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* I may have fallen into a Baldur's Gate hole for a bit, but that's not a bad thing. Just need to crawl back out. Going in as blind as I did lead to a misclick at character creation I didn't realize and well, now I am stuck with it for my first playthrough.
The devs prepared for the possibility of 100k concurrent players due to hype, but broke 700k on Steam alone... though the GoG numbers probably aren't high. In terms of the all-time record of concurrent players on Steam, they hit 9th place. There are a lot of factors, I think. Part of it is that again, despite the crush of players... I feel like I am tempting fate here but the game just works. With Elden Ring the launch was so borked most people didn't play at launch. I actually refunded the game due to bugs. Also, D&D is a beloved franchise, Baldur's gate fandom has always been huge and a long open beta where people got to see the system be built and some of the characters develop. But most people are pointing to the viral bear clip as the reason for the hype. I wouldn't actually be playing it just due to hype, it's that a stunning amount of people I know did play early access at some point and were going to be playing it now that they can see the rest of the plot... or rather plots at the ending has 17k variations and there are so many possible cut scenes it would be twice the length of Game of Throne to watch them all.
No wonder there has been drama from other game companies being all 'don't let this game set your expectations for video games!' And like... the initial tweet was a bit out of touch, but the devs from so many companies QRTing it with even stronger takes? EA shut the F up you park your IPs offshore to make 0 money on paper to avoid taxes! Fix yer bugs, pay your employees better and pay some freaking taxes on those billions. Larian Studios and they games is what happens when studios avoid being bought out and eaten by you.
And shout out to the employees of Sega for their recent successful unionization!
The devs prepared for the possibility of 100k concurrent players due to hype, but broke 700k on Steam alone... though the GoG numbers probably aren't high. In terms of the all-time record of concurrent players on Steam, they hit 9th place. There are a lot of factors, I think. Part of it is that again, despite the crush of players... I feel like I am tempting fate here but the game just works. With Elden Ring the launch was so borked most people didn't play at launch. I actually refunded the game due to bugs. Also, D&D is a beloved franchise, Baldur's gate fandom has always been huge and a long open beta where people got to see the system be built and some of the characters develop. But most people are pointing to the viral bear clip as the reason for the hype. I wouldn't actually be playing it just due to hype, it's that a stunning amount of people I know did play early access at some point and were going to be playing it now that they can see the rest of the plot... or rather plots at the ending has 17k variations and there are so many possible cut scenes it would be twice the length of Game of Throne to watch them all.
No wonder there has been drama from other game companies being all 'don't let this game set your expectations for video games!' And like... the initial tweet was a bit out of touch, but the devs from so many companies QRTing it with even stronger takes? EA shut the F up you park your IPs offshore to make 0 money on paper to avoid taxes! Fix yer bugs, pay your employees better and pay some freaking taxes on those billions. Larian Studios and they games is what happens when studios avoid being bought out and eaten by you.
And shout out to the employees of Sega for their recent successful unionization!
no subject
Date: 2023-08-08 06:18 am (UTC)From:I'm really stunned at how complex the game seems, with how much *stuff* there is in terms of "optional" content. (Taylor's example was that they're playing a druid, with animal speech, and the number of dialogue trees with all the animals they encounter has been wild... considering how many players will likely never see any of that.)
I'm especially impressed that it... y'know... works. That it's not such a bug-ridden mess that it's unplayable.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-09 12:32 am (UTC)From:No wonder other companies are upset, they should be. In terms of scope, very few games should be like this. In terms of a AAA product that works and delivers on promises, yes. This coming on the heels of Blizzard axing most of Overwatch 2 and expecting people to buy it if they want to keep playing Overwatch is a lot.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-09 04:38 am (UTC)From:Agreed - I fully understand why studios are worried about people expecting more and holding them to a higher standard.
No, not every game should or can be like this, but within AAA gaming? Yeah, they need to step it up and stop pretending they HAVE to release incomplete, broken shit.