The British Golden Joystick Awards were handed out yesterday (November 10, 2023). Cyberpunk 2077: The Phantom of Freedom received the title of expansion of the year, which we naturally write about because it is a domestic production. Apart from that Baldur’s Gate 3 outclassed everyone. He won as many as seven statuettes. And I mean it literally, because in the photo of one of the Larian Studios employees we see the president with an armful of golden figurines:
“I did not expect”
Right after the ceremony, the GamesRadar+ editorial team managed to briefly question him. Steve Vincke, president of Larian Studios, once again he stated that he simply did not expect such success and the prize that followed.
However, he added that in his opinion it proves the high intelligence of a wider audience. No one in the studio tried to simplify the game compared to the original vision or cut out the more difficult parts of the mechanics (the incoherence of the statement is probably dictated by emotions, I only edited it slightly):
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Since we didn’t know about this success beforehand, we didn’t compromise. You know, we tried to make everything as accessible as possible, but we didn’t give up anything. And the conventional wisdom is “compromise to make the game accessible to a wide audience.” It shows the intelligence of the players, which is a really good thing.
Vincke is commenting on the common opinion that simplified or easy games sell better , and such as Disco Elysium or other “gems” can no longer break into wider awareness. And although Baldur’s Gate 3 is not that difficult, it cannot be denied that it is somewhat niche and requires learning, especially in versions before the latest updates that improved minor details in the interface.
Meanwhile, although there is no exact data, Baldur’s Gate 3 is still included in Steam’s public sales top. All that remains is to enjoy! Perhaps large corporations will now be more willing to lend confidence to more ambitious projects,just like it was last year with Pentiment
Even Todd Howard recently explained,that for this reason the AI in Starfield was to be deprived of its higher IQ.
