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No More Baldur's Gate From Larion: Team Is 'Elated'
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9299868" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I think it's a little more complex than this.</p><p></p><p>Opportunity cost is a real thing, and as I pointed out (I know you were replying to page 1 so won't have seen that), DLCs/expansions sell a small fraction of the number of copies the main game does. The main purpose of DLCs/expansions is less to sell (except for a few games which do them for very extended periods, like the Total War series, or Paradox games), and more to maintain interest in the main game, and keep people buying that. Then you have a GotY or similar package later which packs in the expansions and you can sell that for more than you normally would sell the game for at that point and people feel okay about it. Larian has seen from previous games that they probably don't really need to do this, because they don't have a lot of close competition and can just rely on their game having a "long tail" - most RPGs do - i.e. they sell for many years after initial release, which is far less true of action games.</p><p></p><p>And by working on a DLC for a small return for them, they're taking staff and focus away from other projects. Now, sometimes that can make sense - if the DLC only needs staff not yet needed on a longer-term project (for example writers and quest-scripters might not be needed heavily in the early phase of a game's production, but might be the main people you need for a DLC) - but often that's not really the case, and you're taking staff away from other projects. It can also have morale impacts, though that's variable - some people are keen to work on DLC, others less so.</p><p></p><p>A DLC would have been free, zero-effort money for Hasbro/WotC, but for Larian it would have been a significant opportunity cost.</p><p></p><p>If Larian are making another full-scale CRPG, as one might guess is the case, given Swen already compared their next project to BG3 (specifically by saying it will "dwarf BG3" - not a comparison you'd likely make about a game in a different genre), and given Swen has also stated specifically that he wants the next game out in 4 years, not 6 (good luck with that, mate, I say - I think this is unlikely - ironically a BG4 could probably have been done in 3-4 years as the engine already exists), it's probably an "all hands on deck" situation as they're prototyping hard.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 9299868, member: 18"] I think it's a little more complex than this. Opportunity cost is a real thing, and as I pointed out (I know you were replying to page 1 so won't have seen that), DLCs/expansions sell a small fraction of the number of copies the main game does. The main purpose of DLCs/expansions is less to sell (except for a few games which do them for very extended periods, like the Total War series, or Paradox games), and more to maintain interest in the main game, and keep people buying that. Then you have a GotY or similar package later which packs in the expansions and you can sell that for more than you normally would sell the game for at that point and people feel okay about it. Larian has seen from previous games that they probably don't really need to do this, because they don't have a lot of close competition and can just rely on their game having a "long tail" - most RPGs do - i.e. they sell for many years after initial release, which is far less true of action games. And by working on a DLC for a small return for them, they're taking staff and focus away from other projects. Now, sometimes that can make sense - if the DLC only needs staff not yet needed on a longer-term project (for example writers and quest-scripters might not be needed heavily in the early phase of a game's production, but might be the main people you need for a DLC) - but often that's not really the case, and you're taking staff away from other projects. It can also have morale impacts, though that's variable - some people are keen to work on DLC, others less so. A DLC would have been free, zero-effort money for Hasbro/WotC, but for Larian it would have been a significant opportunity cost. If Larian are making another full-scale CRPG, as one might guess is the case, given Swen already compared their next project to BG3 (specifically by saying it will "dwarf BG3" - not a comparison you'd likely make about a game in a different genre), and given Swen has also stated specifically that he wants the next game out in 4 years, not 6 (good luck with that, mate, I say - I think this is unlikely - ironically a BG4 could probably have been done in 3-4 years as the engine already exists), it's probably an "all hands on deck" situation as they're prototyping hard. [/QUOTE]
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