Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke says no to studio buyouts

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I don’t understand what this proves, every studio is allowed to have investors. They aren’t against people investing in their company they are about maintaining creative freedom and they still ahve the freedom to sell or dissolve their company if they want.

No one is stopping any indie game developer from taking on investors. Trying to call them out on doing good business while maintaining ownership of their company makes no sense in the context of this thread. Weak ass gotch’a

Yea bro, I'm sure every pixel art indie platformer dev operating out of their garage has the benefit of equity funding from a $500+ billion market cap conglomerate, 100%. You really hit the nail on the head. :unimpressed: Actually incredible how you can spend 5+ hours posting non-stop on this site daily and not take 5 seconds to read the shyt you're typing out. :dead:
 

Gizmo_Duck

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Yea bro, I'm sure every pixel art indie platformer dev operating out of their garage has the benefit of equity funding from a $500+ billion market cap conglomerate, 100%. You really hit the nail on the head. :unimpressed: Actually incredible how you can spend 5+ hours posting non-stop on this site daily and not take 5 seconds to read the shyt you're typing out. :dead:

Nikka….what does that have to do with them having creative freedom? :why:

Yall trying to call them hypocrites for talking about not wanting to be owned and they ain’t owned by anyone. there are plenty of “pixel art indie” game makers that seek investors also, dummy
 

MeachTheMonster

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They got more money than Obsidian?



They got the biggest backing in the world. Theres no reason why they can’t make something on the scale of BG3. The only reason they can’t is because they are owned by a major corporation, will Microsoft allow them to release a CRPG and keep it in early access for 3 years?

Obsidian has never worked with the budget Larian got for this game. I’m not even sure what you are confused about at this point.

To allow a game to sit in early access for years you need somebody willing to pay to keep your lights on through that period.
 

Gizmo_Duck

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Obsidian has never worked with the budget Larian got for this game. I’m not even sure what you are confused about at this point.

To allow a game to sit in early access for years you need somebody willing to pay to keep your lights on through that

Ok so whats stopping them now?
 

MeachTheMonster

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Nikka….what does that have to do with them having creative freedom? :why:

Yall trying to call them hypocrites for talking about not wanting to be owned and they ain’t owned by anyone. there are plenty of “pixel art indie” game makers that seek investors also, dummy
You seem to have a bad understanding of how capitalism works.

Investors “own” a portion of the company.

This guy talking about how he doesn’t want to be “owned” by a large conglomerate while also getting the majority of the money to make this game from large conglomerates IS hypocritical and just virtue signaling for clout from gamers. Same type of stuf CDPR used to say. Ultimately money talks like in any other industry.
 

Gizmo_Duck

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With more than 450 employees and offices in six countries, Larian is a rarity in the video-game world — a company big enough to make games at a "triple-A" scale but not subject to the demands of the public market.

Most other video-game developers are either part of publicly traded companies or too small to make games as ambitious as Baldur's Gate 3.

In a recent interview, Vincke told me that he has a “really big team” that handles most of the company’s finances while he spends his time on the game.

He has no interest in selling any time soon. And as Larian’s owner, he can push back against suggestions that might be better for revenue but worse for his creative vision, like when someone tells him Larian should be embracing business models that would, in theory, earn the company greater profits.

“That would affect the type of games we want to make,” Vincke said. “That’s not what I want to do.”

That’s not to say that games funded by major publishers can’t be good or well-made — the video-game industry would fall apart if they weren’t — but the incentives behind them are very different.

If EA misses Wall Street’s expectations for a few quarters in a row, its CEO will be on the hot seat.

On the other hand, so long as Larian is generating enough revenue to make payroll, Vincke can operate the business in whatever fashion he chooses.

The downside, of course, is that a single flop could completely tank Larian — hence the three years of early access.

That's the simple explanation behind the video-game industry's endless parade of microtransactions and battle passes — they exist to maximize revenue and minimize risk.

It's a goal that may seem myopic to outside observers, sacrificing long-term goodwill in exchange for short-term profits, but decision-makers at publicly traded gaming companies aren't typically incentivized to think about the long term.

Their job security and bonuses are tied to growth targets, not sustainability.

Larian, thanks to a unique combination of talent and luck, has positioned itself as the best of both worlds:

the budget and scale of a publicly traded company without any of the absurd demands. In Baldur's Gate 3 parlance, it rolled a 20.
 

Gizmo_Duck

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Do you not think that is a good hire? If Playground is making Fable wouldn't his input be beneficial to the team who had been making racing sims for the last decade and a half?

Just funny to hear xbox stans downplay and shyt on the game for the past month and then praise getting someone from their studio
 
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