Larian Studios has cleverly used the publicity to criticize the gaming industry.

Baldur’s Gate 3 won more awards: the DICE Awards in several categories: Outstanding Achievement in Story, RPG of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Game of the Year. And the studio’s developers, who were present at the awards ceremony, took the opportunity to say that 2023 was a tough year for the industry, and 2024 will be even worse (over 16,000 people have already lost their jobs this year).

“We’ve been very lucky. We’ve had a lot of stage time – others are not so lucky. This is a very human industry, and sometimes we’re very bad at showing developers what they’re worth…it’s kind of the elephant in the room, especially surrounded by all this opulence. Many, many people were laid off earlier this year. I want you to know that you are all talented and you are important and you are the future of this industry. Don’t let that flame be extinguished by our collective mistakes … we will survive as an industry,” said Michael Douse, the studio’s director of publishing.

“We ask you to pay only one price for the game, and that’s it – you can own it for the rest of your life. We don’t have shareholders, but we don’t think about them either. There’s a saying in Dutch – ‘honesty lasts the longest’ or something like that. We don’t make decisions where we think ‘this is how we can make the most money’. In the long run, building a community, building a player base, building games that are actually fun will make you the most money, that’s it,” added David Walgrave, Larian Studios’ production director.

Technically speaking, Larian does have a shareholder. Chinese tech giant Tencent has a 30% stake in the studio, but no voting rights, though it does have “preferred stock.” The other 70% is held by Swen Vincke, the studio’s CEO, and his wife. And Larian is right to point out what is wrong with the gaming industry…

Source: PCGamer