With Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian managed to reign supreme over every game that was launched last year, as 2023 was packed when it came to major releases. From Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man sequel to Bethesda’s Starfield, it felt like each developer was trying to one-up the other by launching high-profile games.
With such a saturated release schedule across the industry, many studios were impacted, and Larian CEO Swen Vincke sympathizes with the developers that had to go through the effects because of him.
The Baldur’s Gate 3 Effect Was Real
Winning the Game of the Year award at not only The Game Awards but also other major events is no easy feat, but last year, even among such a spectacular lineup of games, there wasn’t any doubt that Baldur’s Gate 3 would be carrying out clean sweeps at every show. But Larian couldn’t get to the top without unintentionally hurting other titles that were scheduled for release during the fall season.
“It sucks,” admitted Swen Vincke, because if AAA games like Bethesda’s Starfield could be affected by the third Baldur’s Gate, one can only imagine how much impact it would’ve had on indie releases.
The Larian CEO named Summerfall’s adventure game Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical as an example, which was supposed to be launched a week earlier, but because of Baldur’s Gate 3‘s August 3 release date, the indie title had to change its schedule, ultimately releasing on August 10 instead. “It was this cascading effect,” continued Swen Vincke, providing a potential solution to the problem that plagued many developers last year.
“It would really have been much better if we would all know each other’s release dates up front because there’s always that secrecy around them,” which would’ve resulted in the overshadowing issue being avoided.
Larian Went Through Something Similar
The Larian CEO is sorry about what indie developers had to go through because of Baldur’s Gate 3, as his game went through the same thing last year. “I apologise, actually,” said Swen Vincke, “it happened to us, so I know exactly how that feels,” referring to his decision to split the release date of his title to avoid clashing with Bethesda’s supposed genre-defining effort.
The third Baldur’s Gate was supposed to be launched on September 6 on both PC and PlayStation, but because Starfield already had that date booked, Larian released its game a month earlier for Windows.
In hindsight, even if Baldur’s Gate 3 followed its original release plan, Starfield wouldn’t have been able to effect it, but this release date issue is a glaring problem in the industry, and it’s encouraging to see developers like Vincke having a conversation about it.
Do you think Baldur’s Gate 3 would’ve had a different fate if it were released for every platform on the same day as Starfield? Let us know in the comments!
