D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Sells Over 20 Million Copies

If I wanted sex scenes I would rather to watch the porn parodies from adult webs. I am more interested into the previous part of seduction, conquest or unresoluted sexual tension that what happens after. I don't like romance stories that create a distorted image of what a couple's relationship is like in real life.

And there is a potential risk of players creating kender-like characters for romance scenes. Do you understand what I mean?

If there is a future Dark Sun videogame like BG3 this could cause DS to become something like the "saga of Gor" (something like the planetary-romance version of 50 shadows of Gray).

Larian has got enough experience and they wanted the licence to earn prestige. A D&D videogame can't be an AAA title when the best studios would rather to use their own IPs.

TwoSix said:

The easiest way for a company to not have success is to slavishly copy previous success, leading to rapidly diminishing returns.

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Doing anything “slavishly” is probably not great for success, just generally speaking.

On the other hand, iterating on and doing sequels to beloved IP is exactly how most massive entertainment companies got that way. Just sayin’.

LuisCarlos17f said:

If I wanted sex scenes I would rather to watch the porn parodies from adult webs. I am more interested into the previous part of seduction, conquest or unresoluted sexual tension that what happens after. I don't like romance stories that create a distorted image of what a couple's relationship is like in real life.

And there is a potential risk of players creating kender-like characters for romance scenes. Do you understand what I mean?

If there is a future Dark Sun videogame like BG3 this could cause DS to become something like the "saga of Gor" (something like the planetary-romance version of 50 shadows of Gray).

Larian has got enough experience and they wanted the licence to earn prestige. A D&D videogame can't be an AAA title when the best studios would rather to use their own IPs.

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Exodus is an AAA game, Warlock seems like its going to be an AAA game. WotC has worked very hard to build up its internam video game studios.

And I personally believe that its second, new studio they are making in Montreal, Wizards of the Coast Inc Studios will be the one doing BG4, given that the Head of the D&D franchise is the head of the studio as well.

Do the people here objecting to the sex in BG3 believe if it was removed the game wouldn't be R--Rated?

That the extreme levels of violence and body horror are acceptable, but sexual content is beyond the pale?

If the sexual scenes in BG3 were mandatory I might be inclined to agree but... they're not? You can romance nobody and you don't have to sleep with Haarlep to progress that plot (which is optional anyway).

Let's talk context: BG2 did 2 million sales in five years, BG3 did 20 million sales in two years.

When you want to make a game that's not a niche within a niche, like most D&D computer games, you need to use a similar target audience as other successful computer games. Like Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher, Skyrim, Mass Effect, etc. Those are all aimed at mature audiences.

Most sex scenes in movies are often tasteless and don't really add anything to the story. In games it's even worse. I'm certainly not a prude, and sex is a driver in many plots, just as money is, but we don't have scenes of just people counting the money for 5-10 minutes in every movie/game...

No, imho the 18+ label on those mature games is not just for the sex scenes, it's for setting a certain tone in the whole story/visuals. Just as the new Larian Divinity trailer showed sex, it wasn't about sex, but that's what most people are talking about...

As for D&D and mature content/products, who remembers the 3e Book of Vile Darkness, I don't think it sold that well and WotC didn't repeat such a product for 23 years. That much says it all imho about the viability of such a product...

Cergorach said:

Let's talk context: BG2 did 2 million sales in five years, BG3 did 20 million sales in two years.

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This seem like a huge leap in sales, but it needs to be taken with some context there also.
It surely is a great success and any game can hope to get those numbers, but BG2 was also huge.

1st, population was 2 billion less in 2000.
2nd, amount of people with PCs and internet connection in 2000 vs 2023.
3rd, shift in culture about "nerd" culture in last 10 or so years.

it's easier to create hype today than in 2000 and not to mention Steam and seasonal sales on it, yes there was no big discount on BG3, but it was some, and that also works on buying psyche.

Cergorach said:

Let's talk context: BG2 did 2 million sales in five years, BG3 did 20 million sales in two years.

When you want to make a game that's not a niche within a niche, like most D&D computer games, you need to use a similar target audience as other successful computer games. Like Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher, Skyrim, Mass Effect, etc. Those are all aimed at mature audiences.

Most sex scenes in movies are often tasteless and don't really add anything to the story. In games it's even worse. I'm certainly not a prude, and sex is a driver in many plots, just as money is, but we don't have scenes of just people counting the money for 5-10 minutes in every movie/game...

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I'm... so confused as to what you're trying to say. The sexual encounters in BG3 aren't 5 to 10 minutes long. Few movies have explicit scenes that long, aside from actual porn. I recall the french film Blue is the Warmest Color has one 7-minute long sexual scene and that was considered extreme. Maybe an entire romance scene, which includes the context, build-up, dialogue and aftermath, is that long--the stuff that gives the romance its meaning, in other words.

I'm honestly questioning how many people here have even scene the BG3 scenes in question the way they're being misrepresented.

Chaltab said:

I'm... so confused as to what you're trying to say. The sexual encounters in BG3 aren't 5 to 10 minutes long. Few movies have explicit scenes that long, aside from actual porn. I recall the french film Blue is the Warmest Color has one 7-minute long sexual scene and that was considered extreme. Maybe an entire romance scene, which includes the context, build-up, dialogue and aftermath, is that long--the stuff that gives the romance its meaning, in other words.

I'm honestly questioning how many people here have even scene the BG3 scenes in question the way they're being misrepresented.

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I must also admit to some confusion, I have only completed BG 3 once but I have got to Baldur's Gate twice and romanced Gale and Shadowheart, (Gale kinda by accident), now that I remember it one early character had a night with Laz'el as well but while there were boobs visible there were no sex scenes as I would use the term. All the sex was fade to black. Am I missing something? Are there full on explicit scenes in there?

Horwath said:

This seem like a huge leap in sales, but it needs to be taken with some context there also.
It surely is a great success and any game can hope to get those numbers, but BG2 was also huge.

1st, population was 2 billion less in 2000.
2nd, amount of people with PCs and internet connection in 2000 vs 2023.
3rd, shift in culture about "nerd" culture in last 10 or so years.

it's easier to create hype today than in 2000 and not to mention Steam and seasonal sales on it, yes there was no big discount on BG3, but it was some, and that also works on buying psyche.

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The increase in population is about 35% over 25 years.
Global PC sales have about doubled over the same 25 years.
And the shift in 'nerd' culture has been going on for a LOT longer then a decade.

The highest number in there is just double the PC sales in a quarter century, while the difference between BG2 and BG3 is a LOT larger. In the first two years BG2 did 1.5 million sales, even if the market doubled that would be only 3 million, not the 20 million BG3 did.

In 2011 Skyrim was released. It also 20 million sales (that's more then the decade of nerd change you mentioned ago). After 12 years they sold 60 million copies. Starfield (2023, by the same maker), in the last two years did worse then Skyrim from almost a decade and a half ago. There's a reason why they only mention players and not actual sales figures, as the game was on Game Pass and everyone and their mom tried it. It's like counting the amount of demos downloaded as sales figures. Starfield is also 18+, but it isn't as well received as BG3. Making something 18+ doesn't guarantee success, it just opens up a whole field of potential players that could purchase it. Minecraft on the other hand has sold something like 350 million copies and is only 7+ in Europe... Sidenote: Diablo II (2000) sold 4 million copies in it's first year.

We can of course compare all kinds of games, but the reality is, before the massive sales of BG3, D&D was always a small niche. BG3 was essentially a mass market game with a D&D label. It succeeded not because of the D&D label, but despite of the D&D label, it was received as a VERY good game.