D&D General Official D&D In Decline. Source Hasbro.

[Reynard]

So, now that D&D is in decline, what game can we play?

DCC, of course.

 

[SteveC]

There's no developer in the world who could create an AAA RPG with even half the scope of Baldur's Gate 3 in "2-3 years". If you think there is one, name them, and let's have a look at how long it takes them to develop games from scratch. Historically, involving multiple studios doesn't make things faster, it just costs vastly more and makes a bigger mess.

100% agree. I had been following BG3 since it started and it has been a long and winding road for that game. The only kinds of games you can produce quickly are going to be very low tier. And low tier games can tarnish a game's reputation just as much as help it if it turns out the be shovelware.

If Hasbro is counting on video games to be a factor in their current problems they should move on to something else entirely. For the long term? I'll give you BG3 as an example. I see it discussed and played by people who have no experience with D&D. Since I'm known to be the "D&D guy" in my workplace, I have had many conversations explaining how basic gaming ideas work to people who don't typically play games like this.

 

[Gorck]

So, now that D&D is in decline, what game can we play?

Chutes & Ladders - it even has the classic ampersand. Or Candyland. Or maybe some kind of Chutes & Ladders/Candyland mashup. Or perhaps Mouse Trap is more comparable.

 

[Zardnaar]

First is true, second is completely untrue.

There's no developer in the world who could create an AAA RPG with even half the scope of Baldur's Gate 3 in "2-3 years". If you think there is one, name them, and let's have a look at how long it takes them to develop games from scratch. Historically, involving multiple studios doesn't make things faster, it just costs vastly more and makes a bigger mess.

Let's look at some RPGs of the last few years, and how long it took to develop them:

• Starfield - In planning/pre-production for about 4 years, in active development for 7 years.
• Cyberpunk 2077 - In planning/pre-production for 4 years, in active development for 4 years.*
• Baldur's Gate 3 - In active development for 6 years.
• Elden Ring - In active development for 5 years.

If you made a sequel in the same engine, using some of the same assets, and using the same team to make it, with broadly similar mechanics, you could probably hit 3 to 4 years. You could not hit 2-3. To put out a CRPG in 2-3 years you have to scale down to AA levels, like Owlcat or Obsidian (though Avowed may be a lower-end AAA, we shall see if that MS money has been used), and even then it's not guaranteed. And no Owlcat-style CRPG is going to do the insane numbers BG3 is doing or even a large fraction of them, as much as it may charm niche gamers. BG3 has made WotC $90m - that's nuts - even if WotC had a 5% cut of gross revenue (which would be huge), that would mean BG3 had made $1.8bn. That's not something you can replicate easily.

* = But it definitely released too early - it needed at least another year of solid development and that impacted sales, especially longer-term sales. They had to spend another three years on basically fixing the game and getting it to where it should have been,

Ubisoft. 7 studios they were producing assassin Creed games every year with a 2 year development cycle.

AC Odyssey is bigger than BG3. Almost twice the size.


Origin and Odyssey looked amazing as well.

5 years old now.

 

[gban007]

Ubisoft. 7 studios they were producing assassin Creed games every year with a 2 year development cycle.

AC Odyssey is bigger than BG3. Almost twice the size.


Origin and Odyssey looked amazing as well.

5 years old now.

I believe they overlap development times though? Quick google suggests origins was 4 years, odyssey on similar engine 3 years.

Assassin's Creed Origins - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'Ubisoft Montreal led its four-year development with help from a team of nearly 700 people from other Ubisoft studios around the world. The team consulted Egyptologists and historians extensively to ensure the setting was authentically represented in the game.'

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – The Game That Greece Built

Learn how the World and Art teams on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey built Ancient Greece through historical research, new gameplay mechanics, and innovative design techniques.

news.ubisoft.com

'
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the product of more than three years of hard work, culminating in a game featuring a rich, detailed recreation of Ancient Greece.'

 

[Zardnaar]

I believe they overlap development times though? Quick google suggests origins was 4 years, odyssey on similar engine 3 years.

Assassin's Creed Origins - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'Ubisoft Montreal led its four-year development with help from a team of nearly 700 people from other Ubisoft studios around the world. The team consulted Egyptologists and historians extensively to ensure the setting was authentically represented in the game.'

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – The Game That Greece Built

Learn how the World and Art teams on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey built Ancient Greece through historical research, new gameplay mechanics, and innovative design techniques.

news.ubisoft.com

'
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the product of more than three years of hard work, culminating in a game featuring a rich, detailed recreation of Ancient Greece.'

Wrong on Odyssey but I said 2-3 years which was Odyssey. They spent an extra year on Origins.

The claim was you couldn't do a game like BG any quicker. You can with a suitably large budget and own 7 studios.

 

[bedir than]

Wrong on Odyssey but I said 2-3 years which was Odyssey.

You are provided a quote from UbiSoft that says more than three years and your counter-claim is 2-3 years while insisting that "more than three years" is wrong.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I bet Larian could make a Baldurs Gate 4 in 2-3 years if they used the BG3 engine with only minor changes. They have the technical side down, they've got a gameplay formula that works, so it's mainly a matter of cranking out content, and that can largely be done in paralell by multiple teams at once.

 

[Reynard]

I bet Larian could make a Baldurs Gate 4 in 2-3 years if they used the BG3 engine with only minor changes. They have the technical side down, they've got a gameplay formula that works, so it's mainly a matter of cranking out content, and that can largely be done in paralell by multiple teams at once.

It used to be done this way a lot. Look at the release dates of all the Ultima games, for example. The longest stretch was 3 years and most were out a year after the previous installment.

 

[Zardnaar]

You are provided a quote from UbiSoft that says more than three years and your counter-claim is 2-3 years while insisting that "more than three years" is wrong.

I said 2-3 years Odyssey was 3 years. Other poster said it couldn't be done.

People don't realize what the actual AAA studios can do. They can work on 3-4 titles like BG3 at the same time and stagger the releases every year or two.

They save money sharing assets eg game engines. Each game is in the 100-200 million dollar range.

So yearly or bi yearly releases and a game can be done in 3 years but you use multiple studios and develop more than one game at a time.