Larian Studios - What Comes Next

Larian Studios Swen Vincke has a post on his blog after the last one a few months back, and he talks about the developers plan now that Original Sin is released.

Ok, let’s do this thing. Lots of people have been asking me for numbers and thoughts on the release of Divinity: Original Sin, so here are a few.

Divinity:Original Sin did pretty well. At the time of this writing its Metacritic critic rating is at 87%, it’s user rating at 89% and it’s been at the top of the Steam charts for most of the summer, occupying the nr. 1 spot for around a month.

It has sold well over half a million units by now– mostly from Steam, with 10% from retail. ”Break even” has been reached, our debts have been paid and we are now in the profitable zone. While not all of the money is for us as we had private investors on board, the game did sufficiently well for us to envision funding our next endeavors with it, meaning we’re pretty happy about its performance.

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And here is his conclusion of the post for the TLDR crowd.

In conclusion, developing D:OS was a very rich experience and I think our entire team matured a lot in the process of making it. We do this job because we enjoy entertaining other people with our imaginations, and when it’s successful, it makes us feel all good inside. We’re very grateful for the many thank you messages we received from our players :it’s these shows of appreciation that fuel us when the night is dark and the task list long, and it’s what makes this job so incredibly cool.

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More information.

Wow, half a million is pretty good. I think it's a game that will have a slow steady burn when it comes to sales. Maybe it'll even hit 1 million in a couple of years?

The first and only time that I'm happy reading the sales number for a game.

Nice that he is willing to give us that info. Would have liked to hear about an expansion or sequel, tho. Tells me not to keep D:OS on my SSD now that I've finished it.

There's another Kickstarter update planned - stay tuned.

cant wait, i hope the direction is just more content development versus engine development. sure fix engine bugs and what not, but stay the course !

Nice to see a Kickstarter be successful. Now we have an example or two.

I'm glad to hear that they will be making more games in the style of D:OS going forward. Definitely good news for overhead turn-based fans.

HiddenX said:

There's another Kickstarter update planned - stay tuned.

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Think they'll anounce the patch that will contain the additional companions and perhaps a coop dialog fix.

Good numbers and a great post. The numbers aren't as fantastic as I would've hoped, given that they had additional private investors involved. But it sounds like they have enough money to at least steer clear of a major publisher for their next game and for future expansions to D:OS.

So, here's my concerns/desires:
1-Don't cave to the pressure to work with a publisher; I'm sure, as their ambitions do battle with financial realities, they will be tempted to follow this path (even if they claim 100% right now that will never happen). The reason they are the top user-reviewed game on Metacritic is because they followed their vision all the way thru to the bitter end. It pained me to hear about their late-game financial struggles, but the results speak for themselves.
2-Focus on using this superb, fantastic RPG platform. Make a BG2-type follow-up that uses the existing engine and blows the story and RPG elements out of the water. If you need to make tweaks to the engine, make them be sparse and meaningful. Everyone, even the people who don't appreciate other aspects of the game, love the underlying system of D:OS. Leverage that and put future resources on content. As Sven says, content is king.
3-Continue involving the community. We want to be involved. We want to help. We want Larian to be a success. Keep us engaged and you'll reap rewards. I'm sure it is challenging. I'm sure it is painful. I'm sure it creates TONS of extra work, but an engaged community = evangelists who will spread the word about your next game, as many of us did for D:OS.
4-Add a slight bit of edge to the next outing. I'm someone who appreciates the light, high adventure take of the Divinity games. In fact, it's always been a draw for me. But for the next game, add just a little bit more motivation for the player and a proper villian (Jon Irenicus comes to mind; I hated that guy and couldn't wait to send him to Hell…).

Sorry for the long post. But I love this game and want only the best for Sven and his team. Great job on this great game. And I hope the game continues to have long legs, as these games tend to do.

I'm glad the game was a success and that they did it without a publisher. It's still a bit of a drag they had to split their lucre with investors. If they're going back to Kickstarter, I hope they'll be able to make the next one without investors.

the going got tough and the tough got going.

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That is awesome. That's how we used to talk in America. Sounds like the 'American Dream' is alive and well in Belgian… good for them! Congrats to Larian for their success!

The best content in the world will get low ratings if you have a poor UI and no gloss

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YES! THIS ^ !!!! I'm looking at you TES Series and just about every other CRPG of the last 20 years! Skyrim's un-modded UI for the PC is among the absolute worst (despite the game's commercial success)… just horrid.

While playing Divinity Original Sin, writing and sense of humour reminded me the Discworld series many times. I think it would be great if they take the license of this world and make an RPG out of it.

+1 to that.

It's incredible how nobody tried an RPG in a Discworld setting to date (and even how no more graphic adventures were made, after the specially good Discworl 2 and the wonderful Discworld Noir - best graphic adventure ever in my book).

Seems like Larian could make a good work with that license.

Discworld and Larian humor would be a perfect fit imho. For me personally it would be horrible as I dislike both, so I'd see it as a wasted opportunity. For me a BG-like game with TDE setting would be really great.

Morrandir said:

Discworld and Larian humor would be a perfect fit imho. For me personally it would be horrible as I dislike both, so I'd see it as a wasted opportunity. For me a BG-like game with TDE setting would be really great.

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I would gladly pay $100 or more if that game was crowd-funded, or they offered a way for people to help make it on their website. I can picture it already.

Just give me Divinity 3 please.

Hopefully it's the companion patch, been waiting a few months now. Would like to slot it in before holidays.

Couchpotato said:

I would gladly pay $100 or more if that game was crowd-funded, or they offered a way for people to help make it on their website. I can picture it already.

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The Discworld game or the BG/TDE game?

Morrandir said:

The Discworld game or the BG/TDE game?

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Both actually now that you mention it, but I prefer the BG/TDE game. If I remember weren't they in talks to make a new game with a Licensed IP?