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[Draugoth]

In a conversation with Game File, Larian’s head of publishing, Micheal Douse, shared that the studio probably won’t go public, even though the decision doesn’t necessarily fall on his shoulders. When asked about his thoughts on the current state of the game industry (everything is on fire, in case you missed it), Douse likened large, publicly held companies to an “oil [tanker]” that’s increasingly hard to steer. The strength of Larian, he says, is that they are “nimble and opportunistic,” allowing them to respond to challenges on the fly and pivot whenever necessary.

“We’re really lean and nimble and opportunistic, and I think we like to work with new data daily. None of the shit that we did in the publishing team was planned years in advance. And I think that’s also true for the development team. If you asked us what Baldur’s Gate III would look like, how much it would cost and how it would feel three years ago, I wouldn’t know…We’re just nimble. Being nimble is key. Big companies are not nimble.”

According to Douse, being nimble granted the studio the ability to make the game they wanted to make, which might not have been a reality if they were a public and much larger company. Now that they’ve found success with Baldur’s Gate 3, he says, they could go public and make a lot of money, “but it would be antithetical to the quality part of what we’re trying to do. So it wouldn’t make our games better. It would just make us rushed.”

 

[RickSanchez]

the studio probably won’t go public​

Yea, don't ever go public please. Case in point: Valve

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I would be surprised if they didn't go public. Time, patience and money. The overlords have in abundance.

 

[LectureMaster]

The mode worked for like a charm for them as they didn't have to deal with any bullcraps from publishers. I'll be there to support.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Yea, don't ever go public please. Case in point: Valve

Valve has a whole distribution platform to profit from. Larian could be one flop away financial troubles.

 

[Gaelyon]

Investors will asks for ever increasing results. Creative independence has a cost that Larian is willing to take. I hope (and believe) they'll keep making the good decisions.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

After Divinity OS2 and Baldurs Gate 3, I'm likely going to get whatever they release in early access on day zero just to support them.

 

[mdkirby]

Going public is one of the biggest problems with gaming imo. It means you need to constantly strive for shareholder profits regardless of other considerations. It’s not enough to just make a moderately successful relatively niche game that makes back all its money and 50% profit (not saying this describes baldurs gate 3, but probably would their prior games). It needs to be wildly profitable and you need to be constantly growing both revenue and audience. It sacrifices quality and creativity and encourages the worse monetisation practices, and results in games being designed around tick boxes.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Hopefully this one will have giraffe sex.

 

[mdkirby]

Hopefully this one will have giraffe sex.

Given the amount of free press they got for bear sex, I can only imagine the level of success they will reach with giraffe sex. Maybe it’ll even net them a Netflix deal.

 

[RickSanchez]

Valve has a whole distribution platform to profit from. Larian could be one flop away financial troubles.

Technically, that is true. However, Larian seems to have a healthy mindset so far of balancing the scope of their games with their budget, staying within their strengths, making good single-player narratives, staying away from monetization, etc. If they continue to do that, i can see their future games do well. I am in a position now where i will buy whatever they make next. That is not something i would say for any other publisher or game franchise.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Technically, that is true. However, Larian seems to have a healthy mindset so far of balancing the scope of their games with their budget, staying within their strengths, making good single-player narratives, staying away from monetization, etc. If they continue to do that, i can see their future games do well. I am in a position now where i will buy whatever they make next. That is not something i would say for any other publisher or game franchise.

I think the big problem they have is that they won’t be able to do a lot of experiments. Unlike other studios they probably can’t afford to goof around with a game that will probably be scrapped 2 years down the line. Not necessarily a bad thing but due to this I doubt we’ll see anything but CPRG from them.