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‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

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Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#41

Post by jncfhnb »

lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #31
mastax wrote: post #18

I am a bit shocked by how popular this game is. All the signs were there, though. - Their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 was critically acclaimed, very popular for a pretty hardcore CRPG, and had long legs. - DnD has a lot of brand power and has been strongly in the zeitgeist for years. - There's a big cohort of millennials who have strong nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and who have plenty of money to buy games…

> I definitely underestimated the brand power of DnD and Baldur's Gate I think you're trying to put too much of its success on "brand power". Social proof is a thing, but it's not powerful enough to overcome a bad game. Just look at what happened to the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. I think it's doing so well because they nailed the execution. The graphics are great. The game hasn't had any opening week di…

> When was the last time a AAA game was truly fun to play?

Tears of the Kingdom, Resident evil 4, Street Fighter 6

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#42

Post by pixelpoet »

flohofwoe wrote: post #24
mastax wrote: post #18

I am a bit shocked by how popular this game is. All the signs were there, though. - Their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 was critically acclaimed, very popular for a pretty hardcore CRPG, and had long legs. - DnD has a lot of brand power and has been strongly in the zeitgeist for years. - There's a big cohort of millennials who have strong nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and who have plenty of money to buy games…

> big cohort of millennials... I feel slightly offended being thrown into the same pot as those weird millenials ;) Absolutely everybody who owned a PC for gaming in the late 90's played BG1 and BG2, no matter the age. Video games are not just for teenagers you know.

I'm about 40 and am usually grouped as a millennial (at least for the common purpose of blame, e.g. killing cinemas), though I somehow missed Baldur's Gate; played the hell out of the Ultima series though!

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#43

Post by jsnell »

neom wrote: post #29

I'm not a gamer but I randomly stumbled across someone playing this on twitch couple days ago, gotta say my mind was pretty blown at how far video game graphics have come (granted the last thing I played was Quake/UT/HL back in the day). Some of the cut scenes are basically just amazing movies, but even the in game graphics are fantastic. Does anyone happen to know what game is considered the gold standard for gfx in…

It depends a bit on what you're into. For a decent sample, have a look at Cyberpunk 2077 (especially with the RT Overdrive update on the PC), Horizon Forbidden West, and Forza Horizon 5.

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#44

Post by heywoodlh »

jakebasile wrote: post #23

It's a really, really good game. I'm glad they decided to make it turn based vs the real time with pause, though I know that's a somewhat controversial decision (what isn't?). The game itself is beautiful, the music is immersive, the writing is (so far) intriguing, and it runs on Linux with only minor tweaks. The game does wonders to capture the feel of playing a well-DMed campaign. It's no surprise to me that it's g…

Absolutely agree.

I love the idea behind CRPGs, but have found that I have a difficult time committing to them. I.E. I own Divinity 2, but have struggled to get past the first few hours of the story as the first area makes it so open-ended it's tough to know how to move forward. Additionally, turn-based games often get quickly boring for me as they are often so challenging it doesn't feel worth it (I'm aware I definitely fall under the "casual" category in this realm).

After playing BG3 for over ten hours, I'm hooked. It seems they have struck such a great balance for me (on the "Balanced" difficulty) at making combat engaging, difficult and interesting -- but not so difficult I get bored/hate it. As a casual CRPG gamer, BG3 seems to have struck a near-perfect balance for me.

One of my favorite moments so far: get into a fight with a group of around 10 goblins with my 3-member group. I'm outnumbered so I fall back to a somewhat narrow bridge, to serve as a bottleneck. Once I have all 3 members of my group on the bridge (none of the goblins have made it yet), I throw a grease bottle at the beginning of the bridge to slow down my enemies. Sure enough, it slowed down my enemies enough that when they got to the bridge, I took them out with my two archer party members.

Amazing game.

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#45

Post by meroes »

mastax wrote: post #18

I am a bit shocked by how popular this game is. All the signs were there, though. - Their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 was critically acclaimed, very popular for a pretty hardcore CRPG, and had long legs. - DnD has a lot of brand power and has been strongly in the zeitgeist for years. - There's a big cohort of millennials who have strong nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and who have plenty of money to buy games…

Was nice to see their videos and developer videos in contrast to others like Blizzard/Diablo IV.

I know you can’t really tell based on one parameter like this, but you also kind of can.

You can tell by this they got the product out they wanted and worked till it was complete. That goes a long way.

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#48

Post by remcob »

mastax wrote: post #18

I am a bit shocked by how popular this game is. All the signs were there, though. - Their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 was critically acclaimed, very popular for a pretty hardcore CRPG, and had long legs. - DnD has a lot of brand power and has been strongly in the zeitgeist for years. - There's a big cohort of millennials who have strong nostalgia for Baldur's Gate and who have plenty of money to buy games…

It’s also the only high production game with native MacOS & M1 support I could find. I got the early access just to see what M1 GPU can do and was impressed.

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#49

Post by spacemadness »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #8

So, the whole middle management caste, that pushed for simplified, broader appeal consumer friendly games while naying any attempt to revive old games, is currently packing its cardboard boxes and lining up for the exit?

How is middle management controlling this? I would think this is a director level decision.

Re: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

#50

Post by carabiner »

General consensus I've heard is it's nothing like BG1/2. Less atmospheric, less writing overall:

> Baldur's Gate 3 tells its story differently too. Those atmospheric chapter introductions, where the narrator sets the scene, are sadly gone. Dialogue is short and to the point, with no great walls of descriptive text drawing you into the world. And honestly, that's something I miss. I love the sheer wordiness of the old games, and how a flurry of prose would bring those pre-rendered backgrounds to life.

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