Larian Studios - The why of Our Third Secret Project

Larian Studios' Swen Vincke also updated his blog with some background information regarding Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition and why they choose Focus as a publisher.

Finally, the last big reason I didn’t mention yet about the why of the Enhanced Edition is the strategic one.

We’re putting a lot of effort in getting the Enhanced Edition to run really well on Xbox One & PS4 with controller support, with multiplayer and with split-screen support because from now on those features will be basic features of our engine.

That means that if we decide to go multi-platform in the future, we’ll be able to. This without–dumbing down- or –simplifying- things because a lot of the hard work will already have been done. It makes us a lot stronger as a company and will allow us to do much bigger things in the future. I’m quite excited by that prospect.

So, there you have it. In addition to having two big RPGs in production, we decided we needed some occupation therapy and added a third project to our roster. It’s a big thing for us, the step to consoles, and I think we’ll do a lot better this time around than last time we tried.

It remains complex business, though bringing 80+ hours of complex content to different platforms, both on the engineering and on the business side. But it’s another step of growth for us and another step in the direction of that very big RPG that will dwarf them all. That’s certainly worth all the stress

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More information.

Consoles, arrgg....

I'm not a console fan but I am a fan of Larian. If consoles keep them afloat, I'm all for it.

I'm glad to see another game that is Windows 64-bit only, 32-bit needs to go away.

More power to them. But shouldn't a console port be called "degraded edition"?

Wenzil said:

I'm not a console fan but I am a fan of Larian. If consoles keep them afloat, I'm all for it.

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It looks like quite a smart strategy. Use a PC kickstarter game to build a flexible engine, make some money, then upgrade engine to include support for all platforms, and then use it as base for many games. Consoles always mean some drawbacks for PC, but if it keeps good rpgs coming I'm for it.

Depends on how they handle the interface. Most games design the interface so it works with both keyboard/console and limit it to the lowest denominator. However, technically, it is perfectly feasible to have two completely different interface (including screen drawings) for a game. I've seen it rarely done (can't think of an example) but given that D:OS already had a real pc interface I have my finger crossed they developed a console interface that is only activated when controller is used.

rjshae said:

More power to them. But shouldn't a console port be called "degraded edition"?

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Larian is sort of this unbelievable company. I'm really surprised that they are giving the enhanced version away to current owners of the game. Larian should set up a donation somehow because I would gladly donate for the enhanced edition - they've earned that much goodwill with me.

kobold said:

It looks like quite a smart strategy. Use a PC kickstarter game to build a flexible engine, make some money, then upgrade engine to include support for all platforms, and then use it as base for many games. Consoles always mean some drawbacks for PC, but if it keeps good rpgs coming I'm for it.

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Yeah, smart strategy. Although pretty simple - what do you think the point behind most Kickstarter campaigns by well-known people is?

And while existing customers will get it for free, it's quite possible that the EE will replace vanilla in the shops, and at a higher price point. Maybe they'll simply bundle both versions and make a new full price game out of them.

The EE was paid for by Focus though. Swen explained in his blog post why they needed a publisher this time.

It's all good. If developers / publishers make good money with a GOOD game, PC or console, that's all right. I hope they sell at least 1 million copies in the console as well.

TheMadGamer said:

Larian should set up a donation somehow because I would gladly donate for the enhanced edition - they've earned that much goodwill with me.

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Dude, just buy some random stuff from the Larian Vault and problem solved .

Buy original Divinity if you don't have it. Great game.

Wenzil said:

I'm not a console fan but I am a fan of Larian. If consoles keep them afloat, I'm all for it.

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Until your playing divinity:OS 3 and your spamming the x button to kill endlessly spawning bears.

I'm not a big fan of the establish yourself with PC gamers then leave them in the dust once you've made a name for yourself business model.

Moriendor said:

TheMadGamer said:

Larian should set up a donation somehow because I would gladly donate for the enhanced edition - they've earned that much goodwill with me.

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Dude, just buy some random stuff from the Larian Vault and problem solved

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Or just buy it again for a friend, or for someone who's been watching the price with an addon and missed the only sale of it on GOG thanks to their PC dying (hint hint lol)

Though as Gorath mentioned apparently funding for the Enhanced version came from Focus which seems like something which would only benefit Larian at this point so it all sounds great.

About the console news, I don't have any problem with them releasing console versions, especially not in this situation, with the PC version already settled as a PC game. Also I hope it sells like hotcakes not only to improve things further for Larian but it would also help send the message that such games are viable not just because of or on the PC platform.

Though I share some others sentiments and worry that in the future they will make fundamental design decisions due to wanting multi-platform support. Unfortunately this isn't always something as simple as a GUI or control schemes, it can and does effect the intrinsic nature of a game. An example being designing with certain hardware limits in mind, or not implementing something due to those limits, the kind of things that can't simply be added or changed for the more capable platform. While the current consoles are pretty capable, for consoles, they obviously won't remain that way relatively, indefinitely.

Watchtower said:

Though I share some others sentiments and worry that in the future they will make fundamental design decisions due to wanting multi-platform support. Unfortunately this isn't always something as simple as a GUI or control schemes, it can and does effect the intrinsic nature of a game. An example being designing with certain hardware limits in mind, or not implementing something due to those limits, the kind of things that can't simply be added or changed for the more capable platform. While the current consoles are pretty capable, for consoles, they obviously won't remain that way relatively, indefinitely.

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This.

And I would argue the effects go far beyond hardware considerations and strike much closer to the heart of conceptual design. Every writer, or creator in any medium, must know his audience. Well, Larian's audience has just changed considerably. Aside from whatever conscious or subconsious design changes Larian might well make in the future of its own accord, compromise of some sort is almost inevitable. Larian, as a company with what I would call a good track record of listening to its customers, will now be listening to a whole new set of people. The effects of the change in audience are much farther reacing, insidious and difficult to avoid, assuming one is even of a mind to do so, than mere hardware.

And, persoanlly, I often have findamental disagreements in terms of game design with the mainstream console crowd.

Humanity has risen! said:

I'm glad to see another game that is Windows 64-bit only, 32-bit needs to go away.

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To quote another one :

"Racist !"



Why does it *need* to go away ? Where is the "need" in that, actually ?
Me, I'm still fine with 32 bit. I really cannot see any "need".

And that apart from the fact that I just don't have the money to upgrade that much. I don't even have the money for upgrading into Windows 7 yet because of some hardships.

And besides that, I still want to be able to run older games on my PC.
64bit blocks me out on some.

They have my support if they don't simplify or dumb down the PC version -at all-. If they can get money from buttonmashing kiddos, I'm happy for them, as they'll keep delivering great games to us. Just don't consolize my PC games, please.

I'm certain that the 64bit decision is far from arbitrary. Likely their redesign has blown past the limits of 32bit architecture. If you want a 32bit D:OS, buy it now! The EE will be available to you when you are ready for it.

As I understand, they have also opted to move into the DX11 realm with their Enhanced Edition. To me, this is evidence that Larian still values the PC market and they are willing to leverage newer (not new) technologies in order to improve our experience.

I trust Larian. They've been good to PC gamers for years and I don't see that they will sell us out. Our role in this partnership is to continue to purchase their games, offer constructive criticism, and be advocates for their body of work to those yet to experience a Larian game.

If they sell out to the console market, I will be quite surprised. They aren't a Bungie, Blizzard, or even a CDPR. Swen talks to us. He listens to us. Let's give him and Larian the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not sure about the technology behind it.
a) Can a DX9 pipeline support multi-threading?
b) Are DX11 and multi-threading requirements for the new consoles?

In case of CDPR it seems pretty clear to me (and others -> German speakers check the long video discussion about CDPR at Gamestar yesterday) that they're going the way of the Bethesda. This means console first in the future, maybe with the exception of their other in-development RPG. Consoles are simply the bigger markets, and they can reach this market now. The question is only how much effort they'll put into the PC conversion. Bethesda has phoned it in and left it for the modders the last couple of times - but communicated that Skyrim's PC numbers justify a bigger effort in the future.