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[LectureMaster]

With Xbox hiking prices and a newly private, $20-billion-in-the-hole EA looking ready to gut Baldur's Gate series creator BioWare, Larian boss Swen Vincke points out that 'making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never worked before'

But by god, we're gonna try.

www.pcgamer.com

---

As reported by GamesRadar, Larian studio head and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke has taken to Twitter to remark on the state of the industry following Microsoft's Game Pass price hike and EA's purchase by private equity and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a deal that seems destined to bury Baldur's Gate series creator BioWare.

When the EA buyout was still a rumor, Vincke quipped that "Someone really wanted to get the rights to Murder on the Zinderneuf," referring to one of EA's first games from back in 1983, an 8-bit detective mystery for personal computers of the time like the Apple II and Commodore 64.



Vincke had a more serious message today, following confirmation of the deal, as well as serial studio-closer Microsoft's announcement of a Game Pass price hike: "Probably a good time to remind people that making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never worked before."

Vincke doesn't name names, but this can pretty clearly only be commentary on the biggest stories in gaming right now. Microsoft's price hike on Game Pass has made its all-in bet on the subscription service look more ill-advised than ever, while EA's only hope for avoiding massive cuts under its new ownership appears to be a literal deus ex machina in the form of generative AI.

 

[LectureMaster]

Guy just hates every decision papa Spencer made.

Baldur's Gate 3 'Isn't Going to be on Game Pass', Insists Larian Boss - IGN

In a new interview with IGN, Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke responded to questions about Baldur's Gate 3 being on Xbox Game Pass, explaining why the best RPG of 2023 won't be on Microsoft's subscription service anytime soon.

www.ign.com

Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X|S Exists, Announcement Delayed Due to 'Technical Issues' - IGN

In a statement to IGN, Larian Studios explained why Baldur's Gate 3 isn't coming to Xbox at launch.

www.ign.com

 

[Jaybe]

He's right. His speech at those game awards was great. I also love that Xbox executives called Baldur's Gate 3, a "second-run Stadia PC RPG" and thought it was worth only $5 million to put on Game Pass. Meanwhile, it was GOTY, sold millions, and was a PS5 exclusive, and showed up Starfield on what an RPG show be.

Microsoft completely misjudged Baldur’s Gate 3

Not a great look for Microsoft

www.polygon.com

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

It almost feels like a statement has to be made, right?

C'mon Phil Spencer, the GOAT get your speech ready. It's time to shine baby!!!

 

[ecosse_011172]

He's right. His speech at those game awards was great. I also love that Xbox executives called Baldur's Gate 3, a "second-run Stadia PC RPG" and thought it was worth only $5 million to put on Game Pass. Meanwhile, it was GOTY, sold millions, and was a PS5 exclusive, and showed up Skyrim on what an RPG show be.

Microsoft completely misjudged Baldur’s Gate 3

Not a great look for Microsoft

www.polygon.com

I never saw that before, my knickers are so wet I might stick with bg3 after all.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Guy just hates every decision papa Spencer made.

Baldur's Gate 3 'Isn't Going to be on Game Pass', Insists Larian Boss - IGN

In a new interview with IGN, Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke responded to questions about Baldur's Gate 3 being on Xbox Game Pass, explaining why the best RPG of 2023 won't be on Microsoft's subscription service anytime soon.

www.ign.com

Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X|S Exists, Announcement Delayed Due to 'Technical Issues' - IGN

In a statement to IGN, Larian Studios explained why Baldur's Gate 3 isn't coming to Xbox at launch.

www.ign.com

Just another Xbox hater®

 

[Gaiff]

He's right. His speech at those game awards was great. I also love that Xbox executives called Baldur's Gate 3, a "second-run Stadia PC RPG" and thought it was worth only $5 million to put on Game Pass. Meanwhile, it was GOTY, sold millions, and was a PS5 exclusive, and showed up Skyrim on what an RPG show be.

Microsoft completely misjudged Baldur’s Gate 3

Not a great look for Microsoft

www.polygon.com

Oh, sure, the PC-centric RPG that came out a month later on PS5 was a PS5 exclusive. Plenty of CRPGs that came after and before Skyrim also showed it what RPGs should be.

 

[Generic]

These games still take forever to be released.

The development time/cost of modern games is awful.

 

[Fbh]

The Pokemon Company / Gamefreak after they sell 25 million copies at full price of their latest game with Ps2 level production values and no voice acting:

 

[bighugeguns]

AI is going to end up tanking game prices.

Nobody is going to give you $80 when randos can whip up the same shit in a week.

Rental models like EA Play, Ubisoft+, Gamepass might really be the only viable future.

xAI wouldn't get into gaming if it wasn't going to be disruptive as fuck.

I'm still confused by the outrage over Gamepass, nobody sees the giant fucking tsunami approaching.

 

[ecosse_011172]

AI is going to end up tanking game prices.

Nobody is going to give you $80 when randos can whip up the same shit in a week.

Rental models like EA Play, Ubisoft+, Gamepass might really be the only viable future.

xAI wouldn't get into gaming if it wasn't going to be disruptive as fuck.

I'm still confused by the outrage over Gamepass, nobody sees the giant fucking tsunami approaching.

Except randos won't be able to, slop is slop.

 

[Poppinfresh]

Why do we care what Swen says?

He left his game in early access for over 3 years, and when it finally did release, it was pozzed to hell with woke nonsense and required a ton of balancing patches. Not saying that BG3 isn't a good game, but even years after release, it takes a ton of mods for me to get it to a point where it's a game I enjoy playing.

Maybe Swen should concentrate less on what other companies are doing and concentrate more on Larian's next game?

 

[Edgelord79]

Why do we care what Swen says?

He left his game in early access for over 3 years, and when it finally did release, it was pozzed to hell with woke nonsense and required a ton of balancing patches. Not saying that BG3 isn't a good game, but even years after release, it takes a ton of mods for me to get it to a point where it's a game I enjoy playing.

This kind of seems like a "you" problem as the game was universally successful and objectively good by all the critics.

Which leads to the second point. If it's a "you" problem, then don't use "we" and imply everyone here shares your sentiments.

 

[mayham2199]

AI is going to end up tanking game prices.

Nobody is going to give you $80 when randos can whip up the same shit in a week.

Rental models like EA Play, Ubisoft+, Gamepass might really be the only viable future.

xAI wouldn't get into gaming if it wasn't going to be disruptive as fuck.

I'm still confused by the outrage over Gamepass, nobody sees the giant fucking tsunami approaching.

If randos can whip up the same shit in a week then why would a sub model be any better? I don't need to sub when I can wait for someone to whip it up in a week and by it for cheaper. Prices will crater because it takes less people to make game so creators will also make more money.

 

[Poppinfresh]

AI is going to end up tanking game prices.

Nobody is going to give you $80 when randos can whip up the same shit in a week.

Rental models like EA Play, Ubisoft+, Gamepass might really be the only viable future.

xAI wouldn't get into gaming if it wasn't going to be disruptive as fuck.

I'm still confused by the outrage over Gamepass, nobody sees the giant fucking tsunami approaching.

I think you're right about AI

In 5-10 years, we're probably going to be in a place where we can all pretty much create games on demand.

I also don't get the outrage over Gamepass - no one is forcing consumers to subscribe, and no one is forcing developers to put their games on the service.

 

[Hero_Select]

was a PS5 exclusive

 

[ADiTAR]

maybe he should fix the bugs in his game first.

 

[odhiex]

Unless, you're Nintendo.

 

[ProtoByte]

It's going to have to happen. I don't know why are falling for the CDPR "industry soothsayer" crap again with Larian and Vinke.

 

[bighugeguns]

I think you're right about AI

In 5-10 years, we're probably going to be in a place where we can all pretty much create games on demand.

I also don't get the outrage over Gamepass - no one is forcing consumers to subscribe, and no one is forcing developers to put their games on the service.

Think it might be a lot quicker than that, xAI won't do slow, nobody in that space does slow, too much money.

 

[Sebastian1295]

Phil spencer is worse than don mattrick. Gamepass single handedly destroyed the xbox brand and took them out of the hardware business as well as the first party software business. Phil spencer was given 70 billion dollars unlike mattrick and managed to piss it all away on two publishers that are on the downward trend. Worst gaming CEO ever and it's not even close considering the resources he's had at his disposal.

 

[FUBARx89]

It's going to have to happen. I don't know why are falling for the CDPR "industry soothsayer" crap again with Larian and Vinke.

Every time he appears and speaks about the industry, all I can think of is CDPR doing the same when they where the industry darlings, then the gigantic fall they took.

 

[RCX]

But the c suite corpo bros say it's all gonna be super sweet!

 

[Pop]

Guy just hates every decision papa Spencer made.

Baldur's Gate 3 'Isn't Going to be on Game Pass', Insists Larian Boss - IGN

In a new interview with IGN, Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke responded to questions about Baldur's Gate 3 being on Xbox Game Pass, explaining why the best RPG of 2023 won't be on Microsoft's subscription service anytime soon.

www.ign.com

Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X|S Exists, Announcement Delayed Due to 'Technical Issues' - IGN

In a statement to IGN, Larian Studios explained why Baldur's Gate 3 isn't coming to Xbox at launch.

www.ign.com

Holy Based

Phil must kiss a lot of ass to still be in his position

 

[bighugeguns]

But the c suite corpo bros say it's all gonna be super sweet!

I think they'd be freaking out because like a day ago a $500b tech titan stepped into the ring too. Shit is getting disrupted hard for sure.

Race is on between MSFT and xAI as to who can completely flip the table on the gaming industry first.

 

[RCX]

I think they'd be freaking out because like a day ago a $500b tech titan stepped into the ring too. Shit is getting disrupted hard for sure.

Race is on between MS and xAI as to who can completely flip the table on the gaming industry first.

I'll be hanging back, playing mario world for my 20th run thru.