Dungeons & Dragons Isn't What Made Baldur's Gate 3 Successful

Hasbro thinks the game’s success is indicative of a desire for more D&D video games, but it’s wrong

[H9]

It's what made it good, but it's true if it wasn't for that bestiality scene most people wouldn't have heard of it even

[phoenixwing]

I'm sorry but larian studios carried this game. It would be successful with a different dev but not to the degree larian did it. They put real effort in and to look down on that shows how arrogant wizards of the coast is.

[anast]

Wizards of the Coast makes some of the cheapest but most expensive products in the TTRPG space. Their books fall apart, they're buggy, and incomplete. They kind of remind me of Bethesda. Whereas, TTRPGs by Free League are dense, complete, and quality. Even Paizo is quality and they do D&D better than Wizards.

[anast]

The product awareness brought eyes, but Larian made it more successful than the product. D&D games and the TTRPG are in a sad state outside of BG3. The TTRPG has gone live service with half finished products that cost a fortune. 5e modules are hacked up like a Ubisoft DLCs, and Never Winter Nights is a microtransaction fest that doesn't even come close to the quality of entertainment on BG3.

[thorstein]

When I read Neverwinter Nights, I thought you were referring to the video game which came with a level editor to show players to make their own campaigns. The opposite of where games are now.

IIRC I think Harebrained Schemes did that with Shadowrun.

[anast]

I'm talking about the F2P game. They won't make a game like the original again and if they do, it will be at least $500 with all the DLC.

[jznrpg]

D&D didn’t “make” the game but Baldurs Gate is a well known name from the PC glory days of RPGs and certainly helped it. But Larian had to make a great game within that framework and they did a great job apparently.

[Armaggedon]

Larian has made good crpgs for awhile, and never gathered a great deal of popularity. There was something about BG3 that hooked people in, caught their attention. It wasnt DnD, ecause there are games like Pathfinders Wrath of the righteous that went under the radar. It wasnt crpg, because plenty of crpgs have dropped in the past decade, including ones from larian, and never reached popularity. I propose it was literally what everyone was talking about right around the games release: Sleeping with bears, sleeping with other characters in general, and getting a cutscene even when talking with random npcs. I propose it was the presentation, and the brazen display of sensuality that caught mainstream attention. Then once people played the game, they saw that there was a gem under the hood. Cant forget coop, coop just took the game to a completely different plane of existence.

[RiseNShine]

If DnD brand was enough to sell millions, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance would have been a great seller, but instead it did terribly. Larian Studios DD Original Sin 2 sold 7.5 million copies using their own franchise, so it's quite clear it's selling ridiculously well because it's an amazing game first, and and uses DnD franchise second.

[jznrpg]

Dark Aliiance was decent back in the day (ps2 era I believe not the new one) but nowhere as good as Baldurs Gate 1&2
You need a good game first and foremost but a popular name certainly helps

[Psychonaut85]

Yeah Dark Alliance just came out not long ago and it was a f)$king potato. But as usual, big companies run by old farts who have no idea what the f$&k is actually going in down in the valley below them.