Will Larian breakthrough to the mainstream?

quest said:
You should ask from soft and elden ring sales. They added things like lots of check points and powerful summons to expand audience.

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Which in turn broke the game and made it easy with overpowered builds and repetitive bosses but OMG ELDEN RING FROM SOFTWARE YAS BEST when in reality it pales to their previous work in everything. Hopefully Larian stays true to their hardcore audience. They can make tons of money in that way as well.
 
quest said:
You should ask from soft and elden ring sales. They added things like lots of check points and powerful summons to expand audience.

www.tweaktown.com

Elden Ring sales break 20.5 million, FromSoft plans to 'prolong lifespan' of IP

FromSoftware's landmark RPG has amassed an incredible 20.5 million game sales since launching in February 2022, and more Elden Ring content is coming.
www.tweaktown.com www.tweaktown.com

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Dark Souls Franchise Sales, Which FromSoftware Game Sold The Most?

From the original Demon's Souls to the succeeding Dark Souls trilogy, the Souls franchise by FromSoftware has essentially paved the way to a new genre.
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Yea, that's what I mean. More people playing often means having to please a broader range of tastes and play styles, within reason.
Sometimes developers manage it well and find a balance that works, and sometimes they end up changing the things that helped defined a game when it was niche, much to the chagrin of longtime/core fans.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
Very little chance.

BG3 will do 10 million though, hopefully. And will be very successful.
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You think a game that sells 10 million copies across platforms doesn't qualify as mainstream?

I think the discussion in this thread has a severe problem related to what people even mean by "mainstream". Clearly everyone is using the term in a different way, which is completely muddling the discourse.
 
BennyBlanco said:
I kinda see them on that FromSoft trajectory. Once obscure devs, making competent games for small audiences. Otogi, Armored Core, Divine Divinity, etc. Then they both dropped a few games that were beloved by sweaty nerds like me, Dark Souls and Divinity OS. Then they iterate on the concept and iron out the kinks while working with a bigger budget.

To be clear I don't think BG3 will be their Elden Ring moment of having massive mainstream success with 10s of millions of sales, but I think it could be going that direction with their next few releases. They have been in and out of the Steam best sellers for the duration of their early access and have surely already sold a shit ton of copies. Next game will be even more ambitious and with more budget. Their style of game could also work with a ton of different settings or I
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I think within a niche area...

In the same way X-COM became mainstream, not to the level of FROMSOFT. Some people just don't enjoy turn based combat.
 
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The Cockatrice said:
Which in turn broke the game and made it easy with overpowered builds and repetitive bosses but OMG ELDEN RING FROM SOFTWARE YAS BEST when in reality it pales to their previous work in everything. Hopefully Larian stays true to their hardcore audience. They can make tons of money in that way as well.
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You say harcore audience but Larian games already have plenty of easy-fication features. From free quicksaves to "story" modes.
 
Gorgon said:
You think a game that sells 10 million copies across platforms doesn't qualify as mainstream?

I think the discussion in this thread has a severe problem related to what people even mean by "mainstream". Clearly everyone is using the term in a different way, which is completely muddling the discourse.
Click to expand...

By mainstream I would imagine going beyond gaming population.

At least Witcher 3/ Skyrim numbers IMO.
 
It will sell like a big mainstream game because of hype and 90+ Metacritic but a lot of those people will drop the game a few hours in and never come back.
 
Guilty_AI said:
You say harcore audience but Larian games already have plenty of easy-fication features. From free quicksaves to "story" modes.
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Fair but I'm not talking about difficulty sliders specifically. That being said, even normal difficulty in DOS2 is not something a casual can handle and this is the case for any CRPG like Pathfinder. Normal difficulty is pretty fucking hard and you need to know the mechanics well enough or learn them. Dont compare story mode in crpgs with story mode in big triple A games.
 
The Cockatrice said:
Fair but I'm not talking about difficulty sliders specifically. That being said, even normal difficulty in DOS2 is not something a casual can handle and this is the case for any CRPG like Pathfinder. Normal difficulty is pretty fucking hard and you need to know the mechanics well enough or learn them. Dont compare story mode in crpgs with story mode in big triple A games.
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Then theres the escapist perk in DOS2. I'm pretty sure they left it there for the normies.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
By mainstream I would imagine going beyond gaming population.

At least Witcher 3/ Skyrim numbers IMO.
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See, this is what I mean. I'm not saying that there's a right or wrong answer here, I'm just saying that this is a muddled discussion.

E.g. "By mainstream I would imagine going beyond gaming population." What does this even mean? A game is mainstream only if non-gamers happen to play it? Are we talking about games that are popular for gamers or are we talking about games that people who don't play games may happen to play just because of hype and because their laptop may run it? Dunno, I don't find this a useful defenition at all.

Guilty_AI said:
That already happening. I know people who don't usually play or only play the latest new releases or GAAS fully planning on getting this.
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But surely people who "only play the latest new releases" are gamers by any reasonable definition, in my opinion. But if we go by vaibhavpisal vaibhavpisal 's definition, those people can't possibly define mainstream, given that mainstream would be defined by people who don't play at all but would play, for whatever reason, a game or two during their lives.

I just don't see this discussion leading to anything productive unless people agree on what they mean by mainstream in the first place. Which of course will just lead to a second, parallel discussion regarding how to define it and then discussing if BG3 fits the bill or not.

Good luck with that.
 
No.

Turn based combat is gonna turn down a lot of people.

Also the game is gonna be too overwhelming for many people aswell.

I can see making good sales between nerds, but not much more than that.
 
vaibhavpisal said:
By mainstream I would imagine going beyond gaming population.

At least Witcher 3/ Skyrim numbers IMO.
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10M is very much The Witcher 3 numbers tho. By your terms i'd argue it didn't go mainstream until the TV series.

But Gorgon Gorgon is right, its kind of a vague term. I think using the 10M mark as reference would be better.
 
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Hudo said:
If they go the way of BioWare when they went "mainstream", then I rather hope they don't.
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I think it's probably inevitable. And I'd be fine with it. We still got KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1, 2, Dragon Age out of that before it went south.

They could probably navigate that more successfully now that they've seen the potential pitfalls.
 
Hudo said:
If they go the way of BioWare when they went "mainstream", then I rather hope they don't.
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I see your point and agree with it, but I also think that people forget that games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were the equivalent of blockbusters when they released on PC back in the day. They weren't niche by any means. The hype for BG1 and BG2 was over the roof back in the day and the games were hyped to no end in the magazines, and the games sold accordingly (although piracy has to be taken into account too, since in those days it was rampant. In my country and many other countries in Europe at the time, few people paid for games, only hardware). But yes, I think Bioware took a nose dive not much after those.
 
Punished Miku said:
I think it's probably inevitable. And I'd be fine with it. We still got KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1, 2, Dragon Age out of that before it went south.

They could probably navigate that more successfully now that they've seen the potential pitfalls.
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Not trying to be anal, but fixed anyway. Forgive me.
 
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The D&D community is absolutely massive and this is a game that is attempting to capture the spirit and rules of the tabletop game that doesn't require a DM and can be played in single player.

So yes, I honestly think that this is the one that will propel them to mainstream.
 
Gorgon said:
I see your point and agree with it, but I also think that people forget that games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were the equivalent of blockbusters when they released on PC back in the day. They weren't niche by any means. The hype for BG1 and BG2 was over the roof back in the day and the games were hyped to no end in the magazines, and the games sold accordingly (although piracy has to be taken into account too, since in those days it was rampant. In my country and many other countries in Europe at the time, few people paid for games, only hardware). But yes, I think Bioware took a nose dive not much after those.
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That's a fair enough assessment. Especially when one considers that the RPG genre was kinda dead (or at least dying) back then and BioWare essentially resurrected the whole thing with Baldur's Gate. And they also cemented that RPG's gotta have romances with BG2 (which one can debate whether that's a good thing or not...).
 
I don't have the patience for a turn based game in tyool 2023 and I doubt Casual Joe does either. I'm sure the game will do respectable numbers but I'd be shocked if it was any kind of real breakout hit.
 
Punished Miku said:
Maybe. They dont put out games every 2 years. And they are a niche genre on consoles.

If they take what they know and make a more cinematic version of it they for sure would. Basically the same path Bioware took, not FROM.
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Yeah to be truly mainstream they'd need to take that camera down to shoulder level. BG3 will be a huge success though, but not mainstream in the way tentpole AAA games are.
 
I love larian and loved loved ds1 and 2.

I know fuck all about baulders gate or d and d rules.

Will I enjoy this game?
 
Some people act like D&D is obscure these days....and, hell, even the two classic Baldur's Gate games were popular for that time.
 
With a cRPG?

Jake Gyllenhaal No GIF


Unfortunately
 
This game will definitely be extremely well received, even though a majority of console gamers won't play BG3. It's their follow up game that will have more hype if the gameplay and graphics are more mainstream as I think that should be their organic next step similarly to what Obsidian and inExile did.
 
Mikey Jr. said:
I love larian and loved loved ds1 and 2.

I know fuck all about baulders gate or d and d rules.

Will I enjoy this game?
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Yes, you will enjoy this game. It will have similarities to DoS but be expanded on significantly. The rules are also quite easy to follow, if you could pick up the rules in DoS then you'll have no problem here I'm sure.
 
Gorgon said:
I see your point and agree with it, but I also think that people forget that games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were the equivalent of blockbusters when they released on PC back in the day. They weren't niche by any means. The hype for BG1 and BG2 was over the roof back in the day and the games were hyped to no end in the magazines, and the games sold accordingly (although piracy has to be taken into account too, since in those days it was rampant. In my country and many other countries in Europe at the time, few people paid for games, only hardware). But yes, I think Bioware took a nose dive not much after those.
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I would compare BG3 to Bioware's KOTOR in terms of going mainstream, mainstream is not just about sales, it's about entering the public consciousness beyond just the hobby enthusiasts. KOTOR made Bioware almost mainstream because of the connection with Star Wars, and Bioware consciously made Mass Effect more mainstream appealing in response and kept going down that path.
BG3 won't be completely mainstream just because the turn based nature of it. But it will get so much positive word of mouth from the enthusiasts that it will intrigue the mainstream, and will pay attention to their next release, and Larian will face that choice, do they chase that mainstream cash with their next game, or stick with their roots.
 
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Guilty_AI said:
I mostly blame EA for that. Lets hope they dont sell to some big souless corp after this.
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That's the thing, if they go for the mainstream cash on their next game, it will mean that they are positioning themselves to be bought by some big corp, and we all know what that means.
 
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Madonis said:
Some people act like D&D is obscure these days....and, hell, even the two classic Baldur's Gate games were popular for that time.
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Yeah Baldur's Gate was big, got several RPG of the year awards. And I remember playing several DnD games on the C64 and Amiga, they've been around for a long time.

They certainly have some extra layers of complexity compared to something like Final Fantasy but I don't think you have to be some hardcore roleplayer to understand them.

Saw a chart for the lawful, chaotic, good, evil stats.
Lawful Good - Captain America (spot on)
Chaotic Good - Jack Sparrow (not sure)
Lawful Evil - Vader (hmm)
Chaotic Evil - The Joker (yup)

Creating the characters is fun fun fun! 👌
 
I'd really love for Larian to get a shot at an Ultima game. Come, on EA! You guys aren't doing anything with Ultima anyway!
 
All I know is that I have friends who have never even touched a d20, and they have all asked me about BG3 because they want to play it.

The marketing and hype machine is working for Larian right now.
 
BennyBlanco said:
I kinda see them on that FromSoft trajectory. Once obscure devs, making competent games for small audiences. Otogi, Armored Core, Divine Divinity, etc. Then they both dropped a few games that were beloved by sweaty nerds like me, Dark Souls and Divinity OS. Then they iterate on the concept and iron out the kinks while working with a bigger budget.

To be clear I don't think BG3 will be their Elden Ring moment of having massive mainstream success with 10s of millions of sales, but I think it could be going that direction with their next few releases. They have been in and out of the Steam best sellers for the duration of their early access and have surely already sold a shit ton of copies. Next game will be even more ambitious and with more budget. Their style of game could also work with a ton of different settings or IPs.
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Issue is that isometric turned-based RPG genre, even with D&D IP, is still relatively niche. They would need to pull "an Elden Ring" and do 3rd person/1st person AAA open world RPG to truly break out, IMO. Not that its not possible, mind you. Just depends where they want to go from BG3.
 
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