Owlcat founder breaks down RPG budgets and Larian’s impact on genre: “We can’t invest $200 million to make BG3” | Game World Observer

I hope some smaller games can take the lessons of content density and meaningful decision making from BG3 more than anything else. The incredible conversation cutscenes are super cool, but definitely where a lot of budget went, and I think you could make a really great rpg with a similar feeling of depth without that costly element.

Well good thing Larian already made BG3, now Owlcat doesn't need to!

I think BG3s success bodes well for Owlcat, since it brings more fans to the niche genre, that just went mainstream.

Also - Owlcat makes fantastic games. Kingmaker and its sequel, wrath of the righteous are some of the best CRPGs ever made. Pathfinder rules are a little crazy, there are redundant classes, but the character building and customization are a blast. In wrath of the righteous, you get a hero class that you can make completely broken, which is just a ton of fun. Especially considering the lower budget, they accomplished a ton and I've sunk hundreds of hours into their CRPGs.

owlcat is a russian company. does it need to have even a second of the world's attention?

He's not talking to us. He's talking to investors and board members.hes talking to the MBA bro VP that brags he's never even played a videogame.

A more apt comparison might be how much Divinity Original Sin, either 1 or 2, cost to make, and use that as a baseline instead of BG3, which is a significantly bigger project. From a quick search, DOS1 cost 4.5 million euros, make some adjustments like inflation, special interests, asshole marketers, and you're probably looking at a very well received CRPG nowadays costing around 8-10 million euros, which falls into his listed AA budget.

One thing Oleg noted that can balloon the cost is voice acting. For a CRPG with fuckloads of text, that's true. While I personally don't mind a game with too much text and no voice, I might be in the minority. I guess the expectation on having a voice over really depends more on the game and who's behind it.