Baldur's Gate 3 - Interview @Eurogamer

Larian was interviewed by Eurogamer about patch 6 for Baldur's Gate 3.

I saw you talk earlier this year about Baldur's Gate 3 now "aiming" for release in 2022. Oh Swen! I was convinced it would spend a year in Early Access like Divinity: Original Sin 2 did, but no! And it doesn't even sound like you're fully set on 2022 either.

Swen Vincke: Ha ha. So, what do we do - what is our job when making this game? It's really trying to create moment-to-moment gameplay that's really good for you and that's rewarding at every single step. It takes an insane amount of time to do this in a game with so much freedom. And we're trying to really reward you if you're going to go on your evil playthrough, or your good playthrough, or your chaotic playthrough. We're trying to give you something at every single step. And just the creation of that is an exponential effort, unfortunately, and so it takes much more time than we expected, I can tell you that!

There's no way back for us. I mean, we've committed to doing it this way so we're going to do it this way. And, yeah, we just discovered it takes much more time. Doing it cinematically on top of it, with the graphical polish that we're putting on it: it's really - it's tough. It's a lot. It's really a lot. But it's cool - when it pays off then it's cool, so it's worth it, but yeah, it just takes more time. The company also had to grow tremendously to be able to make it, much more than we expected. So that's the price of making this type of gameplay, I guess, so it's not as if we're doing it on purpose, being slower.

I was looking at the game's page on Steam and it's quite astonishing how much support you already seem to have with the game. There are something like 40,000 reviews, and "very positive" ones at that, which is a figure only the biggest games on Steam get. How many people have bought the game?

Swen Vincke: I don't think we announced it, but a lot.

[…]

More information.

Sigh just more excuses and it seems my guess of a release in 2023 is looking true. At least he finally acknowledged it's not looking like it will release in 2022 at least.

I remember you "mobbing" me when I wrote that the game will be released in 22 or 23 around when it was announced

This is interesting as well as it means Larain is not an indie developer anymore.

How many people are you now? How many studios are making this game?

Swen Vincke: Right now it's about 350. So that's in terms of Larian and not counting all the outsourcing companies around it, because that would be, the number, very high. And it's growing. Obviously we're building a team for the future also, to be able to do other things, so it's not just BG3, but right now everybody is on BG3, or almost everybody.

But don't forget that we are a company that makes their own engine, so this is our own engine this [BG3] is running, so that takes a lot of effort. And that engine is not supposed to be just BG3: it's also the engine which we are going to make other RPGs in the future. So we build BG3 on the Divinity engine, and that's basically still the Divinity engine in the background powering the entire thing.

Can't imagine what the overhead costs are each month.

Originally Posted by largh
I remember you "mobbing" me when I wrote that the game will be released in 22 or 23 around when it was announced

Yeah I thought it would have been released in late 2021 given Larian's past Early Access track record. I was dead wrong it seems so yeah, there you have I was wrong.

The problem is Larian is working slowly on finishing to much content for each path. There will come a time when they have to decide what to cut or edit. As bills have to get paid.

I doubt the stream of EA cash is flowing anymore.

I haven't considered Larian to be an indie developer for a long time now.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Yeah I thought it would have been released in late 2021 given Larian's past Early Access track record. I was dead wrong it seems so yeah, there you have I was wrong.

It's not important who is/was wrong or right. Developing these games takes many years longer than it used to take back in the days. The games are fancier but are they better? The Pathfinder games are considerably less shiny, yet as good if not better than Larian games…

Originally Posted by JDR13
I haven't considered Larian to be an indie developer for a long time now.

Most YouTube stars promoting the game do.

I just watched a video earlier were one of the larger channels clearly said despite Larian having 300+ employees they are still an indie developer.

He was making excuses for the slow development and lack of a release date.

Originally Posted by largh
It's not important who is/was wrong or right. Developing these games takes many years longer than it used to take back in the days. The games are fancier but are they better? The Pathfinder games are considerably less shiny, yet as good if not better than Larian games.

I can't disagree as Owlcat put a lot of content in the last two Pathfinder games.

Though in Larain's defense BG III is a more cinematic game. He mentions that in the interview. It will need more work for all the 12 classes and alignments you play as.

Sounds like the game is taking longer and getting harder to finish then Swen thought.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Can't imagine what the overhead costs are each month.

i would say around 2 million Euros a month. but i'm just guessing.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Most YouTube stars promoting the game do.

Good for them.

Larian is about as much of an indie developer as CD Projekt at this point.

Originally Posted by Dolby
i would say around 2 million Euros a month. but i'm just guessing.

Can't tell if you are being sarcastic, but whatever. Even if your wrong that's a lot of cash. Now multiply that by two or three more years of development time my math genius.

Imagine playing the EA for over 2 years. After that slow burn, what excitement must be left by the time the game is released?

I'm glad I'm ignoring it exists until it is finished. I'm not bothered about how long it takes, as that is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. What will make the game remembered or forgotten is how good it is by the time it releases, and nothing more. I'd hate if BG3 became the new CP2077 only because people are too eager to play it.

Rather they take their time, while I ignore it is even a thing. When it releases, I can dig in. I personally don't need BG3 to live, there are enough exciting things to do with life to be just holding my breath for this one thing.

After 20 years we will get isometric(kinda), party-based, D&D game with AAA production values. Im thrilled just as much Im afraid. But no big problem to waith for it, at least for me. Lately its being released ridiculous numbers of games, Im actually interested to play. Take you time Swen and make it right please, I might not have another 20 years to wait for another attempt.

Originally Posted by Andrew23
After 20 years we will get isometric(kinda), party-based, D&D game with AAA production values.

You missed Sword Coast Legends?

i've only player it 3-4 hours when it was released. I confess I didn't like the more limited combat options (anything interesting you can use only once, then have little and long rests to be able to do it again), but everything else is classic Larian and I know by the end of development they will deliver a good game. So I stopped playing and I'm waiting for the final release.

This choice was made easier, with Pathfinder and Encased releases and with Elex 2 in the horizon.

I've played a good chunk of patch 6. It really is beginning to feel like forgotten realms and there is impressive interactivity. I particularly like that weapons have unique abilities as I have been asking for that since divinity original sin 2 and it adds a lot to combat tactics. It also runs a helluvah lot better than it has previously with not one crash or stuttering issue.

Originally Posted by Silver
I've played a good chunk of patch 6. It really is beginning to feel like forgotten realms and there is impressive interactivity. I particularly like that weapons have unique abilities as I have been asking for that since divinity original sin 2 and it adds a lot to combat tactics. It also runs a helluvah lot better than it has previously with not one crash or stuttering issue.

From the video it looks great so far.

Have you found out what the deal was, about those stupid salamis?

Originally Posted by Redglyph
From the video it looks great so far.

Have you found out what the deal was, about those stupid salamis?

I haven't tried it out yet no. I watched the twitch stream but didn't see anything like that either so who knows.

I'm not a big fan of this extended EA business. I guess they've determined that it creates constant engagement and acts as a marketing tool, but I'm in the camp that gets fatigued by it. I mean, we can choose not to play the game until release, but it's almost impossible to avoid exposure entirely.

For me, it sort of drains my enthusiasm for a game, over time. By the time the game releases, I often feel like, "Oh, hey, that's out of EA now. I should pick that up some time." As opposed to a bit of excitement felt if the release of the game is more of an event.