Baldur's Gate 3 Repeats Elden Ring's Success
7In this video I talk about why I think the success of Baldur's Gate 3 should be compared to the success of Elden Ring in 2022, and what both of these games can teach us about what mainstream audiences in the AAA gaming space.
Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring are both 'non-traditional' success stories, in that they sold way beyond expectations, but they're also oriented more toward 'hardcore' gamers than the kind of 'common' or 'casual' gamer that conventional wisdom typically associates with the massive audiences of the most successful AAA titles. But maybe conventional wisdom is wrong about what AAA audiences actually want; maybe the 'common' gamer is more like a 'hardcore' gamer than the games media and video game developers might have previously imagined. Or at least, that's the theory that I develop in this video, and I use the reception of Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring as my evidence.
The thing that Larian Studios understands so well, in a way that rivals FromSoftware, is how to produce a game that embodies an authentic spirit of adventure. And what makes both of these developers unique in the AAA space is their fearless appreciation of the fact that sometimes you have to overwhelm the player and refuse to hold their hand if you want your game to send them on an authentic adventure. Baldur's Gate 3 is overwhelming and 'hardcore' in many of the same ways that Elden Ring was overwhelming and 'hardcore'; but these qualities serve a focused purpose: they provide an atmosphere and background against which the player can experience the thrill of mastering an inhospitable world, and be rewarded for creative experimentation and discovery in their efforts to overcome its challenges. And that's actually why these games are so popular, because that sense of of adventure is so intoxicating.
If you like this video, consider subscribing to my channel, and check out some of the Zelda Shorts on this channel (for both BotW and TotK). I'll be making more Shorts and long-form Zelda content in the future.
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00:00 BG3 vs. Elden Ring
01:13 The Surprising Sales of BG3 & ER
02:13 A Theory of BG3’s Success
04:25 Some Insights from Research
6:19 Elden Ring’s Popularity
7:36 Conclusion
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