Play-to-Win: Larian Studios' lessons for gaming partnerships
Baldur's Gate 3, Palworld and Helldivers 2 have all showed us a peep how the audience determines success.
With the latest proof that the audience determine success, this could set a great template of how both industries can communicate. This Substack is shorter than usual - it is here to evidence and support my previous and future examples. I believe we can get lots of value from this response from Larian Studios, who are Baldur’s Gate 3’s developers. I’ve conveniently started the link to the main bit, but watch this until the end, it’s 3 minutes, I’m sure you can manage:
Summary:
Larian Studios care about the people who make, develop and play the games.
They encourage the gaming industry to persevere through the hard times to make great games for the players.
They claim the secret to their success comes from making a game around what the player wants and what is fun, no matter how difficult or mad it may be.
They wanted to deliver a full gaming experience for one price.
They never made games with the highest money margins in mind. They state that games that will make the most money are games that are the most fun.
(I’m aware I have oversimplified a deeply complex and nuanced perspective held within game development, so apologies in advance for that)
Brief history: Larian Studios made Divinity 1 and 2 (which are great games too), and then made Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3). BG3 was released 3rd August 2023 and in less than a year it has sold over 10 million copies. It is ranked as ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ on Steam with 95% positive rating of half a million reviews. It has won many awards, including Game Of The Year at The Game Awards 2023, the Golden Joystick Awards, and the DICE Awards, which is where the above video link is from.
This game is not isolated in its successes, so here are 2 recent examples from different developers. Palworld (released: 19/1/24) coined as the game that the Pokemon fandom have been asking for, has sold over 12 million units. Helldivers 2 (released: 8/2/24) is a game that is building a unified community with a fresh answer to battle passes and has sold 3 million units in a matter of weeks.
So what’s the common thread here?
We have seen a great deal of games-as-a-service offering products for every kind of player. It is no secret that the top 50% of gaming income comes from less than 1% of the players (I know that’s a primarily mobile statistic, but it carries over somewhat) and exploitation of this has no doubt been a strategy at one point. Here’s an example: there was rumour 10 years ago where one gaming exec suggested that their game should charge for reloads. If there was no competition coming into the market, gaming could have potentially head in this direction.
Larian Studio’s speech contested this trend and proved that there is a demand for feature-complete & player-centric games. All 3 of the examples I gave above of successful games are, first and foremost, built with a deep understanding of what the audience wants to play. They are also complete experiences so players can freely enjoy the core game they've bought or downloaded. These games have made a lasting impact, made a huge number of sales and have even won awards.
I think this approach should be how music can interact with the gaming industry.
There are many ways to make a partnership or experience exist. If you’re making something for a gaming audience, then a great gaming experience should be the number one focus. I’d lead with an engaging and innovative idea that’s considerate of the game’s audience, history’s reputation and direction, at the same time of aligning those values with artists/labels/composers etc. Secondly, Downloadable Content (DLC) that help a player personalise their experience and express their identity rather than improve gaming performance can be added modestly with the experience in mind.
Baldur’s Gate 3:
One price, full game. This game is massive and highly personalised. They have carefully accomodated so many audiences and provided them a completely personalisable experience, even encouraging the modding community.
Palworld:
This game takes successful elements from a variety of popular games and combines them. Despite not being from the Pokemon franchise, the influence is significant, and has been deemed as the ‘best Pokemon game in years’. This is because it offers gameplay and features that the previous years of Pokemon games have not included.
Helldivers 2:
Their battle pass enables an option that players can access all cosmetic elements of the game without spending any money, as the paid for currency is also available to find in-game. Secondly, the benefits doesn’t time out like other battle passes, so you can advance at your own pace. The pricing of the premium battle pass is also modest and limited, encouraging healthy gameplay habits and re-focusing on gameplay as a priority of the game.
These 3 examples mirror the exact values stated in Larian Studio’s speech in the video above.
For the record, I want to ensure my message is clear - make sure you’re making a game because you want to make a game.
You know I love my categories, so let me quickly drop some in. Instead of looking at sales or marketing, I’d rephrase it as per the below:
More Players = Marketing
Valuable DLC = Sales
A good gaming experience will have lots of recurrent players. If the DLC is appropriately placed and priced, they will be seen as valuable towards personalising their experience and is likely to be well received by players. Some proper research will go a long way.
I’ve touched on elements to determine a good gaming experience in my previous post about music partnerships in gaming, which I will no doubt expand on in future posts.
So yeah, I’d say there’s some incredible potential for music in gaming worlds with this evidence. Music is as much of a feature in the gaming experience as any other element. Music inclusion can be delicate & well-considered, and I bet if an inclusion is inspired by Larian Studio’s values, it MIGHT win a prestigious gaming award. It might. Okay? I mean it could! Maybe…
The final key question - how do you make a fantastic gaming experience with music? Watch this space ;)
As a side note specific to Baldurs Gate 3, I think it is a game that we should not use as a new benchmark as it is far too spectacular and rare. It’s something we should cherish and enjoy, but not something to aim to ‘beat’.
TLDR:
These words from the Larian Studio’s team is a gaming industry-wide encouragement to make great gaming experiences first and monetise second. Just like how artists should be music first, and then build products around the world they create. Music x Gaming partnerships should focus on the gaming experience first, then build DLC within this that bring value to the player.