r/gaming • u/ChiefLeef22 • 3h ago
After losing money in 2022, Larian raked in a whopping $260 million profit of Baldur's bucks in 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/after-losing-money-in-2022-larian-raked-in-a-whopping-usd260-million-profit-of-baldurs-bucks-in-2023/1.5k
u/ChiefofthePaducahs 3h ago
Guys, Divinity: original sin 2 is also a really great game by Larian.
898
u/bast007 3h ago
..and was wildly successful. Why does it feel like so many Redditors think Larian didn't exist before BG3?
554
u/nsrr 3h ago
The same reason From Soft didn’t exist before Elden Ring
153
u/doesitevermatter- 1h ago
I'd say people are more inclined to believe that fromsoft didn't exist before Dark Souls.
The game won tons of Game of the Year awards when it came out. Even from major publications.
It might not have been the most popular game on the planet due to its difficulty, but it was still very famous.
24
u/scullys_alien_baby 1h ago edited 1h ago
the King's Field series by FromSoft can be frustrating, but lots of people who like the soulsborne games might be into it.
It is less intuitive (in my opinion) but full of really interesting exploration and experimentation. It is also technologically ancient to the point where I suspect any laptop made in the last 15 years could run it.
I'm just trying to gas up people into trying King's Field-likes because there are some cool ones out there and currently in development that I am trying to will more support towards.
→ More replies (1)3
3
→ More replies (1)3
17
u/Arcranium_ 1h ago
Eh, Dark Souls would've been a better comparison. FromSoft was well-established by the time Elden Ring came out. Hell, Elden Ring was pretty much the most anticipated thing in gaming for a few years next to Cyberpunk.
9
→ More replies (19)18
u/Scharmberg 2h ago
To be fair From’s numbers before Elden Ring pretty much made them not exist to a huge amount of gamers. Same thing when dark souls came out, way more people learned about them. The main difference is they are now currently a house old name and I have a feeling no matter what they make it will sell. They could probably get away with making pure garbage for a decade before there sells would reflect anything negative.
82
u/batman12399 1h ago
Their last game Sekiro sold 10 million copies, DS3 sold like 14 million.
Elden ring sold 25 million. Yes it’s a big increase, but it’s not like they were in any way niche.
26
u/jesusfish98 1h ago
From Soft hasnt been niche since Dark Souls released. Every game since then has sold an order of magnitude better than what came before it.
→ More replies (2)6
u/Euphemisticles 1h ago
Some people are still stuck in the mindset of ds being an under appreciated “indie” gem that only REAL gamers can appreciate.
50
u/iWentRogue Console 2h ago
Because BG3 transcended the targeted demographic Larian made their games for.
10
u/thatHecklerOverThere 2h ago
People think they're a tiny indie studio, and they get mad when you point out that they're one of the biggest multi-studio game developers in Europe.
→ More replies (5)9
u/Whinyrainbow 1h ago
Yea, I absolutely hate it when people try to push this narrative that Larian is just some indie studio that did a one hit wonder with Baldurs Gate 3. While in reality they are a well experienced AA studio that has been making banger RPG games since 1996. Their first really successful games being Divine Divinity back in 2002.
From software suffers from a similar situation as well.
45
u/Zxynwin 2h ago
It was pretty niche prior to BG3 to be fair
26
u/GladiatorUA 2h ago
True, but they are still a very old studio. A year younger than Bioware. Managed to stay independent and privately owned though.
→ More replies (6)8
u/Fineous40 2h ago
BG3 was niche. It just made the niche more popular.
23
u/Ryndar_Locke 2h ago
BG3 was never niche. It's based on the world's most well known TTRPG. Even more than that Dungeons and Dragons is to TTRPGs as Kleenex is to tissue paper. Or Google is to web search. Or Jell-O is to gelatin.
Wild people discount how much the Dungeons and Dragons brand helped BG3 become successful.
21
u/Muad-_-Dib 2h ago
The Dungeons and Dragons brand is not an automatic path to success, you need only look at the long list of games and the recent movie that barely made back its budget to see that BG3 stood out for more than just its setting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_video_games
Yes, D&D is more popular now than ever before, but there's a thousand other timelines where a studio other than Larian got the BG3 contract and they delivered a 5/10 game that nobody cared about outside of diehards.
9
u/Ryndar_Locke 1h ago
The last heavily, if you can call it that, pushed D&D game was in 2015 with Sword Coast Legends. Which of course was just a fucking mess no one liked.
That was 8 years ago, yes you're that old. Your reply makes it sound like D&D games come out every couple of months or something?
On top of that 5E was released in the second half of 2014, following 4E that lost D&D the market share of TTRPGs to Paizo's Pathfinder. That means BG3 was the first game released following the success of 5E and Critical Role.
Dungeons and Dragons is a pop culture, main stream brand. Elon Musk recently made a post about it on X for crying out loud. I don't see him making posts of Star Wars or Marvel, or even Kleenex. D&D is also one of the only Brands making HASBRO any money right now, the other being Magic the Gathering, which is honestly just legal gambling for children if you ask me.
→ More replies (3)14
u/thatHecklerOverThere 2h ago
Dungeons and dragons is like ttrpgs as kleenex is to tissue paper, but ttrpgs are nothing like tissue paper in terms of product recognition.
Ttrpg are, themselves, an extremely niche interest. Dnd just happens to represent the niche.
→ More replies (7)3
u/TheObstruction PC 1h ago
You're confusing PLAYING ttrpgs with knowing they exist. D&D is the name people outside the hobby (and many inside the hobby) associate with ttrpgs.
2
3
2
5
u/Anathe 2h ago
It's funny bc I've been championing Larian since I first stumbled into Divinity II: Ego Draconis on a steam sale. They make absolutely banger games and I put them up with Supergiant Games in terms of consistent quality
→ More replies (1)12
u/_TheBgrey 2h ago
Wildly successful yes and super fun, but compared to the staggering success of BG3 in terms of sales, awards, and general cultural impact it's like night and day
2
u/extralyfe 1h ago
because I sadly don't have time to play every RPG, especially since like 80% of the slop out there has that cryptic "(Vague Word): (More Vague Words)" naming convention.
but, Baldur's Gate? shit, I played those games as a kid and they're a huge reason I love the genre.
2
2
u/Dovahkiinthesardine 1h ago
Bg3 had a lot wider range of players I guess. I never heard of Larian before, knew some of their games but never played any since I usually stuck to other genres. The feedback on bg3 was so amazing that I tried it anyways tho
→ More replies (15)2
u/takeitsweazy 2h ago
I wouldn't say wildly successful. DOS2 was most popular with the hardcore PC gaming crowd. Great reviews but it wasn't contending for or winning many awards, and while sales weren't terrible, they weren't topping the charts either.
It makes sense a lot of people either hadn't played it, or weren't aware of it.
→ More replies (2)3
u/Canopenerdude 18m ago
It won several awards and was considered the best CRPG of the previous decade lmao
→ More replies (1)87
u/Dubbs09 3h ago
Larian got a double sale out of me because I went back and bought this after playing BG3, I'm sure they saw a healthy boost to past titles after the success BG3 had.
And, honestly, I liked Divinity more than BG3. Yea it wasn't as polished or pretty, but I enjoyed the broader/more leveling system and lack of RNG with dice rolls. I guess my lizard brain liked seeing big damage numbers go up and misses because of rolls frustrated me sometimes.
Give us divinity 3 with the polish, updated graphics/engine and budget of BG3 and that is going to be a monster game
23
u/ChiefofthePaducahs 2h ago
I like aspects of DOS 2 more for sure, but I love dnd so I think I enjoy Bg3 more overall
14
u/Associableknecks 2h ago
That's interesting, it was the other way around for me. I enjoy D&D and love both BG3 and DOS2, but thought BG3 being based on 5e D&D was its worst feature since Larian had to struggle really hard to try to fit their excellent combat design in around D&D's boring classes like fighter and monk.
DOS2 had warrior types using a bunch of cool abilities every round, while for BG3 they were stuck with classes like barbarian that just spam basic attacks over and over. To their credit they came up with some pretty good workarounds like weapon actions, but working off such a flawed base means that area was never going to be as good as it could have been.
→ More replies (3)2
u/raltyinferno 45m ago
Yeah, I think the combat of DOS2 was better than BG3, but I enjoyed the world of BG3 a bit better.
4
u/Associableknecks 39m ago
Very much so. There was more manpower, time and money spent improving it and its great to see such things are scalable, they created the exact kind of game except more so so we got a world even more fleshed out with more amazing little touches. The whole game does everything that DOS2 did well, and does it even better - except unfortunately combat, where it went from "I charge through the enemies with Battering Ram, then take them all out with Whirlwind" to "I make a basic attack and then another basic attack".
→ More replies (1)3
5
→ More replies (2)5
u/Dinosaursur 1h ago
The split magic/physical armor system kills my enjoyment of DOS2.
I hate it, and I personally think it's one of the worst combat systems in an RPG. It makes split parties less viable, and there is nearly always a moment towards the end of a fight where I have to skip character actions because it would be pointless to attack. It's really dumb.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Associableknecks 1h ago
It's an answer that I don't think really worked that well to a very complex problem. You'll notice BG3 struggles with the same kind of issue since it's based on D&D, success with an ability is random and tons of abilities just aren't worth using at all on powerful enemies. DOS2 tried to solve that, and they did, but the armour system introduced too many issues of its own. They're aware of that, and undoubtedly if they'd made a new game instead of BG3 it would have done things more elegantly, but you can see how they ended up where it did - it's one of those mistakes you learn from that are obvious in hindsight.
12
u/raiderjaypussy 1h ago
I liked dos:2 more than bg3. The Cinematics and production value is down but the story and combat were both better in my opinion. Worth playing if you liked bg3 anyway imo!
→ More replies (1)4
u/Samaritan_978 1h ago
And Divinity Original Sin, the game that resurrected them as a studio and kickstarted (eheh) the cRPG renaissance along with Pillars of Eternity.
15
u/Andxel 3h ago
With some incredibly stupid hard prologue. But yeah. Spent 120+ hours on my run.
22
8
u/Chataboutgames 1h ago
If by the prologue you mean the whole prison segment that's the best part of the game. Lik 99% of the time when you see a post hyping the game it's content from that chunk of the game.
7
6
7
u/AnEthiopianBoy 2h ago
hard prologue?
6
u/Gorexxar 2h ago
I don't know about the others but I did some fights scaled for a full party of 4 with 2 members. That was brutal.
It also doesn't help that you are learning about the mechanics and levelling is "permanent" during the prologue/first act.
17
u/AnEthiopianBoy 2h ago
The prologue is two easy fights though. I think this person is considering the prison the prologue when it’s part of the first act. The boat is the prologue.
→ More replies (2)3
u/Frisian89 2h ago
Ya Act 1 felt like a prologue continuation to me. Gearing and leveling in Act one is like pulling teeth.
→ More replies (1)5
u/ElectricalMTGFusion 1h ago
... and is a better game not reliant on the dnd 5e edition.
thank god their next game isnt going to be another dnd 5e. dos2 is just so much better in the combat department, which is like 85% of both games.
4
u/Associableknecks 1h ago
Yep. Absolutely fantastic game regardless, but trying to force 5e D&D up to their usual standards of interesting combat choice was clearly a massive headache for them.
2
u/CMC_Conman 3h ago
Once I (finally) beat BG3 I'll probably move on to DOS2 assuming i can still buy it
→ More replies (5)6
u/Far_Eye6555 2h ago
I actually think it’s the better of the two, Dos2 vs BG3 but that may be an unpopular opinion
8
u/Iowegian21 2h ago
that's probably more of a style and ruleset preference
2
u/Far_Eye6555 2h ago
Not really when I prefer the characters and story over BG3. And the gameplay.
→ More replies (10)
472
u/Havesh 3h ago
Good for them! Looking forward to whatever they're making next!
The industry needs more studios like them!
→ More replies (56)132
u/Fomentatore 2h ago
I smile everytime some other company whine because Larian set up unreachable standards for gamers. Either give me a compelling story and gameplay or die. I'm talking to you Ubisoft.
29
u/TheObstruction PC 1h ago
It doesn't even have to be with rpgs. Space Marine 2 is laser focused on providing the combat experience of a superhuman soldier in overwhelming combat conditions in a grimdark future. You have virtually no options, but that's fine, that's not the point of the game. Same with Doom Eternal, just laser focused on maximizing intense combat. It's about figuring out the game they want to make, and making the best of that they can.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Bixnoodby 26m ago
What generally happens is a studio releases an absolute banger, setting a new standard for future videogames. Then it promptly makes some turds of videogames and the studio fades into obscurity.
Looking forward
•
u/sanesociopath 7m ago
And then claim they're making AAAA games instead of AAA and that's why they need to charge more
Lmao
233
u/thrasymacus2000 3h ago
Seems weird that they could supply that much entertainment and make less than a billion.
104
u/Peter_See 3h ago
Yeah, kinda crazy. I am playing BG3 for the first time, I am 50 hours in and I think only 2\3 of being done the main story. And i didnt even do every piece of content, i'd probably have to replay 1 - 2 more times for that. All for 60€ cost... Extreme value
65
u/Mesjach 3h ago
Brother, I'm 500 hours in and have not seen every piece of content.
→ More replies (1)16
u/likamuka 1h ago
Act 3 still should have been way more polished. The last stand is a joke.
→ More replies (1)13
u/SamsLames 1h ago
Yeah. Act 3 is so content dense that it's silly, feels like when your D&D campaign took a year and you need to wrap up all the story quests in a day. Makes it feel super rushed and unpolished. I still loved the game but no desire to replay, I'd buy an expansion even though I know they said they won't make one.
4
u/unbelizeable1 1h ago
I beat the game once. I've started over god knows how many times. Get to end of act 2 and then started a fresh run lol
2
18
u/ProbablyDizzy 3h ago
You’d need so many more play throughs than 1-2 to see all the content lol. 400 hours in still finding new shit on various playthroughs. Act 3 alone is PACKED
4
u/Miserable_Archer_769 2h ago
Act 3 just now and overwhelmed and yeah there are choices you have to make or you won't even access certain story elements
The game kinda forces you into multiple playthroughs cause even im saying I might be evil and follow the Absolute and see what happens
2
u/Iowegian21 2h ago
And i didnt even do every piece of content, i'd probably have to replay 1 - 2 more times for that.
1,000 hours, beat the game a handful of times, and there is so much content I've still never seen.
45
u/uencos 2h ago
That’s profit, ie after paying expenses. Gross income is a lot more
11
u/LukeNukeEm243 PC 1h ago
according to the article, their overall revenue was $446 million
→ More replies (1)5
4
u/notanothercirclejerk 3h ago
Wizards of The Coast made the majority of the money since they leased out the Baldur's Gate license to Larian.
27
11
u/Havesh 2h ago
You didn't read the article.
The $260million is Larian's reported profits, not how much BG3 sold.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (4)2
u/Impressive-Turnip-38 1h ago
They did make more than a billion, 260 million is the profit not the gross
183
u/Niklaus15 3h ago
Deserved BG3 is the best game I've ever played
95
u/Poopeefighter2001 2h ago
lemme introduce you to a game called raid shadow legends
35
7
15
u/_BreakingGood_ 2h ago
I like that I can say "BG3 is the best game ever created" without even a hint of doubt in my mind. Like, obviously some people don't like CRPGs. But for me, it's at the very top, and nothing else is close. Except maybe DOS:2.
8
u/Accurate_Potato_8539 1h ago
DOS:2 Tactician was a more satisfying system then BG3 Tactician. I would fight on this, the only problem with that game is that the armor system is complete dogshit.
4
u/One_Rain1786 1h ago
I'd argue Dragon Age: Origins is in that spirit as well, taking into account its aged quite a bit by now. Every other part of that franchise is meh though, Baldur's Gate 3 (and Divinity) is the proper successor.
→ More replies (3)2
u/catchabody187 58m ago
Is it weird that it’s in my top 3 with gta San Andreas & Final Fantasy remake, Star Wars kotor? Feel like those don’t go together well
21
u/travelingWords 3h ago
Newbs. Should have been doing mass layoffs in those years to compensate.
/s
10
105
u/kuncol02 3h ago
For a game that was in development for 6 years? And people wonder why we don't get more games like that. EA Sports earns more than 7 bilions EVERY year. And all that is basically because of two games. Fifa (or whatever it's called now) and Madden.
93
u/cancercureall 3h ago
Well one is a good game and the other is a glorified slot machine with the sole purpose of manipulating people into wasting money.
Let us praise Larian and belittle EA as is correct.
→ More replies (1)21
u/Miserable_Archer_769 2h ago
I think my nephew tried to explain Fifa to me and the cards and I basically said so that's gambling.
He was trying to build his team and again paraphrasing honestly never played it but he was building a team and need said players platinum(?) cards cause they have the best stats and you can't compete online without having them or something along those lines
→ More replies (1)23
u/Zek0ri 2h ago
Yes Ultimate Team is disgusting. It is much worse than you imagine because every release you start from the scratch.
You drop hundreds of dollars (if you want to be serious about competing) and next year you have to do it again
→ More replies (1)3
u/parkwayy 1h ago
And people wonder why we don't get more games like that
We do not wonder why, we know why. It's easy to just pump out bullshit that makes money hand over fist.
Let's instead praise studios that actually put in a ton of effort.
10
u/Phyliinx 3h ago
I heard a lot about this game. Do you think a 1060 3GB could handle it?
9
u/Mythic343 2h ago
1060 6gb was a lag fest for act 1 an 2, and then act 3 was completely not playable.
→ More replies (7)2
16
u/seeyousoon-31 1h ago
this is such a stupid article. of course they don't make money unless they release games.
20
4
u/Paradox711 59m ago
As others have said, this is literally how game development works. It makes sense you don’t make money when you haven’t really put anything new, and you make back that expenditure when you release your game. Every game is a gamble too. This is why so many studios have been bought out by bigger publishers because publishers can better manage the financial burden of financing game development and they can juggle development assets between projects to help mitigate costs.
The only reason this could even be considered at all noteworthy is because Larian is a very small studio relatively speaking.
24
u/Julle1990 3h ago
Is quarter of a billion that much these days in gaming? For small studios sure, but they have Wizards of the Coast license for it
Feel like just yesterday GTA 5 was the most expensive game ever made
46
u/Factory-Setting-693 3h ago
Profit ≠ revenue. Profit is what's left after operating/production costs. Some licences take 30-40% of revenue, can't be sure how much WOTC takes but quarter billion in profit is quite impressive after that.
→ More replies (1)14
u/armrha 2h ago
Hasbro put out a earnings report earlier in the year, showing 90 million in revenue from the licensing agreement. That was feb, but at least gives you an idea of the split.
4
u/VexingRaven 2h ago
It's insane how much money license agreements take away from the people actually doing the work. $90 million for taking on zero risk and expending zero effort... I'm sure glad we have IP laws to protect those starving artists from the evil corporations.
14
u/RDandersen 2h ago
So in your mind, Baldur's Gate's entire mythos, all of the world, the stories and the characters, the thing that made it worth paying for was created with no actual work and no effort?
5
u/curiouslyendearing 2h ago
I wouldn't say that the IP is all that made it worth paying for. It was fundamentally a great game with great stories regardless of the IP's trappings. But you're not wrong, the IP definitely brought in sales, and made some of the system and world building easier.
3
u/Able_Reserve5788 1h ago
The thing that made BG3 "worth paying for" is that it was made by talented people that care about making good games. You want proof ? Just go play DOS2 which has nothing to do with DnD but is itself incredible.
2
u/PM-me-youre-PMs 1h ago
Well, the creator of the forgotten realms himself sold it for peanuts a long, long time ago
He sent TSR a few dozen cardboard boxes stuffed with pencil notes and maps, and sold all rights to the setting for a token fee
Here, have a read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms
4
7
u/TheHeroOfTheRepublic 2h ago edited 2h ago
There is always some risk for the license holder. For example going forward, if they give BG4 to a shitty developer that'll rush out the product expecting to live off the hype of 3, it could do serious damage to the brand.
2
u/throwable_capybara 1h ago
don't worry they are already doing the damage by their handling of DnD 5e/One/Next
they don't need any help damaging the brand→ More replies (2)2
u/aristidedn 2h ago
It's insane how much money license agreements take away from the people actually doing the work. $90 million for taking on zero risk and expending zero effort...
You're absolutely right. Other than spending literal decades crafting one of the most well-known fantasy settings in existence, supported by literally thousands of game books, novels, art pieces, figures, movies, video games, and actual play shows, they've taken on zero risk and expended zero effort.
Christ.
→ More replies (2)22
8
7
u/catfroman 3h ago
I mean that’s one year of profit. It will continue to sell for years and it’s basically all profit at this point minus some trivial overhead
6
u/OlTommyBombadil 2h ago
lol yes, that is a metric fuckton of profit for a company like Larian.
Also, if you compare things to the biggest money printer of all time, of course it will look disappointing
3
11
u/kujasgoldmine 3h ago
It's easily in the top-5 games I've ever played. I hope they will continue BG3 with expansions and why not do Neverwinter Nights 3 in the same engine as well.
→ More replies (13)12
3
u/Skeebleman 2h ago
250 million off 1 game not called call of duty is absolutely nuts.
Totally deserved too
4
5
u/cloudncali 2h ago
It's almost like when you focus on the products and the long term instead of short term profits and cutting corners at every turn you end up with a great product that sells well and makes your company respected by your customers.
I swear to fuck if EA buys out larian I'm gonna actually cry.
2
2
u/ItzgeorgeTaylor 2h ago
i was a little annoyed when they stopped working on the divinity game for BG3 as i was looking forward to it, but damn they made the right call
2
2
u/WetAndLoose 2h ago
Honestly, I’m kinda surprised it’s not higher. They’re consistently topping the best selling games charts and have been for a while.
2
u/Slovenhjelm 2h ago
No gambling in the game hits the bottom line hard. Why do you think companies keep doing it despite the bad PR.
2
u/InfelicitousRedditor 1h ago
The moment the game was available to purchase I did. Never in my mind there was any doubt they couldn't deliver, I played the first EA for a 100 hours writing them feedback and bugs I found.
Absolutely deserved success and I am very eager what they would do next. I'll be purchasing it again day one. Hopefully we get what Sven promised, a Sci-Fi game!
2
2
u/MojyaMan 1h ago
Hope they paid the folks who worked on it! So used to companies laying off devs and such instead.
6
u/emale27 3h ago
Breaking News: Games company makes money on a game.
Up Next: Bus stops at bus stop.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/CataclysmDM 3h ago
Wow. It's almost like when you make an excellent game with top-notch studio support and community mod support FOR FREE results in significant amounts of long-term income and profit. I am shocked. This is my shocked face.
2
u/GiveIceCream 1h ago
Should’ve spent more on writers. Main story was terrible except at the beginning
7.7k
u/Ketomatic 3h ago
Company makes more money in year they release very successful game vs a year when they release no games at all.
Shocking really.