Few predicted that the smash hit video game of 2023 would feature old-school game mechanics, hours of brooding cutscenes and a vexing learning curve.
Yet “Baldur’s Gate 3,” a 20-year-old title based on a 50-year-old role-playing game, has already become one of the highest-rated video games of all time.
“This is a very specific niche of game,” admitted Swen Vincke, the CEO of Larian, its developer. “We’ve never been about the money.”
Nonetheless, since Larian released the title in August 2023, the company has been raking in the money. And it has done this with a rare focus on elements like story and character, upending the industry’s conventional wisdom about what it takes to create a blockbuster game.
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Surprise hit? People were generally hyped for this game ever since its early access release 3 years ago.
Maybe it was a surprise since it didn’t fall extremely flat like every other hyped game lately.
The quality of the game was no suprise, but the popularity certainly was. This is not a genre that tends to go this mainstream.
Fair enough! Maybe I’ve just been hanging in circles where BG2 was big and the previous Larian games are beloved.