Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year 2023 at this year’s Game Awards. However, the speech by chief Swen Vincke was cut short. He has now returned to X.com with his detailed words of thanks and moved the players.
The Game Awards 2023 are currently under criticism for not giving enough space between commercials and promotions to the true stars of the show – the winning developers. MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski also wrote a few words about this:
Game Awards 2023: Time for Muppets, ads and Hollywood, but no time for the most important people of the show
The chief of Baldur’s Gate 3 also only got about 30 seconds to thank for the important award for Game of the Year 2023. He did it in a very special way that thrilled the fans.
Vincke has now published his full planned words on X.com.
The chief of Baldur’s Gate 3 moves the fans and criticizes the industry
What does Swen Vincke write? In his speech, Swen Vincke thanks the players and praises the nominees: Every one of them deserved to win the award, according to the game director.
Furthermore, he expresses gratitude towards the Game Awards and their organizers. He talks about his armor, which had already excited the players during the show. He also completes his thanks to his developer colleagues as well as the unfortunately departed individuals during development – including now his father, who passed away just before the Early Access.
Does he also criticize? But Vincke’s words to Wizards of the Coast are also exciting: Here he thanks them for their support, but also laments the recent wave of layoffs. Many of the people they had planned for Baldur’s Gate 3 are no longer employed at Wizards of the Coast.
Indeed, it was only announced on December 11 by Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, that they would lay off 1,100 employees. Many, but not all, were originally employed by Wizards of the Coast. Earlier this year, Hasbro already laid off 800 employees. Colleagues from Forbes Magazine suspect cost-cutting measures as the trigger.
Wizards of the Coast owns the rights to Dungeons & Dragons, the pen & paper on which Baldur’s Gate 3 is largely based.
Swen Vincke concludes his speech
with an anecdote:
I want to end with a story from a conversation I had a long time ago with a publisher. He told me that luckily for them, games are driven by idealism. He meant that in an exploitative way, but he was right.
Games are a unique art form, as important as books, music, or films. Many developers, including myself, make games because they love to see how others engage with their creation in a way that only games can provide.
Swen Vincke via X.com, 14.12.2023
Vincke turns the frightening but not surprising anecdote into a positive note, offering a deep insight into the relationship between publishers and developers. Larian Studios itself does not have a publisher and publishes their games, just like Baldur’s Gate 3, independently.
You can read Swen Vincke’s complete words in English on X.com, but we also bring you a machine translation here:
Vincke’s speech in German – translated with DeepL
Winning Game of the Year is a great honor, and I want to start by thanking everyone who voted for us, and I want to congratulate all the other nominees. This has been an incredibly competitive year, and each of you deserved to win this award: Capcom, Remedy Games, Insomniac Games, Nintendo.
I want to thank Geoff Keighley and the people who organized the Game Awards for putting together an awards show that is so impressive it gets mainstream attention. 30 seconds may be a bit short, but there is nothing comparable to the Game Awards, and that is an incredible achievement.
I wore armor at the Game Awards because Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game that could not exist without our player community, and I wanted to honor how important they were to development. You rock, Community BG3.
Developing a game like this only works with an incredible, passionate, and talented team, and in that respect, I am incredibly lucky with Larian Studios – they are among the best and did a really great job.
Over 2000 people are credited, and since I can’t name them all, I want to focus on a group of people who do not always get the recognition they deserve.
The QA team, the localization team, the customer support team, the operations team, the publishing team, the play testers, and every other developer at Larian, Baldur’s Gate 3 would not exist without you, and you all deserve to be very proud of this award.
I want to dedicate this award to the friends and family members we lost during development, including Jim, our lead animator, who passed away last month, and personally to my father, who died a week before the launch of our Early Access campaign.
You cannot create something like Baldur’s Gate 3 without the support of the people around you. I personally want to thank 5 special people, a crazy dog, and a one-eyed cat for sticking by me.
A big shoutout also goes to our localization partners and PitStop Productions, who had to utilize every corner of their building to record and deliver a crazy amount of lines.
To our actors – you did a fantastic job. I hope our paths will cross again in the future and that your agents will remain reasonable as usual.
I also want to thank Wizards of the Coast and especially the Dungeons & Dragons team for issuing us a free pass. I’m truly sorry to hear so many of you have been laid off. It’s sad to see that almost none of the people who were in the original meeting room are still around. I hope you all are doing well.
There are many other partners I want to thank. We have asked a lot of you all, but you delivered, and without your efforts, BG3 would not be what it is.
I want to end with a story from a conversation I had a long time ago with a publisher. He told me that luckily for them, games are driven by idealism. He meant that in an exploitative way, but he was right.
Games are a unique art form, as important as books, music, or films. Many developers, including myself, make games because they love to see how others engage with their creation in a way that only games can provide.
The money they deserve is not that important to them, except that it is the fuel they need to develop new and better games. It is worth reminding everyone that fuel is just a means, not the goal. It’s about where and how we travel and what we remember.
Thank you.
Additionally, Baldur’s Gate 3 is now also available for Xbox.
Swen Vincke via X.com, 14.12.2023
The community celebrates Vincke: Take your time, my king
How does the community respond to the thread? On reddit and under Swen Vincke’s X.com thread, the community celebrates the chief of Baldur’s Gate 3 for posthumously publishing the speech. Here are a few voices:
- @arcboo_ via X.com:
I must cry right now, honestly. So many losses and still a great year and a great game. You guys rock and deserve to say all this on stage.
- theTinyRogue via reddit:
[…]I am incredibly happy that Larian brought home the GOTY victory and I hope they continue to develop great video games for all of us 🙂 Swen is such a cool, down-to-earth guy! Hats off to him and the entire studio!
- @dreamyduca via X.com:
Take your time, my king
- GrossWeather_ via reddit:
I think it’s great that he took the time to write all this down – Swen seems to be such a great, down-to-earth person. The guy deserves the time to say all this live.
However, many users also express their anger about the Game Awards. On reddit, for example, the longest comment thread revolves around the segment with Hideo Kojima, who teased his new game OD. User Deep–Waters even angrily calls Kojima the most overrated person in video games
.
Swen Vincke’s remarks on the layoffs at Wizards of the Coast and the anecdote with a publisher also generate a lot of frustration about the industry, but they also receive praise. The latter is mainly directed at Vincke himself, who cleverly packaged both topics positively in his remarks.
What do you think of Swen Vincke’s speech? Would you have wished he could deliver it in full?
By the way, during the Game Awards, the team from Larian Studios dropped Hotfix #13 for the game and has now also patched a very special reward for players in Baldur’s Gate 3.
