Game News “I’ve fought with publishers all my life, and I keep seeing the same mistakes”, the creator of Baldur’s Gate 3 wanted to talk about this subject during this ceremony

Game news “I have fought with publishers all my life, and I continue to see the same mistakes”, the creator of Baldur’s Gate 3 wanted to talk about this subject during this ceremony

Video games are bad

From March 18 to 24, GDC 2024 was held, that is to say the Game Developer Conference which brings together developers from all over the world. On this occasion, Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios and director of Baldur’s Gate III, spoke in front of the cameras. A striking sentence was notably taken up on the internet, in which he denounced:

Greed, which has been screwing up this world for so long.

Not just games, but especially their creators. Tarn Adams, for example, one of the programmers on Dwarf Fortress, didn’t mince his words when he spoke about studio executives at this year’s GDC. And the list doesn’t stop there, and this is precisely what led Swen Vincke to speak during the event. This speech from a few days ago warmed the hearts of many developers, by pointing the finger at part of the industry.

See Baldur’s Gate 3 on GOG

Endless greed

After accepting the award for Best Story for Baldur’s Gate III, Swen Vincke continued her speech by calling game publishers people who see on the short term and who does not only think about profit. Words carrying a powerful message, which he does not hesitate to say loud and clear. He has been fighting for a long time, despite the fact that the same mistakes are repeated again and again. The video game designer continues to drive the point home:

These are always the quarterly profits. The only thing that matters is the numbers

What solutions?

For him, this mentality creates growing despair among developers, who are under constant pressure. This pressure and time limits prevent developers from working well. Many are fired, so that those in higher positions then hire new developers, who will also be under pressure and in turn fire them if they are not good enough or do not meet deadlines… You will have understood, this A vicious circle has become commonplace in the video game industry. Swen Vincke offers another system, healthier for developers.

Slow down a little. Slow down your greed. Be resilient, take care of people, don’t lose the institutional knowledge that has been acquired from all these people.

The message is clear, the Belgian director is fed up! With more than 16,000 developers fired from their jobs solely because of companies’ strategic decisions in 2023, the creator of Larian Studios is calling for respect for developers. It is thanks to them that we have a world full of universes, each more interesting to explore than the other. His comments are fleshed out on his personal X account (formerly Twitter), more particularly in this post.