You would think the release of a brilliant video game, Baldur’s Gate 3, would be a cause of celebration, especially one that has proven financially successful despite being part of the niche CRPG subgenre of RPGs. However, the reaction from developers has been surprisingly mixed with some praising what Larian Studios has accomplished while others reacted by stating that people shouldn’t look at Baldur’s Gate 3 as a new standard for RPGs. This debacle has unknowingly shined a spotlight on several concerns that I have so I thought it would be worth discussing some of the things that the modern video game industry needs to change.
Let’s get the whole developer debate out of the way so that I can focus on more important issues. My personal opinion is that the developers attempting to defend themselves from potential criticism preemptively have missed the point when it comes to Baldur’s Gate 3 and its potential impact. Having yet to play the game (I still have to catch up on the Divinity: Original Sin games), it seems that most consider Baldur’s Gate 3 to be a masterpiece and I would completely disagree if the sentiment of gamers was demanding that every RPG that comes out be a masterpiece on the same level. However, I don’t believe that’s what’s happening. Instead, people are simply asking that these developers examine the many things that make Baldur’s Gate 3 great, which from what I’ve heard is primarily the freedom to make whatever choices you want and solve problems in abstract and creative ways, and to integrate it into their own games. To argue that Baldur’s Gate 3 is simply an anomaly and that we should simply pretend that it doesn’t exist is completely ludicrous.
Something that really stood out to me was the discussion of risk when it came to the development of new games. In the past few years, we’ve seen the budgets for video games grow exponentially with some notable budgets in the past few years being Forspoken ($100 million), The Callisto Protocol ($162 million), Horizon Forbidden West (>$200 million) and The Last of Us Part II ($220 million). Of course, we don’t know the budget of Baldur’s Gate 3 but what we do know is how these increasing budgets are impacting creativity and studio growth. Many publishers of AAA games want to minimise the chance of a game failing by following popular trends, often resulting in a bevy of homogenous games.
There is also now the expectation that a major game studio has only one chance at success and, should their first game fail, they will promptly be shut down. This, I think, is an unbelievably unhealthy situation to be in. When I look at some of the best video game studios and developers, I see them honing their craft over years before eventually landing on success. This was the case with Larian Studios who stumbled in their early years with several of the Divinity games, the first not included, before landing on Divinity: Original Sin in 2014 with all of their experience superbly refined over many years of experience. Another great example of this is FromSoftware, one of my favourite game studios, who spent years making numerous games, some of which were great and others that were not so, refining their vision which eventually culminated in the development of Demon’s Souls, a game that would go on to have a strong impact on the gaming industry. Even one of the most notable video game franchises, Mega Man, only became what it did because the developers were given a second chance after the first game proved only to be slightly successful, refining the second game into the most financially successful entry in the whole franchise until the release of Mega Man 11 30 years later. The long development cycles have not been helping either when it comes to budget or creativity with Xbox recently stating that we should expect games to now take 4-6 years to make.
When I think of the games that I’ve most enjoyed over the past few years, most of them came from smaller studios with lower budgets but which either executed their vision near flawlessly or introduced such startling creativity that I could not help but become entranced with a few of these games being Edna & Harvey: The Breakout Anniversary Edition, Celeste, the Shantae series, Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Darkest Dungeon, the Zero Escape trilogy and many others. These games didn’t require massive budgets or over half a decade of development but proved to be far better and more memorable than most of the so-called AAA games that I’ve played alongside them. As for my suggestions on how the modern video game industry could change, they would include scaling back development costs but giving developers greater freedom on game design, style and genre, developing multiple games of various sizes at a studio which would allow experimentation similar to what Obsidian Entertainment and Tango Gameworks did recently and seeking a way to streamline video game development similarly to how the development of programming languages and video game engines did.
I wouldn’t describe the modern video game industry as being in a healthy position and I can only hope that we see some kind of change whether that be any of my suggestions or perhaps an ingenious idea that no one has thought of yet. Let me know your thoughts on all of this, whether you agree that the modern video game industry needs to change, what your thoughts are of the developer reaction to Baldur’s Gate 3, whether you’ve been enjoying big budget games or lower budget games more and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.