D&D 5E BG3 is once again a Platinium Selling Game in 2024, without selling a DLC.

[Zardnaar]

If you look at the top 50 selling games of all time, only a few such as Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 are recent games. Nintendo still manages good sales numbers for their 1st party Switch games (Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing) but you still have games like Mario 3 for the NES on the list despite the industry being so much bigger as a whole than it was in 1988.

I am no expert but my guess is it’s much harder to sell a lot of one title these days because there’s so much competition out there. My Steam wishlist is full of games I would play if I had unlimited time, while in 1988 there was probably only 1 or 2 games I was interested in at any given time.

That and I think in 2023 7/10 of the top 10 games currently being played were 7 years old or more.

GTA Online for example.

 

[Velderan]

That and I think in 2023 7/10 of the top 10 games currently being played were 7 years old or more.

The 850+ hours I have spent playing Stardew Valley tracks with that.

 

[Cergorach]

That is what a well run early access program provides, and it paid off with Larian and BG3.

But do you agree that this is the exception to the rule, many early access games fail to deliver what they promised, no matter the good intentions.

The "No DLC" thing is mostly just a Larian preference and not specific to BG3. They've never been big on it.

But the funny thing is, there is Larian DLC:
Baldur's Gate 3 - Digital Deluxe Edition DLC
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Companion: Sir Lora the Squirrel
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Divine Ascension
Divinity: Dragon Commander - DLC: Imperial Edition - Upgrade

Their early games (Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, and Divinity II) all predate online stores that allowed for DLC, the games with DLC are all after 2010. Divinity II had an expansion pack called "Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance", that you would buy physically (proto DLC)...

Sure, these are not DLC schemes like EA, Activision, Paradox, etc. But there is DLC.

I think BG3's success is directly related to the quality of the game itself. There have been plenty of games that were hyped and ended up falling flat on its face upon release because nobody liked it. Sometimes a decent game doesn't find an audience, but I can't recall a bad game becoming immensely popular.

Looks at EA and Activision games... You were saying... There are TONs of games that have hyped immensely, have become immensely popular, have made tons of money and are deeply flawed. It also depends on what you mean by 'quality', do you mean technical 'quality', like in literature? Or something else? Because the issue with technical 'quality', is that many people might have read Shakespeare, but I wouldn't call it a fun, entertaining experience. On the other hand there are tons of people that are having cheap fun with pulp novels and dime store romance novels. CoD is immensely popular, every time, but I wouldn't call it 'quality'. Big Brother reality TV I wouldn't call 'quality', but it's aired 508 seasons in 63 countries/regions...

What I mean by hype and gaining traction outside the normal niche. I've seen/heard people buying BG3, while they normally wouldn't touch a cRPG with a ten-foot pole. I wonder how far those people actually played before moving on to the next shiny.

I'm not saying that BG3 is a bad game, I'm saying that we should separate the hype from the actual game. 'Platinum' status, thus sales don't say anything about quality, it just says something about sales. And while the owners of the IP and the developer do rank how 'good' a game is for them, based on sale figures, that's because they look at the game from the money perspective. They are a business, they work for money. We are consumers, the only thing that should factor money in, is if it's 'worth it' for the money, and that determination is different for everyone.

 

[Zardnaar]

The 850+ hours I have spent playing Stardew Valley tracks with that.

Some of my games are a decade old plus. Bit more than 850 although I often leave the PC running which I think counts towards hours played.

Regular Play

Civ 3
SMAC
Star Wars Empire At War
Stellaris

Occasional Play

BG3
KorOR 1&2
EUIV
AC Origins and Odyssey

 

[Reynard]

But do you agree that this is the exception to the rule, many early access games fail to deliver what they promised, no matter the good intentions.

I will reiterate in case I wasn't clear: I prefer game developers be honest. I much prefer early access to a terrible launch and a year or two of patching.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But do you agree that this is the exception to the rule, many early access games fail to deliver what they promised, no matter the good intentions

I’d noticed that, but I don’t know what conclusion to draw from it.

Because the issue with technical 'quality', is that many people might have read Shakespeare, but I wouldn't call it a fun, entertaining experience

Shakespeare is great fun, and frequently hilarious. Of course, it was written to be performed, not read, so that might be your issue.

On the other hand there are tons of people that are having cheap fun with pulp novels and dime store romance novels

Shakespeare was writing cheep entertainment for the masses, just like pulp novels. Dickens was written as pulp fiction for magazines for that matter.

 

[Reynard]

It is very strange when people intimate that there are no such thing as objective measures of quality in art.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I will reiterate in case I wasn't clear: I prefer game developers be honest. I much prefer early access to a terrible launch and a year or two of patching.

Too much honesty is not always a good thing. I’m thinking of the Gerald Ratner incident in 1992. It would be funny, but not for all the people who lost their jobs as a consequence.

 

[Seramus]

But the funny thing is, there is Larian DLC:
Baldur's Gate 3 - Digital Deluxe Edition DLC
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Companion: Sir Lora the Squirrel
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Divine Ascension
Divinity: Dragon Commander - DLC: Imperial Edition - Upgrade

Oh definitely! I agree! But remember how insistent they were about the definitive and imperial editions NOT being DLC? And they were almost (humorously) salty about Sir Lora being DLC in "See, we made a DLC! Are you happy now?" way.

 

[Reynard]

Too much honesty is not always a good thing. I’m thinking of the Gerald Ratner incident in 1992. It would be funny, but not for all the people who lost their jobs as a consequence.

I don't know what that is.