Game News Divinity: Original Sin has sold 160,000 copies, already approaching profitability

[Visperas]

Perfect plan for the future:
-After holiday, they start development of DOS expansion.
-They kickstart a new game (scifi is preferable but anything not medieval fantasy will do)

 

[Azrael the cat]

You don't want RPG's to sell well? You want the genre to stay dead (or mutilated like modern BW-games)? What are you doing here then?

Please tell me one good thing that came of something becoming super popular and selling really well.

I understand your point, and I'm not saying this applies to Larian, but keep in mind that Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima (main and Underworld), Morrowind, BG2, Fallout, Half-Life, Quake, Monkey Island, Tex Murphy series and Starcraft were all AAA games by AAA developers, on AAA budgets, and often at the cutting edge of game technology. Few of the Codexer's 'great games' were indies, or even mid-size developers at their height.

 

[Haba]

I understand your point, and I'm not saying this applies to Larian, but keep in mind that Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima (main and Underworld), Morrowind, BG2, Fallout, Half-Life, Quake, Monkey Island, Tex Murphy series and Starcraft were all AAA games by AAA developers, on AAA budgets, and often at the cutting edge of game technology. Few of the Codexer's 'great games' were indies, or even mid-size developers at their height.

The budgets for the games itself and the development team sizes were very much comparable to Larian's "indie" studio. Something doesn't automatically get better if you just pour more money into it.

 

[Delterius]

I understand your point, and I'm not saying this applies to Larian, but keep in mind that Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima (main and Underworld), Morrowind, BG2, Fallout, Half-Life, Quake, Monkey Island, Tex Murphy series and Starcraft were all AAA games by AAA developers, on AAA budgets, and often at the cutting edge of game technology. Few of the Codexer's 'great games' were indies, or even mid-size developers at their height.

The budgets for the games itself and the development team sizes were very much comparable to Larian's "indie" studio. Something doesn't automatically get better if you just pour more money into it.

On the other hand, there's also something else that I think Swen also likes to say. That through D:OS and possibly even grander projects we aren't just holding onto the past, we are observing this whole lineage of RPG development that was cut off with the rise of the Mainstream. Just as UU and everything else was at the cutting edge of their time, we will eventually seek things beyond the revival of old genres and will wonder what can be done with increased resources.

 

[jdinatale]

Perfect plan for the future:
-After holiday, they start development of DOS expansion.
-They kickstart a new game (scifi is preferable but anything not medieval fantasy will do)

That would rock if Larian announced both a Divinity: OS expansion and a sci-fi RPG.

What would you like in the expansion? I think since most games take 25-30 hours to complete the first map, they could make at least 1 major map, and hopefully have a 10 floor mega dungeon.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I understand your point, and I'm not saying this applies to Larian, but keep in mind that Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima (main and Underworld), Morrowind, BG2, Fallout, Half-Life, Quake, Monkey Island, Tex Murphy series and Starcraft were all AAA games by AAA developers, on AAA budgets, and often at the cutting edge of game technology. Few of the Codexer's 'great games' were indies, or even mid-size developers at their height.

The budgets for the games itself and the development team sizes were very much comparable to Larian's "indie" studio. Something doesn't automatically get better if you just pour more money into it.

Yes, but for their time and tech, they were big commercial players. They weren't indies - hell, many of them were also major publishers.

It's true that throwing money at something doesn't automatically make it better. But it doesn't make it worse either, and it can certainly help with scope and polish. The decline of gaming had less to do with increased money (though bloated per-game budgets haven't helped), than the rise of the publisher oligopoly. If this was a market where publishers were falling over themselves to scope out new developer talent, and were scrapping away making a variety of games directly servicing every customer segment they could design for, I doubt we'd be complaining about games having too high a budget.

Contrast with TV - the increase in high-budget television hasn't damaged its quality; it came simultaneously with television rebounding from 20 years in the cultural wilderness. During the 80s, people would boast (i.e. lie, but the point stands) about not owning a television, so bad was the medium's association with catering only for the lowest common denominator. And during worst of the TV decline in the 80s, your best chance of finding a good tv show was to stumble across something low-budget and indie that somehow slipped through the cracks in the system - just like with gaming today. But the revival didn't come as a consequence of tv budgets plummeting. All that would have done is concentrate the commercial focus upon an even narrower conception of the mass market, while reducing the amount of original programming of all kinds. Things improved when the market fragmented as a consequence of diversified premium channels and online content, where it became more viable to make shows that specialise at serving a particular segment well, instead of the mindless mass entertainment of the soaps and formulaic sitcoms that dominated the 80s.

If Larian decide to become a slave to the publishers, or want to make unfocussed mass market games, then they'll be shit regardless of budget. I dare say that such a game will be even shitter with a small budget than a large one.

 

[Darkzone]

That through D:OS and possibly even grander projects we aren't just holding onto the past, we are observing this whole lineage of RPG development that was cut off with the rise of the Mainstream. Just as UU and everything else was at the cutting edge of their time, we will eventually seek things beyond the revival of old genres and will wonder what can be done with increased resources.

And this can be at the same time: (( good and / or bad ) and dangerous).
Some things or developments are like a gravitational well, and if you have too much money to spend, you are very attracted towards this.

That would rock if Larian announced both a Divinity: OS expansion and a sci-fi RPG.

Like i wish for a good Cyperpunk / Film Noir RPG. (I this sense i consider SRR as a failure.)
I think that a concurrent development of two projects at the current stage for Larian would be not a good decision.

Things improved when the market fragmented as a consequence of diversified premium channels and online content, where it became more viable to make shows that specialise at serving a particular segment well, instead of the mindless mass entertainment of the soaps and formulaic sitcoms that dominated the 80s.

I don't see this, this way. I see that the TV series have the same quality like in 80s, but have a larger budget, therefore they are only better looking (CGI). The shit is still shit.

 

[Black]

DOS: 160k sold years ago.
PoE: still 0.

 

[Irenaeus]

 

[Dorateen]

Larian to develop the first 5E D&D cRPG

 

[tuluse]

I understand your point, and I'm not saying this applies to Larian, but keep in mind that Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima (main and Underworld), Morrowind, BG2, Fallout, Half-Life, Quake, Monkey Island, Tex Murphy series and Starcraft were all AAA games by AAA developers, on AAA budgets, and often at the cutting edge of game technology. Few of the Codexer's 'great games' were indies, or even mid-size developers at their height.

For most of it's development time Fallout was a side project, and I don't think any of Black Isle's games were considered AAA even at the time.

System Shock and Thief were also more modest budget games compared to some of their contemporaries.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

For most of it's development time Fallout was a side project

Yes, it's a bit of a stretch to call Fallout a "AAA game with a AAA budget":

Cain worked with fellow employees at Interplay in their spare time, starting in 1994. He built the engine alone in six months, given no money and no resources, only time. Later, Cain assembled a team of 30 people to work on the game for the next three years.

 

[Infinitron]

In the late 90s, anything that wasn't a first-person shooter with the latest Quake or Unreal engine version probably wasn't really considered "cutting edge".

Budget-wise, Baldur's Gate and PS:T to a lesser extent seem to have been high budget, while the Icewind Dales and Fallouts were low.

System Shock 2 was low budget, but Thief was a long-running project that required several conceptual iterations and the development of its own proprietary engine, so it may have been costly.

 

[tuluse]

Fallout was kind of cutting edge technology wise though. It was an early 640x480x256 game, had the 3d talking heads. Had voiced dialog.

It just wasn't AAA.

 

[Infinitron]

Fallout was kind of cutting edge technology wise though. It was an early 640x480x256 game, had the 3d talking heads. Had voiced dialog.

These things weren't really new in 1997. New to isometric CRPGs, maybe, but in 1997 those had been kind of a dead genre for a few years.

 

[Visperas]

Perfect plan for the future:
-After holiday, they start development of DOS expansion.
-They kickstart a new game (scifi is preferable but anything not medieval fantasy will do)

That would rock if Larian announced both a Divinity: OS expansion and a sci-fi RPG.

What would you like in the expansion? I think since most games take 25-30 hours to complete the first map, they could make at least 1 major map, and hopefully have a 10 floor mega dungeon.

What I'd like the most for the expansion are truly complex, nonlinear and reactive quests. I find DOS lacking in that department.

 

[Jaesun]

Larian to develop the first 5E D&D cRPG

I would rather they stay the hell away from Publishers and another companies IP. Because then they have to make sure WotC/HASBRO agree to everything.

Doing their own IP and self publishing/Kickstarted they can do whatever in the hell they want.

However.... I would love to see a D&D game use this engine....

 

[Grunker]

However.... I would love to see a Pathfinder game use this engine....

fixed

 

[Jaesun]

Agreed.

 

[Excidium]

Well anything is an improvement over their own systems

 

[Dorateen]

Speaking of which, I wonder why we've never gotten a Pathfinder cRPG. You would think the people at Paizo would hook up with some software developers and create... something.

 

[Excidium]

Speaking of which, I wonder why we've never gotten a Pathfinder cRPG. You would think the people at Paizo would hook up with some software developers and create... something.

Why didn't YOU use the PFSRD on your project?

And they are making a Pathfinder MMO

 

[tuluse]

Speaking of which, I wonder why we've never gotten a Pathfinder cRPG. You would think the people at Paizo would hook up with some software developers and create... something.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy-sandbox-mmo

 

[Dorateen]

I own a number of PF core and splat books, they are great inspiration materials, which I have utilized.

And an MMO doesn't count. I want a proper single-player cRPG, dammit.

 

[tindrli]

yep'.. single player is the way to go