Nowadays, the end of a career is what would have once been a reason for extravagant parties – this was revealed by the developer behind Baldur’s Gate.
Gaming has drastically changed over the past few decades. From a small hobby for nerds, it has now become a huge industry. What was once celebrated as a groundbreaking success just a few years ago is now just a drop in the bucket and could be considered a flop. This was revealed by one of the creators of the original Baldur’s Gate.
More insights into the development of the latest Baldur’s Gate 3 can be found here:
What was said? Brian Fargo is one of the developers behind classics such as the original Baldur’s Gate or Fallout. Amused, he compares the gaming market of 25 years ago with today’s market. He displays a series of images on X and writes:
Back then, you received an award if you sold 50,000 or 100,000 units [of a game], today it’s the end of your career.
He also shows pictures of the awards that he and his team received at that time. They received the “Platinum Award” for selling over 150,000 copies of Baldur’s Gate.
If a game achieved such sales figures today, it would likely be considered a flop. Imagine Baldur’s Gate 3 had only sold 150,000 units – it has been sold 100 times more so far, with over 15,000,000 copies sold.
Why has this changed so drastically? The situations that Fargo refers to are a long way in the past. Roughly 25 years ago, at the release of Baldur’s Gate (1), gaming was still a niche subject mainly for teenagers and “computer nerds” – today it is a mass market and an industry larger than film and music combined.
With this larger target audience come greater expectations. At the same time, production costs have risen dramatically. Because increasingly realistic graphics, voice acting, and ever more complex gameplay systems simply require many more employees to implement.
Production costs have risen drastically while prices for a full-price title have remained relatively constant. Therefore, to be considered a success for a large company or an AAA production, many more copies must be sold to be profitable.
Games from smaller developers or “indie titles” can usually survive on fewer sales and are considered successful by the creators much earlier – however, in most cases, it only involves a fraction of the costs that an AAA studio would incur with a publisher. That it can also go really well without a publisher, is shown by the head of Baldur’s Gate 3, who almost threw in the towel.
