You know, they got a point. You gotta believe in the project, and when you do it properly, you will make the money back, and much more.
'We don't have shareholders, but we also don't think about them,' Larian Studios uses its stage time at the DICE Awards to speak out against a brutal industry climate
Submitted 8 months ago by simple@lemm.ee to games@lemmy.world
Comments
hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
echo64@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Okay, but where’s that money coming from? Someone has to upfront pay for things. Larian are lucky, they have a majory investor that was not looking for any control, they released in early access and had runway money from previous projects to go with. They are the exception, not the rule, unfortunately.
Publishers no longer publish third parties for the most part, so everyone who isn’t a subsidiary of a large company has to find funding somewhere.
Enoril@jlai.lu 8 months ago
From me for example. I follow this studio and team since many years and i’ve participated to the funding of Divinity: Original Sin (DOS) more than a decade ago…
They got money from several sources but mainly because (or i should say thanks to) they delivered good products, they have being able to survive and work on BG3. Luck is not the reason, they’ve worked hard to achieve that…
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Indy studios exist and some self fund. They’re not going to be releasing AAA games, but they’re not expected to.
But yes, if you want to create the game equivalent of an MCU film, you need significant starting capital.
gapbetweenus@feddit.de 8 months ago
You want tell me that to run a good business, one has to be able to negotiate preferable terms with investors?
bozo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Building games that are actually fun is going to make you the most money, that’s it.
Say it louder for the publishers in the back.
It’s infuriating how game design is devolving into engagement treadmills instead of simply being fun. The industry needs more Hi-Fi Rushes and less Suicide Squads.
flumph@programming.dev 8 months ago
Also, does the point of creating a game have to be making the “most” money? Isn’t it enough to make something awesome and a profit?
FenrirIII@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t really enjoy their games, but I love them as a studio
Flumpkin@slrpnk.net 8 months ago
The problem is publishers and the huge risk you’re selling to create a hit. You still have shareholders. Those who take the risk in financing a game development and those who own the IP.
Unless you got extremely lucky and can gamble with your own cash you always have shareholders in game development.
Primarily0617@kbin.social 8 months ago
every company has shareholders, including larian studios
you can't set up a company without specifying shareholders
Wodge@lemmy.world 8 months ago
No they don’t, and you can totally set up a company without shareholders. LLCs have no shareholders for instance.
just_change_it@lemmy.world 8 months ago
shareholders…owners… who cares about the vernacular. There’s always the ownership. An organization of any size is only as good as it’s current ownership.
People grow old and eventually die. When ownership passes on from someone who isn’t in it for the money to someone who just wants money… even the greatest of organizations can and will fall.
Cossty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I am pretty sure I read article somewhere which said tencent has shares in larian.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 8 months ago
An LLC or any other corporate structure can have shareholders. It all depends on the structure laid out in the organizing documents. You may have meant private companies don’t have shareholders, but even that isn’t the case.
WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Can you please share some reference material around this? I would like to read up more about it.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Stakeholders aren’t necessarily shareholders.
They’re talking about being a publicly traded company. Of course every company has stakeholders. Of course everyone who works at Larian likes getting paid for their work.
WarmSoda@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Interesting, did not know that.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Few people do because Larian keeps lying about it. Part of me understands you don‘t go around telling people a Chinese government asset has big money in your company, given the ongoing genocide and all (speaking of toxic work environment eh) but it‘s publicly accessible information anyway. They‘ve been so consistently dishonest about it that I can‘t take them all that serious about anything anymore. Because alternatively to lying they could just… shut up and keep making great games. They don‘t need that sugar coating.
Wootz@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Did you not read the damn article?
Tencent own preference stock. They could sell their stock, which could potentially harm the company, but they carry no voting power and hold no decision making power.
I am not a fan of China, nor Tencent, but spewing bile without understanding the context does NOT help this discourse.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This is great but my fear is that one day he will go public and not share the profits with the employees. I worked at a company like that. Said they would never sell until they did for a record amount that they didn’t really share with the employees.
pantyhosewimp@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
The US needs more mutual companies in general but it could work for a gaming company too.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_organization