The 27th annual DICE awards have come and gone, with Larian Studios‘ Baldur’s Gate 3 walking away with several big wins. These included Game of the Year, RPG of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Game Design, and Story. During their Game of the Year acceptance speeches, Baldur’s Gate 3 developers took an opportunity to address the state of the game industry.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s publishing director talks about industry-wide layoffs
Larian Studios’ Director of publishing, Michael Douse, talked about how the industry struggles to show appreciation for the people who make games. “This is a really human industry, and we’re really bad sometimes at showing developers what they’re worth and showing the players at home that we care about them,” he said. “It’s kind of the elephant in the room, especially surrounded by all this opulence.”
He went on to say, “Many, many people were let go at the start of this year.” He is referring to the waves of layoffs sweeping studios across the industry. The widespread downsizing started last year has shown no sign of stopping.
However, the Baldur’s Gate 3 developer encouraged laid-off developers not to give up on making games. “I want you to know that you are all talented and that you matter, and that you are the future of this industry.”
He encouraged them not to let the industry’s mistakes snuff out their passions.
The “secret” to Larian’s success
Larian Studios’ production head, David Walgrave, also had some things to say about the “secret” to Larian’s success. He says that Larian bases its decisions on figuring out what the players want and what the developers want to create. The Baldur’s Gate 3 developer also described how being told that something is impossible only makes Larian want to try harder.
Walgrave additionally talked about how Larian Studios isn’t beholden to shareholders and doesn’t rely on live-service games to make money. “We ask you to pay one price only for the game, and that’s it—you can own it for the rest of your life. We don’t have shareholders, but we also don’t think about them… In the long run, building a community, building a player base, building games that are actually fun is going to make you the most money, that’s it.”
