wanted to show the whole system in the game.

And how cool that can be.

I thought about it yesterday evening and that it would be great.

That it would be great.

And his whole plan went completely backwards.

Everything that could go wrong just went wrong.

What he had planned with the break-in was wrong.

And the opponents reacted differently when he anticipated it.

I said, no, I did it yesterday evening.

Yesterday I tried it again and everything worked.

But at the same time you saw the charm of Baldur's Gate 3.

Because in this game, whoever played it knows that everything you paint

and think how to do it will go wrong.

And you always have to think spontaneously about how to deal with the situation

in which you just manipulated yourself.

And he demonstrated that.

That went wrong and it was a super funny presentation.

And he said, oh man, I wanted to show you.

And there should actually be explosions in the background.

And that would have been so cool.

But well, I'll try it now and so.

So that was nice.

And that's why I almost wouldn't have got my interview with him.

Because I was the first one who was in the plan and then the PR came to me.

We can't do that anymore.

I'm not planning it anymore.

But my whole preparation is only on this interview.

I need this interview.

Yes, we have to look.

And then they came to me three times again.

No, it doesn't work.

Oh, maybe it doesn't work.

And then it worked.

So it was great.

It was really great.

Yes, and I feel so reminded of CD Projekt.

Because that used to always have been a love-themed chicken coop.

And also the half of what they actually planned.

Whether it was on a fair, whether it was on interviews, it always went wrong.

Then the demo didn't work.

I sat in a fair demo where they were half an hour on a boss opponent.

Because he just wasn't able to break it.

Although they actually just wanted to show this fight.

I was standing at the fair and said, yes, now 15.30.

I have an interview for Einbart.

And they wave their lists and say, hey, what's wrong with me?

It's really, yes.

Yes, now that you say the PCs, the half of the PCs didn't work either.

So we should play the new content.

That was the new character and so on.

Dark Earth, who just came in the game a short time ago.

And we knew about it beforehand.

And we should be able to try it all out.

And then there's always electricity, there's always no PCs running.

Everything broke down all the time and the developers were like, no, no, no, no, no.

What are we going to do now?

But I have it.

Yes, something like that is quite exciting.

Yes, and now you have to take a look.

I mean, they have over 400 employees worldwide in several studios.

Now, what does it do to you as a company consultant

when you hear that such a big company is so chaotic,

at least at this press event?

So I think that's exciting.

You could say now, you said at the beginning that they show the middle finger.

But you could say, well, mirror, because they didn't even get my number.

That probably would have been better for the publisher.

But now, guys, I think the exciting thing is, if you listen to the numbers,

it's more about the changes.

So I tried, I can't remember, I went to this internet archive,

looked at some old interviews and so on.

And I think if you look at the studio from its development,

they somehow started in the 90s.

At some point, they started at the age of 39,

and then they were around 2001 or 2000.

They were almost only on three people before the insolvency.

And then they built up over time.

In 2014, 30, 2015, 40.

There was a big jump, 2019, 200.

And now 2023, 450.

So they doubled it once again, because it's G3.

And what can I say?

There are pretty radical jumps in very short periods

that maybe not everything is super professionalized

and super controlled.

That's understandable on the one hand.

But nevertheless, I think that's the exciting thing.

They got the economic success.

Now, regardless of whether it's the pair,

the pair things were successful.

And you could ask yourself the question,

does Michael really care about it?

How did they get it?

How did they manage to get a huge man,

a 450-man, you have to get that financed first,

without a publisher, to get the thing out of it?

You have to say good bye.

What's also exciting about this,

it's not a coincidence where all the localities are.

They are represented in every time zone.

I think you really have to figure that out.

Because of that, they never have a break in communication.

That means they can always make their social posts.

They can always keep in touch with the community.

They can always say when there are updates.

They can always work on it,

to test it.

They can always be against complaints.

They can always tell people,

we've got the problems.

Good night.

We're going to hand it over to another team,

who's just woke up.

We're going to talk about the process.

I talked about it a bit earlier.

This constant,

we can work 24-7,

without breaking it.

That's important,

to avoid crunch.

I'm not talking about

when you're at the end of a project,

or something stressful,

you have to work with it

so you can shift over an hour

or work in the weekend.

That can happen in a few weeks.

People always like to change that.

That crunch just means

it's long-lasting,

so you can't work more

or less anymore.

They don't have that in the form.

That's a huge advantage.

When it comes to work,

where do I want to work?

Do I want to work with the company

who says in the last few months,

you have to shift over an hour

or do I want to work with the company

where Sven Winkel said

the founder, business leader

and creative lead,

which is a very important concentration

of roles on a person

where Sven Winkel said

that over an hour

and a month before release

were 10-20 minutes per person.

So crunch,

where you work

completely in the background

while playing,

what do you say?

I want to take a look at the course

of history

because I was amazed

when I read

into Larian's history

how often they were

on the ground.

How often this studio

had to be closed

due to normal points

and they had to give up.

After their founding,

Larian was founded in 1996

and her first project

was the role-playing

The Lady, The Mage and The Knight.

It was supposed to be

like Ultima 7

because Sven Winkel is a big Ultima 7

fan and said

we want to build a role-playing game

that also has this world simulation

where NPCs have needs

like eating and sleeping

where they have daily expenses

and they were able to do that.

They were allowed to do that

with the German publisher

Attic Entertainment

who developed the Black Eye

and published a few other games.

It was stupid

but Attic went bankrupt

and had to close

and also had the role-playing

The Lady, The Mage and The Knight

and then Larian was there

and even apologized

due to the amount of money

they had invested

in the studio and the project

they just didn't have any more money.

And then they

still didn't give up

but cradled the remains

of this development work

they rebuilt it

because

it wasn't possible

for a game that isn't like Diablo

to find a publisher

and then they built

Divine Divinity

which was released in 2002

and

wasn't successful.

That's when they said

they didn't deserve any money

because they didn't sell it

enough to close the doors

but it wasn't

a financial success

and also the successor Beyond Divinity

which I didn't test for GameStar

which I didn't know

but read again

71 points. It wasn't that great.

Sorry, I'm laughing.

I'll just introduce myself

Oh, that was me.

It was like that.

And then I liked it.

I had to make it at the weekend

I was

at some holiday weekend

where the game wasn't sent

to the editorial office

and then they had to deliver it

from Belgium to Munich

to my private address

where I took this CD.

Beyond Divinity wasn't that great.

There was the big news

and one of them was still in the NPC

and fought with it

but it wasn't

what Larian had brought

and then they were

disappointed

but still didn't give up

but took on contract work.

So they did different things

for different contracts

and for a while

at least no games to hold over

water until

they started in 2006

with the development of Divinity 2

Ego Draconis

which was a completely different game

than the two before

that was so isometric and not pretty

action role games

Divinity 2 Ego Draconis was a 3D role game

where you were on your way

as a figure on the ground

and were able to fly around

and fight in the air.

They did that back then

because they said

we saw on the great new consoles

Xbox 360

are as beautiful games as possible

let's focus on that

let's focus on that as a goal

we're making games for these

new console generations

and it didn't sell

so well back then

so it's a chain of games

it wasn't a total failure

I think in Germany was the Daedalic

the publisher or DTP

one of the D companies from Hamburg

in any case

it was also a game where you said

but this Larian

how long does it still exist?

and then

they had the idea of being successful

you really have to say

because then they started to develop two games

one was when the next big thing

was planned

and one was a small project

which went along with it

and should have been ready

relatively quickly

the new big project

Divinity Dragon Commander

a real-time strategy game

which I don't remember any more

which was really cool

because you made such political decisions

with the factions that were there

how they crushed the dead

who were totally conservative

and then on the other side

the elves who wished for a liberal society

really cool

but during the development

you noticed

that's not our next big thing

a role-playing game

isometric with a hero group

that you lead to

and that's Divinity Original Sin

for that

at first they only had a budget

of 1.5 million euros

and then they thought

that in order to get it right

we need 3 million

and then they got into crowdfunding

and collected money

about Kickstarter

they collected donations directly

and as a studio

they got a budget of

about 4 million euros

I think 4.4-4.5 million

they had in the end

to finish this game

and

that was the moment

where they didn't celebrate

the big breakthrough

you said earlier

that was Original Sin 2

and of course Baldur's Gate 3

but that was the moment

that can be really successful

send this Dragon Commander away

finish it, release it quickly

we put the time

and the character we have

in this Original Sin

and that was

the beginning

of the real beginning of Larian

Divinity Original Sin 2

which was also started

with crowdfunding

at both Original Sin games

there was the Early Access period

to get into the game

but they also paid

to finance the development

through their Early Access

and then we are

at the point where they

made Baldur's Gate 3

that they had pitched

to Wizards of the Coast

where Sven Winke meant

about GOG

the publishing platform

the sales platform

they made contact to Wizards of the Coast

then Sven Winke went there

and was totally proud

that we wanted to make Baldur's Gate 3

and Wizards of the Coast said

who are they?

and many years later

after Original Sin 2

or in the process

when it was coming out

then Wizards of the Coast went to Larian

and said

you could make really cool games

don't you want to play Baldur's Gate 3?

and Sven Winke said

I never thought about it

then it came to the point

that they made Baldur's Gate 3

and I think

this story is very remarkable

alone

because it shows

the content of this studio

and had to have it

until they came where they are today

and because it also shows

how central Sven Winke

is as a person

for this success

not only because he is the CEO

but

if he wasn't there

and always said

we have to make contracts

he also said

if Original Sin wasn't successful

if they would have gone back

we would have made contracts for someone else

until we could make our own project

but staying on this

I really want to

that was really

really central

you can even add

that it was really dramatic

at the beginning

I felt it in a documentation

and it was so dramatic

that Sven Winke

gave the people only weeks contracts

because they never knew

if they would survive the week

if you have a job

at the end of the week

there were only weeks contracts

and there were always some

and he also had

several times with the founders

he is the only one

who is there from the beginning to the end

so it is true that he

had this capability

he told that sometimes

he was completely blank

sometimes he could pay more

for the car

and then he had to call his wife

I am standing here

can't fill the tank

I need cash

he was completely blank

crazy

at the end of the development phase

of original sin 1

there were tax payments

even though the government refused

where they also had an interview

with Eurogamer

that normally the Belgian tax authorities

when you say we are in a difficult situation

as a company we can shift a payment

to the back

not to pay but to the back

normally the authorities say it is not a problem

you say you pay it

and then he said

you are the only one who got a job

who didn't let you talk

that one guy

who didn't allow him

and they did it anyway

which had a certain risk

but

the good thing was

at that time they saw

that the early access was good

that they had the early access sales

that there is a target group

for original sin

and with that

they also knew

that at some point they could pay the taxes

so they knew

that would probably go up from there

can you help me?

when was the original sin

published?

what year was it?

2014

what I found

exciting

was

I don't know if you had that in your story

but when was the break

with the publishers?

I think in this story

one thing that has been going on

for the last two years

is that he was frustrated

by the publishers

because he didn't have a lot of luck

with the publishers

who financed it

in the 90s

there was a financial crisis

where the publisher

came into the market

and wanted to publish a game

where it wasn't finished

and his problem was

we couldn't finish the game

and of course we got bad scores

and then it was sold less

and so on

and then it had to be around

2011-2011

that they made this decision

we went away from the publisher

and went to these contracts

and financed us with

these two projects

they belong to our own IPs

we don't have to share the money

with the publisher

and I also have something important

the publisher doesn't come

and dictates us what is happening

and of course

our game is also in competition

with other games

because we have bad scores

and then we don't have a good score

and we have to take that in our own hands

and that was probably a very brave step

not going this way

that was the point

that was the game where the publisher

got problems because of the financial crisis

so they had to finish it

I tested it

which I didn't know

and I only saw it in the article

but also there

I really don't know anything about this game

but there were plot holes

that didn't make sense

there were gameplay

when you are on the road

you can fight in the air

not against enemies on the ground

you have fire breath

but it doesn't hit enemies on the ground

which was a conceptual decision

that you have to land in a human

and then fight on the ground

where you notice that it's not full thought

there were problems with that

and I think that was the point

that they said

Dragon commander had

but this original sense

let's do it without a publisher

let's finance it

plus

but also

in some sources

about venture capital

project based

I found the model

it's a project based venture capital

there is no venture capital

in the company

companies are founded

project companies

and for that venture capital is introduced

because if we talk about

the property structure later

it's just a small number

three

actually

maybe that's the ideal point

to address them

because

Larian

is 62%

about

Sven Winkke

the founder, CEO and creative lead

of his own games

he does with his own studio

is 8%

of his wife

and 30% of the rest

I just wanted to

introduce you to this

gasoline money

what he got

get it back

at that time the 8%

was like a tank filling

then I pay

in studio

and 30% are

Tencent

the Chinese publishing giant

is invested worldwide

from Activision over Paradox in Sweden

to Jäger in Germany

and so on

Tencent is everywhere

and 30% of Larian

they bought it

it's not a

decision-making minority

Sven Winkke is the majority

he can make decisions freely

it's not quite clear

when Tencent bought it

probably in 2018

Larian was converted

from the studio

in Belgium

to a

holding in Ireland

which was founded

and Tencent bought it

the property company

of this studio

there is the Larian studio

in Belgium

there is a double

in Dublin a holding

and there are 3 groups

exactly

and now the most important

question

who is Sven Winkke?

because

Léa told me

you met him in Belgium, I met him before

I have to tell you this

but Sven Winkke

there are 2 developers

that I always change

one is Sven Winkke

the other is the head

of the development studio

which was also taken by Paradox

a few years ago

and I know that I met them

more often

and I never knew who he was

that was so unpleasant

today I can distinguish him

at first

I have to correct

your pronunciation

because

Sven Winkke

speaks my Dutch

sharp

because

I have talked to him for a long time

in Dutch

because he is from

Belgium

and

I speak Dutch

and we have

talked for a long time

in Dutch

because Dutch people

don't know that

they are used to speaking

English

because they speak Dutch

and that means

they are always happy

and then I had

such a small home advantage

because she just had fun

talking to me in her mother's language

and I was also interested

why do you speak Dutch

and so on

and so we came into the conversation

at such public events

to applaud a little bit

it is also quite common

that interviews are presented

you have time

to play

normally in a very professional

and very focused setting

you can only talk to the developers

when a publisher

is still behind

you have

at the big studios

Michael will know

is sometimes a PR or marketing dog

in the background

the farmer who takes care of it

interviews are often made

with AAA studios

not so much fun

because they don't have a lot of meat

that is just a wasted program

in the sense of blah blah blah blah

that is what we are allowed to say

that is actually everything that is already

on a website or something

and we now get that again

and that is

of course not the case with Laria

that means the developers

they were there all the time

with this professional part

with the people who work

I also worked with the head story writer

with the director

of publishing

because my PC does not work

to play

so I just dealt with

to talk to different people

and they were all super nervous

before the release

was already very

very interesting

and then there are usually

the official part

which is also part of the event

you go out in the evening and eat something

maybe drink a few beers

together

and that is also the free part

where you can also

with the people

it is for the developers, you have to say

and developers are the hyper exhausting events

when they present their presentation

they introduce new things

that is what you like to forget behind the screen

when you consume

they do everything

and they are in such an incredible

vulnerable position

because they show

their babies and they present it

for the first time and nervous

and then when this official part

is over, the people

usually breathe

we did it and then you get

a few more

relaxed conversations

and we were in a pub

the Hotty Totty

and in the Hotty Totty

we drank Belgian beer

and ate something

and in the Hotty Totty

I got the conversation with Sven

and

we mainly talked about

how it is to grow up in a big family

because he has four children, I have four sisters

and about that it happened

that we came to a close conversation

what is that for a person?

an incredible one, who is very relaxed

very relaxed

that is also what

in my opinion

is very important in a good leadership

that they can be such a calm anchor

and with the official event

where this community stream was

we also sat with it

then

the same thing they showed us

they also presented it in this community update

and then everything went really wrong

at the beginning

it was in our press event

that things went wrong

because of the presentation

it is a bit heavy

for this community stream

it was a bit overclocked

but what happened?

the internet fell out

the stream was slow, it was rolling

a save file was broken

where there was

some storage error

where they couldn't get to the part

that they actually wanted to show

and Sven

he is also very big

he is 2 meters tall

and he is also

just the long Sven of his team

and

then he stands in his ritter armor

explains things

and the ritter armor claps all the time

and he is the calm person

and laughs away

and you can see that

what you didn't see in the stream

in the background a huge team

of devs and technicians

and they all

shit, our stream

everyone is nervous

and what do we do now

and Sven just rocked it

from my point of view

I watched it in the second or third row

he brought so much peace

even if the technicians

were nervous

you didn't even have the feeling

that he just became angry or nervous

or something else

he just took it cool

but he knows all his background

with how

the development story of Larian was

he did a lot of things

he probably can't bring so much more

out of peace

and what was also very striking

for me was

how respectful

and recognizable

his employees talked about

no matter who you talked to

and you also feel

that now people

only say that out of kindness

or out of professionalism

it's a good boss

or if they really say

yes Sven

that's really Sven

you say Sven and the people

complain about their boss

each one of them confirmed

how crazy Sven is

how much he loves the game development

and that's really important

for him that good games are developed

that's really his biggest focus

and as I said

I have my day because I couldn't play myself

I talked to a lot of developers

and each one

spoke about Sven

you rarely see that

in the form

tell me, you told

that you also talked about

their development processes

globally

they have become super fast

super big

did they tell you

how they came to this

it can change the culture

of the company

did you

get something

or could you read between the lines?

no, we didn't really talk about that

because in the focus it was

Baldur's Gate 3

it was a release

and the head of that

you also noticed that it was only

the release

when was the event

two weeks before?

yes, let it be

for a month

and they were like

we have to get this release

that means we talked about that

also a bit

the development

it was six years

after two years

they could say that they are working

in the game

in their second year

four years ago

and that was the clear focus

with this

technique

that they opened this studio

that was

what they said

it was a very conscious decision

because from the beginning

we wanted to be able to

achieve 24x7 support

because they already had

the experience about Divinity

that they

had to fix a few things

because

they just don't work

they don't come out

or their games are

really big

Baldur's Gate is

I'm at 150 hours

and I started

to play the third act

a few hours ago

150 without the third act

yes

I mean

most of the games

take up to 80 hours

I'm already very slow

but I really look at every

cursed stone

and try a few different things

you can spend a lot of time

with the game without

repeating content

there is no fetch quest or anything

no matter what you do

it's a unique experience

and there is

of course

that there are some bugs

the first and the second were

very strongly tested by the Early Access

and the third thing wasn't in the Early Access

so there were some problems

and that was

a very strategic decision

to say we want to be able to

always be able to test people

always be able to communicate

to the community

and that we always fix

and there they really have a system

also developed that it is possible

that real transition protocols

take place in a different country

that are waking up

a lot is chaotic

it also works very chaotic

when you look at community updates

it all works like

they are funny in costumes

and they do this

and the CEO himself is sitting in the back

but those are tough strategies

you have to say that

there is no coincidence

that they have gone through the ceiling

with Baldur's Gate 3

they are distributed in several countries

and 247 is a

very important strategic decision

what you said

at least what Sven said

in the interview was that it was already

rough to enlarge the teams so much

that they also noticed

they don't have any processes for it

there are no workflows

at the beginning

how to find team-to-team transitions

and how to be managed

by these larger teams

that was a nice

rough running water

but you

at least had

a very good project management

or a good project planning

at least

in this pre-production phase for Baldur's Gate 3

because it was only one year long

only planning

what do we want to do

what does this game need

how much player freedom do we want to give to people

can I take a skeleton

and throw it on the necromancer

as I recently did

with my barbarian

what do we want to implement

what do we need for these

intermediate sequences

for this film-like staging

that was the big jump in comparison to

original scene 2

they first made a very

apparently good plan

and then they started

to slowly implement it

in whom do we need it

as I said

if it went well

you can always say

the plan worked well

but I believe at least

because you didn't hear it

how it worked at CD Projekt

at Cyberpunk

and also at the Witcher 3

if you're honest

I believe that in this long planning phase

it helped a lot

to manage this growth

my speculation

and probably the early access

we already discussed it at Witcher

and I think

we already talked about it

is by the Skate 3 AAA

so could you sort it out

and maybe you could say

in the genre it's probably

that it's coming

and here it's interesting

I mean we had discussed it

in the early podcast

or we discussed it in the background

whether this step

in the early access

was so clever

for a narrative role play

and so on

and the question is

would you be able to

bring it to this level

with the team

to get the attention

without these decisions

when I think back

it's interesting for me

to understand this step

what does a publisher do?

Does a publisher finance it?

They take care of the distribution

especially physical distribution

and they take care of marketing

in the moment where they go

in self-publishing

they have to take care of everything

they have to finance themselves

probably the funding is

as much as in Divinity 2

but probably the investment from Tencent

could be supported

that they slide into the financing

and then the topic of marketing

and I ask myself

how did they get it?

How did they get it

without the big

what does the publisher bring?

The network, the experience

the channels

and so on

and that's what I think

to understand

you could argue

that there are studies

that go into self-publishing

to get attention on the product

to engage the community

and so on

and that's interesting to understand

what's different here?

What's different is that

everything is with them

and that's of course

with a risk

but there is also a lot of freedom

because nobody talks to them

and then we come to

one of the most important

it will sound very annoying

but one of the most important points

in their marketing strategy

was this thing with the bear and sex

because that's

not as random as it looks

at the end of the stream

because that was the point

where the whole thing took up

a lot of traction

and I have

with the director of publishing

that's Michael Dawes

who is very active on Twitter

is there

he is called

and he is

he is quoted a lot

because he talks a lot

about publishing and game studios

and so on Twitter

but with him I have been

keeping up with him for a long time

and

he is a little bit

the spider in the net

when it comes to this whole marketing

and

I will never forget

how funny it was

there was this stream

where a lot went wrong

but at some point they got the stream back

and

with this scene with the bear and sex

they didn't do that for us

that was a surprise

for us in the live stream

and

how it all came about

there is a scene for people

who are not in it

there is a druid

who can have a companion

and a vampire

and with the games

you can decide

if you make a scratch

or if you play a character

and in that case

they controlled the vampire

he is in a laun

he meets the druids

and

they are hanging together

and the druid

is not

not a big spoiler

you can listen to it

the druid

lived a long time under bears

that is part of his past

and when he is born

he turns into a bear

and

then he turns back

and says sorry, I'm sorry

sometimes that happens when the tribe and blah blah blah

you know I'm a druid

and then they gave the audience

the decision

how could you choose the dialogue

options

you prefer to be in your human form

or you could choose

something like

the bear

I like that

and they know their community

they know

how juicy the community can be

let's say

they like bears

that means

the whole audience was

a bear

and then we choose

and then the scene comes

but you can't see it

the vampire is lying on the back

the bear goes over

and then

the camera swings over

and you see an egg horn

holding a nut

and then

the nut falls

and looks like this

and

that's how it looks

and

because there were so many mistakes

the presentation was unusual

and I had to go to the toilet

and I said ok, now they're presenting

the collector's edition

and then I come back

and Michael Dawes

meets me on the floor

looks at me

Tiktok just tied us up for the bear sex

and grins

really wide and happy

and I was like

awesome, good for you

because it's clear to me

that this is the best thing that can happen

because of course I wrote

parallel to my team

Yo, Larian Studios was just

doing news for a scene of bear sex on Tiktok

and of course we weren't the only ones

who took it as news

because it's just a funny

good entertaining

news

that was anticipated

that there are

heads behind it

that understand social media

that understand viral hits

that also understand their community

which is very important

that they are all role-playing players

including Sven

they also have drags

and

that's all

it looks chaotic

but it's planned chaos

I think this part is super exciting

because

this part is super important

that you have pros there

if you go into this self-publishing

you really have to take it seriously

and I had read an interview

it had to be from 2012

they just started

with self-publishing

and Sven also told

that the topic of distribution

was super important

and marketing

and he said

it's not like that

it's marketing and community

that's the kicker

and I think we're talking about

10-11 years of experience

and the pros are probably sitting there

so it's not like

we're doing a bit of social media

but the people seem to be sitting there

saying we have a feeling

that we might get some cool content

and of course

Baldur's Gate still draws as a brand

in that case

it's a big brand

and that was the point

where I said

this game

I mentioned at the beginning

it was never planned as a coverage

and that was the moment where I planned it

all the content plans

for the year

and I said

we're going full on

the game has potential

I saw the news worked great

it went on social media

and that was

the kicker

where I said

we need everything

it doesn't matter if we planned

resources or not

we're planning everything

the editors are going on

I still have a free outro

and it was

for my team

but we didn't plan it

now it's a viral hit

and that really did a lot

that you

understand the game

and the publishing

and the reality

and that's what they do until today

you have to say

one of the stars for how they use

these voice actors

they still get them

in the studio

to record

just for social media

so that

the whole voice actors team

have recorded

so that they

can play Dungeons & Dragons

and produce something like that

which has also given memes

in the community

and that's really

a social media game

one of the stars

I have something very interesting

I wonder

how is the structural difference

with the big publishers

because you said

that you can talk privately

and so on

and we know that

with big news companies

this polished talk is really important

because when you say

three wrong things

and then in the main collection

there's the idea and they all say

sorry we don't extend your contract

but against Sven

no one can say that

he sits on the driver's seat

and then they can deal with it

because the CD project is

very well noted

but I think it's really exciting

because now you have a studio

that will be in the next iteration

of his games

always move up a bit

but we don't have this pressure

that we have to talk politely

because if we say three wrong things

the analysts will punish us

and then we have to finish the main collection

and you can still have

a bit more drive

to have someone in the industry

Valve is also in this direction

but they don't communicate that much

they don't communicate at all

unfortunately not

but that you can get a spin

that's really exciting

definitely

that's why I said earlier

Sven Finke is the central figure

when you look at how he

shows himself in the studio

in the community updates

when he sits around in his ride

he's like a big boy

and that makes him so nice

because he...

you also notice that he's not playing

he's just a nerd

he's the one who likes to play games

who likes fantasy and science fiction

that's why my secret hope is

to play a science fiction game

because we all know that sci-fi is better than fantasy

you have to keep that in mind

but he

he's the business leader

of this company

of us idiots

he made a video

about the Switch version

of Divinity Original Sin 2

where he says

now I can't play with my colleagues

the Switch version of Divinity

because my games are on Valve

on the servers

so I break into Valve

in a heist

which they also filmed in Seattle

he probably had a business term

and Clow brought

that to me

in my ritterism

and then you see

and it's a bit like

how it used to be with GameStar

with the Redaction or Raumschiff GameStar

not that it was produced

high-quality videos

but they were a bit... they were

even ironic, they were nerdy

and they were... I can say that

they were

there to show people that we are like you

we are like you

we are like

we are also like

we live half a day in Star Wars

or Header Ringe or whatever

or Spider-Man

I forgot to tell that

because in my interview

with him

I had an interview with him

we also had a little

I talked to him

for the first time

from person to person

a little bit closer

and

I asked him

for statistics

how...

how was the question again

something in the direction

what the statistics say

with what the players do

or something like that

because they collected a lot of data

from the Early Access

and then you sit with the CEO

you have to say that again

we can also agree

that CEOs in gaming companies

normally have a different role

than he is now

and you sit there

on a park bench

they brought us out

sitting on a park bench

you sit around the atmosphere

I don't look at the data

I have other people for that

because that will limit me

in my creative freedom

so if I knew

that the content was only 0,001%

then I would

think as a CEO

and I don't want that

because he is very deep

in this creative process

and says no, I want to have my game

that even if 0,001%

only see this content

then there should still be cinematic

there should still be a quest

so that the game is also meaningful

because we talked a lot about it

about the bad

bad play through

and

how to make the perfect bad run

that was the idea behind the interview

but it got a little deeper

about such content

in principle

because he said

no, a lot of this business

also

there are people for that

so I assume that

he will look at it as a CEO

and of course will make business decisions

or maybe he will do that with his wife

with her 8%, I don't know

but seriously, no

I just want to develop a game

and make good games

I don't know a studio where it is

with the CEO

at least no studio in this size

it is a typical indie

in indie studios it is like that

but not in studios with 400 people

and I think that is also an elementary

difference to the CD project

which was led by Marcin Iwinski

but for a long time

until recently he listened to it

but Marcin Iwinski

likes to be a gamer

but he is more of a businessman

he built the CD project

as a publisher in Poland

where funny enough another parallel

is Solarian because

the CD project was published

Baldur Skate

in Poland

they translated it into Polish

with professional actors

it was a great success

and that's how they arrived

at BioWare, at Interplay

and not only did they get

the Aurora engine

from BioWare for later The Witcher

but they were

at least allowed to develop

a PC version, a PC implementation

at CD project

Baldur Skate Dark Alliance

which was the console publisher

on the Playstation 2

it never appeared

but over this Baldur Skate Dark Alliance

there are other people

among others

Adam Bardowski

and Adam Bardowski is one of the key figures

of the Witcher series

which is about game design and vision

but Marcin Iwinski

was always a CEO

and Sven Finkel

of course he had to be a businessman

because he leads a million heavy companies

so it's not that

Solarian just

pushes a few euros

but he

said he has a finance team

that takes care of the financial things

I still meet the creative decisions

and I mean

let's imagine the dystopia

if Andrew Wilson would meet

the creative decisions at Electronic Arts

if Bobby Kotick would meet

the creative decisions at Activision

what would we get for games?

just sales

or mathematics

exactly

because

he is the CEO

who has the creative vision

he is the one

who can learn business models

and imagine that

with a publisher in your neck

and you sit there

and say

even if it's going to be expensive

to make this cinematic

we make it

because it's important

which publisher would say

or as a cashier

do we really need

this

a mega pompous cut

for the three people

who might say it's a bit exaggerated

or like with the bear sex

brand safe

is also an important word

it can be

that the publisher says

it's too unsafe

yes

I mean you can't make a picture of it

even though

with Original Sin 1

and 2

it was already very good

you can't make a picture of it

how risky a project is

like Baldur's Gate 3

despite the big market Dungeons & Dragons

you make a single player

ok with co-op but still

single player role play

iso perspective

with round based fights

a cinematic staging

which is much more resource-oriented

than with other classic role play

that was based on text

which was also with Original Sin

that was text

and plus

all this playful variability

that you have to develop

a whole mountain full of things

that people might not see

if I don't have this one relationship

with the bear sex

I never see a thousand other things

in the game

if I just go for it

it's a game again and again

logically

but

that has to be

for a classic publisher

the reddest cloth ever

if you say

ok 50% of the work in the game

flows into things that many people

probably won't see

and that's what they do

that's their business

and to get that through a publisher

would be

not impossible

of course you would have

found someone who said

ok I see

it would be cool but

it would be extremely difficult

and in the position of electronic arts

I can't imagine that the words

single player, pan and paper rules

round based fights, isometric perspectives

and things to develop

that many people won't see

in one sentence

and I have

an important element

not only in the process of development

the freedom to have

but also to have the upside down

that means now there is more money left

and more money left

also means financial possibilities

and I think that part is super important

we know

that a lot of game development

is incredibly dependent on project financing

publisher financing and so on

and that also makes a lot of pressure

then you might look at what is going on

on the market, you make a

arena shooter

or something like that

but the financial possibilities

to say the next project we can definitely do

we already have the financial possibilities

we can finance it

and so on

I think that brings in the spin

that you can stay calm in the process

and not

I think that was

interesting in the older interviews

with Sven

that he was already very frustrated

when you do all the work

then the publisher comes

then pushes the game out as early as you wanted

he also changed it 13 times in the process

and in the end

the money stays with me

then someone else gets it

and that's really exciting

there's no publisher

and on the other hand they don't have middleware

that's their own engine

they don't have to press Unreal

that's the only thing that remains

and that makes it interesting

to understand

what Tencent has in influence

not even the negative influence

but

you can imagine Tencent

is a big publisher

they can help him

with science, networks

or are they just invested

because they say that with Baldur's Gate 3

that's a good thing

that's a very good question

I think Tencent would have

already made a new update

we already did a podcast about Tencent

but there are many new developments

what Tencent is about

I have a theory about it

but I want to start at the end

because it has to do with the future of Larian

yes

cliffhanger

I can start at this point

because we always talk about money

and project financing

what we at least know

can't be exact

but from the statements of Larian

and from others

are the sales figures

since the original Sin

Sven said in the talk on the GDC

sold himself 2.5 million times

which is pretty great

for a game

they also saw that

and worked well

and then sold 2.5 million

Divinity Original Sin 2

that's what Sven said

he sold himself about 3 times

like the first part

which means at least 7.5 million times

which is pretty good

that applies to the platform

because they also released console versions

interesting for the console versions

back then

in contrast to Baldur's Gate 3

they worked with publishers

for physical

console versions

data carriers in boxes

were

but were

on the console market

everything was important

the digital market with Steam

was not that big

with the Playstation Store

Xbox Store

I only have Xbox Game in my head

where Microsoft sells games

they weren't that big

that's why you need physical versions

that's why you need

a publisher who can produce the boxes

who can press the whole thing on data carriers

who can give the whole thing to the market

Contact has too many big dealers

who then distribute it to the electronic markets

and and and

they used to have publishers

now at Baldur's Gate 3 they don't have any more

that's why Baldur's Gate 3 only

is available on the consoles

there are no physical versions

of Baldur's Gate 3 anymore

because they just didn't want

this publishing partner

plus because the digital

sales on the consoles

got a lot of push

because of this annoying pandemic

in the last years

you can't forget

by the way the pandemic

in an interview

of Baldur's Gate 3

was a creative exchange

that's why they came out

a year later

as planned

they were already

in the year 2022

and where we are

we didn't even scratch that

that they were

very smart again

what their marketing is

or the whole publishing strategy

without publishers

to present their release

so they were

so you really have to say

Genie Streich

was originally planned

exactly on the same day

more or less as Starfield

and Starfield is a big role

very big competitor

and the console release

it stayed the same

it came

that's it

that was

so smart again

but we'll stay with the PC release

the PC release

was released a month ago

and that's the only thing that's left

and they went viral

and were on TikTok

and I was too big

then there were the first news

where everyone said

the game is really cool

and something special

that means new people bought it

then the news came

oh by the way we're coming on the same day

on the consoles as Starfield

Starfield exclusive on the Xbox

but only on the PS5

how it

finally goes on

with the Xbox release

and that was

by the way, PS5 players

we know you don't get this other big role

because

that's now exclusive on Microsoft

it's coming to us on PS5

so that's exactly

the whole strategy

that it was targeted again

we'll come on the same day

and that was a fight

that's

I really had it before the podcast

that was good

because they went over this digital

distribution only

otherwise a month earlier

and then the whole trade would have said

what the hell are you doing? we planned

and then the trade is clean

and then it doesn't work

but because they went through this digital step

they could probably push it pretty fast

and that with Sony is of course mega smart

that's really the Q

I don't care what's coming

the Q of the year

was to put this release on the PC

and with that

to control the strikes

the whole August

and then Starfield comes

and suddenly this huge

Bethesda role plays

that usually

of course sells well

and the gamepass runs well

so we don't have to worry about Bethesda

but suddenly it's like

and

to have self-confidence

to do that

and that it worked

at the end

and gave them this wind

drive again

that would be remarkable

but that's reflected in the sales numbers

of the Jason Schreier from Blueberg

sorry

from the Blueberg

Jason Schreier once reported

that she had over 2.5 million sales

in the early access

so that's calculated

by a sales price of 60 euros

then that's 150 million

turnover

of which 30% go to Valve

but still 105 million

for larian alone

already good to continue

to finance

so alone 2.5 million

sales

in the early access

and then the belgian message

from all the unlikely places

on earth

the belgian message in China

released after two weeks

a statement

a message published on Weibo

the chinese twitter

where they said

now we are at 5.2 million

sales for Baldur's Gate 3

because they wanted to do advertising

for larian

you must have heard

from Baldur's Gate 3

when you come from belgian

5.2 million sales

within two weeks

probably early access

but you see

it was successful

what they did

they were probably only 25%

if you get over 10 million

revenue then it's only 25%

a little more cool

stayed

and xbox is still

even more

xbox

maybe for everyone who doesn't know

yes it still comes

there was the problem

that microsoft actually demands

in its publishing status

that players on the xbox series s

and on the xbox series x

so the stronger console

have to be similar to the features

that they offer

and on the series s they got the co-op

modus from Baldur's Gate 3

it just ruckled

it was reasonable

but they also offered it on the split screen

and that's just a decision

because Sven Finke is the creative lead

because he says he's having so much fun

playing with his wife in the couch co-op

that his game also has to have a couch co-op

there's no other reason

that he thinks it's nice

and that's why

they couldn't afford it

but to the point

they were so focused

what pc sales

they got on the gamescom

with Phil Spencer

and on the gamescom

they sold it

we'll make a video for you

on the gamescom

I met some of them

coincidence

tell me

how does it look

that

all the dlc politics

or the definitive edition

and everyone who already has it

have you

a look at

why don't you monetize it

you could monetize it

I think

that's part of my

core thesis

to which a lot of you

have already discussed

that they have

expanded the success factors

for games

which we have discussed a few times

the success factors

for the vice president

of amazon games

are actually three

team, tech and ip

team means

you need an experienced group

who has already released

a game together

or at least where the leadership

has already worked together

because the release is exhausting

there can be a lot going wrong

there comes an inexperienced team

there is a lot going on

so it is always valuable

when an experienced team

is together

tech means

people need to know the technology

and the tools to work

in the case of larian the divinity engine

now 4.0

but with the work since

2012

they already have a lot of experience

with ip

the brand is quite small

it is strong enough

and the factor about which

they are increasing

and that is the very important

why I say all that is not a coincidence

the success you have is

community

and to community

that is what larian already said

permanent community updates

permanent around the world

24 hours community

it belongs to the fast patches

that they can publish

then the studio in europe

starts to work on the patch

then sends it to canada

when the people are there

in the qa from the qa in canada

then continues to malaysia

to the studio in koala lumpur

to work on the feedback

then from koala lumpur goes back to belgium

maybe again and then it is published

and it has been working 24 hours

all the time

that is why they can quickly

publish patches

they changed the epilogue

for a companion in the game

they made new language recordings

they just patched it

on the feedback base

as soon as possible

they just came with their studio network

and made the entry into the mess

very quickly

yes, his majesty is dirty again

the cat in a guesthouse

you will know why

and it belongs to me

and it used to belong to cd

they don't let their games

alone

there was from divinity original sin

the enhanced edition

there was the definitive edition

of original sin 2

and now there will be a

enhanced edition

with a lot of security

or a definitive edition

or as always it is called

improved version

and that they make it free

for people who already have the game

and now this fan service

exactly this community builder

what maybe

if you think about it

not the profit maximization

because they could

demand money for it

but they collect goodwill

I would say

it is also

and in this case

especially if you really

experienced the people

and of course you can only live

if you want

you can look at it very cynically

and say yes

everything is always dark

but if you are directly

with the people and especially

like Sven

sees his knight and clappers

and you talk to him

you have a nice chat

with him, like I said

about life in the big family

and when he is standing

and says profit maximization

that is not my main goal

I want to make cool games

I believe him

I just believe him

and he also has a team

to collect them

he also proved it

even if I speak with the other leaders

or if you are now also

from the publishing director

Michael Dausser

when you follow his twitter

what I know

but also there

you often find very critical statements

against publishers

or games companies

who only go on profit maximization

and therefore just think very briefly

and

not create such a healthy

holistic system

which is also

more or less

CD Projekt Red and so on

but what is also unusual

is that people sometimes work there

because in game development

you often have that

when a big project is completed

then people will leave

then maybe you don't need so many developers

then maybe you don't need so many people

in marketing or something like that

and they have

as far as I can see from the outside

no high fluctuation

sometimes people who are already

at the beginning of the studio

who are now already

Divinity

were also there

for example the publishing director

he was already a publishing director for Divinity 2

and it is still for Baldur's Gate

and

that's just a lot of years

in such a company

which is not necessarily the norm

I'll say

which is also a good job

definitely

and what this community aspect is

Sven also said in an interview

on the official Dungeons & Dragons

YouTube channel

a core

of their teams

how they look at their games

or a

a property that they all have

Valarian is player empathy

so empathy for players

that they always want to know

what people think

about our game

he says himself, I want to keep people

I'm pissed with myself

and with what we have created

when it's not the case

when something is broken

when people say it's boring

and I just found

this stroke word player empathy so nice

that I would play at this point

that all publishers

immediately promote

the head of player empathy

that a position is made

that people look

ok, how do people look

at us

and why don't they

want to look at us

I have to laugh

because I'm sure

that in some of the business reports

Activision or EA

our values are player empathy

in addition to live time

monetization

you remember the EA

you remember the EA business report

in which we would

monetize a little bit

but we would like to monetize

but then these players and players

get on the roof

with empathy

and a smiling money

from the pocket

that's right

it's also

to make it even more interesting

for everyone

who followed the Baldur's Gate

it's not like

there is no criticism

it was

a buggy and still

they also have a lot to repair

it's also that

there are complaints about

that the third act feels

that the Oberstadt is missing

from Baldur's Gate

from which Sven Winkes

in a community update swarmed

this really great

and the architecture style

of this beautiful palace in Oberstadt

that's a real highlight

the game however

is in Oberstadt

but only as a linear show place

for the final battle

for the showdown

and that's very strange

because there is a Krönungstadt

in Baldur's Gate

but it's not in Herzog's Palace

which would be in Oberstadt

but in the fortress Wurmfels

where it doesn't belong

there was a Krönungsseremonie in Baldur's Gate 1

which is of course in Herzog's Palace

where you just Krönung

but it's not in there

because the Oberstadt is missing

and there is

a companion

who also feels that the end of his story is missing

or at least another act of his story is missing

would

they are building the epilogue

which will be told in the end

about the fate of the companion

but at least with one figure you notice

there is something in the eye

with the others

you can't go to the Oberstadt

but only to a show place

without being able to explore

or you think

it's not what you would expect

in such a game

but at the same time

you have played 80 to 120 hours

and then to say

there is still something missing

or more than 150

when you turn each stone

it's always strange to say

there is something missing

there are also data miners

who have found things

the third act is of course

the biggest

I'm in the beginning

and at the beginning you already notice

that it's a bit of a performance

that it's a bit of a hakeleger

but as I said

the first and the second act are tested

until you go alone

and there was the third one

and I have

the third one

maybe another 150 hours

and who knows

I'm not going to start

a single other game

as long as I haven't finished it

whatever

but from many others

who have passed me

I have also heard

ending a bit

already satisfying

but a bit scary

and not very happy with it

but I don't know

how you say it

I already have 150 hours

and there is so much love

to the detail

alone that I play a druid

and when I turn into a animal

and that's an animation

when I go up and down

with an owl bear

alone that's something

you don't see in other games

let's take Diablo 4

I think Diablo 4 is a good Diablo

I liked playing it

there were some problems

but when you are on a horse

there is a teleportation

if you go down a ladder

then teleport your horse with it

because you run the gate

the horse also rides down the stairs

if you have a horse in the theory

those are little things

after 150 hours there are always things

where I think

there are deep details

and if it's a stupid stairs animation

yes

Diablo 4 was not in Early Access

it was only the first one

but Act 2 was a little more linear

than the first one

and definitely more linear than the third

and the second one is also the biggest

the first one was definitely bigger

than the second one

by the way, it's getting bigger

what brings the future?

that's the decisive question

which we can only answer

speculatively

but it was also the decisive question

CD Projekt has always become more ambitious

in the projects that you have packed

up to Cyberpunk 2077

which had the problems

when releasing

especially on the old consoles

but also on all platforms

we know because they are just so grown

that they

have grown

where you also hear

and where we also briefly talked about the podcast

with Miles

there were also

problems that their teams

did not inform constantly

that the communication was not working well

that feedback from the teams

was not taken correctly and continued

this whole structure

that actually has to exist

especially in such a large studio

with 700-800 people

was simply not there

I have to point out

we suspected all of that in our podcast

when we did the analysis

I also saw last time

a docu about CD Projekt

and we also talked about

the problem was the game development

the agile development

versus waterfall development

we also suspected all of that

and now the question

larian seems to have

better processes in control

there is no crunch

and now the question

where are you going?

Sven already said

there is a possibility

that the universe will remain

not 100% unlikely

that there will be an original scene 3

but only in many years

so now they will continue

with Baldur's Gate 3

and maybe a kind of DLC

if it is integrated

into the existing campaign

and not afterwards

because afterwards the heroes will become so powerful

in this D&D rule system

what I would like to talk to you about

I will not take over with your next project

but also

if you make a new project

no matter what it is

and it is flopped

are you out of the window?

yes because

I once did a milk girl

and I was thinking

450 people

full cost

5000 euros

you are relatively fast at 27 million

in the month that you have a cost

of 5 years

then it is 135 million

let's say

Baldur's Gate brings in so much

that you can say that it is easy

that it is flopped

but if the next thing is not stamped

it will be the next thing

of course

the cost rate is of course

450 employees

and one project

critical

so you probably have to

do Divinity 3

and

then make a second franchise

or a DLC

you have to do that

you have to make a difference

because otherwise

one thing if it kills you

and I mean they made several games before

they were smaller

but with the size

we are also at CD Projekt

one project alone

can take the risk

of not carrying such a big studio

they are currently setting

people on

I saw on LinkedIn

they are looking for

developers

and on Twitter the publishing director

wrote something

also because of

not advertising

but what is it again

thank you

they also made a few shout outs

but from

now again officially

I had seen

they just want to continue

because I did not get anything from the release

there were no news at all

I just see the publishing sites

yes and that makes

this thing with the release

I mean it is a special topic

it is a bit in the industry

and so on

but we have the situation

that it is not the case with Lara

that the sales fall down

but if everyone builds up

it is of course very nice

for them it is running very well

that means they could build up

but the risk

is of course

now it does not fall

down on three people

but now the fall will be deeper

because of course

I would also see pressure as the main risk

just pressure from the outside

because they are now absolutely

celebrated

today really researched

again thought about

where there are points now

from the game itself

okay third act and so on

maybe not so cool but I thought

where are they actually accessible

what could you miss

and I actually did not find anything

so with the view from the outside

how it looks internally you don't know

but the pressure is incredibly big

because they were now also

celebrated after the murder

and they have now shown it all

and then there was this meme

that other publishers said

yes something like that

we can not do

and that is an absolute exception

and so where the communities

also get on the roof and say

yes they can do it why not you

there is now a

so quasi such

maybe there could also be

a kind of never meet your hero syndrome

or something like that

it's just not in the scope of Baldur's Gate 3

or put the chips on it

or take over again

maybe come again

structural problems so they can

no longer do it so secretly because

now they are in the mouth now they are known

now they had this huge mark

now the people look more closely on it and

like this one already had the feeling

the first of the early access

in the four years he was a bit secretly

very connected

the own community and so

everything is very cozy and

that is also quickly gone when the success

is there so that I see it as

a very big risk factor

Yes, I don't think

that's such a smart idea, I didn't even think about it

but of course if you are

put on such a pedestal

from the outside and said okay

that's the gold standard

currently for at least

classic role-playing

yes then you can only very difficult

say that our next game will be smaller

and then so not only surface smaller

but somehow less ambitious

a bit back we don't need

it doesn't work

you have the structure with your

a lot of employees so

there is a return

from success

even if you would see it, it doesn't

go so far, that's not a

interesting question, it's generally a

interesting question so principally

of course but

yes

the creative spirit

also goes away a bit

then maybe you are