'Baldur's Gate 3 is a Unicorn'; It's Due to Larian's Unique Market Position, Schreier Claims

Release of version 1.0 of Baldur's Gate III turned out to be a gigantic success. Players are delighted with the scale and refinement of the project, the freedom it offered and the lack of monetization solutions common today among high-budget games. Many people wonder, then, why games like BG3 are such a rare sight in the AAA category. This was explained by journalist Jason Schreier in an article published on Bloomberg.

1. According to Schreier Baldur's Gate 3 is something of a unicorn, that is, a gamewhose success will be difficult for other developers to repeat, since its creation was made possible by a number of unique conditions.
2. For the success of BG3 is responsible, among other things, the popularity of the Dungeons & Dragons and Baldur's Gate brands, as well as the vast experience of Larian itself in creating such projects.
3. However, Jason Schreier raises a point that this success was possible primarily because Larian is not a publicly traded company. Instead, it is a completely private and independent company.
4. Larian is a large studio. It has more than 450 employees spread across six countries. Such large teams are most often either owned by the publisher or listed on the stock market. There is no shortage of independent companies on the market, but they are most often too small to take on a super-production like Baldur's Gate 3.
5. As a result Larian is a rare case of a developer who is able to create AAA games while not having to answer to anyone. The team is not forced to compromize artistic choices for profit at every turn, just to please the investors. Studio owner Swen Vincke admits that this enables him to block ideas that would be good for profits, but would result in an inferior game.

1. Listed large game companies are trying their best to minimize risks. That's why they often copy popular trends (such as the battle royale fad of a few years ago) and push for additional monetization methods where they can. After all, a few lousy quarters can mean that shareholders will get rid of the CEO. By contrast, in the case of Larian, it is enough for the company not to go bankrupt and Swen Vincke will be able to stay at the helm.
2. All of this was crucial for Baldur's Gate 3, because it was a very risky project. The gameplay is governed by complex rules, the game has a turn-based combat system, and on top of that the high quality of the graphics combined with the huge freedom resulted in a large budget. The developers put considerable resources into developing things that, due to the high non-linearity, many players will never even see.
3. Of course, the method of game development chosen by Larian has one major problem - if BG3 had failed, the company could have gone bankrupt. Additionally, without using the Early Access model, it would be impossible to finance the work. However, in the end all this risk paid off and the project turned out to be a big hit.

Recall that version 1.0 of Baldur's Gate 3 was released on PC on August 3. PlayStation 5 console owners will wait until September 6 for their release. The developers are also working on an edition for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, but for now they are not ready to give a date for its release, as they have encountered considerable technical problems.

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Baldur's Gate 3

August 3, 2023

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• Larian Studios
• RPG games
• Baldur's Gate (franchise)
• Jason Schreier