Suffering and success.
Hasbro continuing to make shit decisions on behalf of WotC, the only sector of the company keeping it afloat.
'There's almost nobody left': CEO of Baldur's Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs
Submitted 11 months ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to games@lemmy.world
Comments
rigatti@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Osa-Eris-Xero512@kbin.social 11 months ago
You see, if they fire everyone from the division, it'll make even more profit. ez
Lianodel@ttrpg.network 11 months ago
Ah, the Jack Welch method.
(Seriously, fuck that guy. He was a pioneer among bloodsucking CEOS.)
phoneymouse@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s no one there left to defend the IP, so they can do evil things. I’m guessing it’s as intended.
corytheboyd@kbin.social 11 months ago
Barbie was a money printer, they will keep doing that and it will keep working. And honestly the movie was great.
As much as it sucks I can’t imagine D&D was nearly as much of a money printer.
snor10@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I think Barbie would like a word
squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
That’s Mattel. And one of the reasons why Hasbro looks so bad in comparison.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s Mattel.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 11 months ago
laying off 1,100 employees as a way to "modernize our organization and get even leaner
Yeah because that’s what we want of the ones in charge of publishing, administering and providing support for some of the most played games in the world now and historically: leanness! The fewer people to take care of important things, the better! 🤦
I know that he’s talking to investors rather than players, but come on! Also, there’s nothing “modern” about stupidly trying to increase profits via mass layoffs without expecting blowback and for quality to suffer. That’s some 1700s bullshit right there.
Carighan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Also, when your company is ailing (read: Not making more profit than last year, no matter what ocean of money your managers are swimming in), fire the good parts. That’ll fix it!
frezik@midwest.social 11 months ago
Hasbro is unprofitable, but there was a memo a while back that Wizards of the Coast was their most profitable division. Possibly their only profitable division. That’s Magic: The Gathering and D&D.
This is also whey we’re seeing both those properties getting the fuck monetized out of them. Big influxes of MTG sets based on other licensed properties, and attempts to undo the open licensing around One D&D.
But then it makes even less sense to lay people off from those divisions.
Lesrid@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Imagine if we quit our jobs if we didn’t get an annual raise. Maybe we could afford housing.
flatplutosociety@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ve survived layoffs at companies where we were told that following the cuts, we were going to get leaner and more agile and more efficient.
I’m sure you’ll be just shocked to learn that what actually happened is I ended up doing twice as much work to pick up the laid off people’s slack, and at the end of the year got a smaller bonus than the previous year, along with a raise that didn’t cover inflation. Overall company profits, of course, hit a record high.
arc@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The same Hasbro that tried to make a land grab for all D&D derivative content by changing their Open Game License to grant them irrevocable, perpetual rights to it. This is not a nice company as they demonstrate time and again.
So maybe it’s time the RPG community stopped thinking Hasbro are ever going to change, mourn for what D&D has become, but move onto something else.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
The OGL License happened after Larian teamed up with Hasbro
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Thankfully Larian is still independent
Was getting worried there and about to Google more on the subject. Happy to head that.
papertowels@lemmy.one 11 months ago
Shout-out to Pathfinder, paizo, and their new license!
[> "The whole point of the ORC is to give the gaming community comfort, confidence, and certainty,” the licence states. “It gives our community a license that is not reliant on any one company.”
menemen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is mostly a USA problem. :) There are so many great pnp systems out there. But there will be a learning curve.
ctobrien84@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What? We don’t have a plethora of other games here in the US? I’ll have to remind the owners of all those shops that those hundreds of other games they’re selling currently only exist outside of the US. How embarrassing for us…
half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 11 months ago
For the likely large overlap this audience might have with dnd, it didn’t make 100mil a year so it gets to eat shit. It doesn’t help that the video game license isn’t counted in that total. Other Hasbro brands do make 100mil a year.
I thought magic was one. It is surprising to see layoffs there.
Anyway, of course a corporation does evil shit. The only moral is the line going up.
Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 11 months ago
MtG made over a billion dollars. From what I can see WotC, products/services/licenses, make up over 3 billion of Hasbro’s 5.something billion revenue.
half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah, card crack is real. They’ve been whaling and getting kids into gambling since the 90s. Don’t know why lay offs there. Line go up just a little more probably.
Sirico@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Guess Larian just got a load of designers and writers. Such a shame as 5th ed was a real highlight, but now a lot of people seem to be heading back to pathfinder like the 4th ed days. Luckily, the Divinity universe can stand on its own and there’s a wealth of other tabletop rulesets waiting for their amazing adaptions
Ilflish@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I don’t think it’s too controversial to suggest that 5e mechanics are not the strength of BG3. It would be arguably praised more if it kept the world design of BG3 and replaced the combat to have the spell scope of DO2 with the basic actions of 5e (aka shove, which arguably BG3 tweaked anyway to make it fun in combat)
I’ll miss the design approach of the game but BG3 was just a big advertisement to how good a D:OS3 will be
Lesrid@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Revisiting DOS2 after playing BG3, the game feels like Splatoon: Painted surfaces everywhere, all the time.
Aqarius@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I agree. DOS2 was, mechanically, a superior game. Porting 5e into videogame format isn’t as clean.
Vyllenor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Imo Solasta is a better implementation of 5e mechanics (aside from the lack of grappling improvised weapons), but BG3 story is undeniably better
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I made the change almost a year ago now after all the OGL nonsense they tried to pull and I honestly believe Pathfinder is a much more fun game. My entire table enjoys it more than 5e and they are a real variety of different player types.
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m so ready to get the kind of polish and mastery that BG3 has applied to a new game in the Divinity universe. I haven’t finished DOS3, not by a Longshot and don’t have time to play it, but it blew me away and I think about playing it again often. I will one day. It is daunting when you haven’t played a game like that in a while, to continue on. Especially on the harder difficulties lol RIP. Larian is the GOAT game studio up there with From Software and the Zelda team imo.
CADmonkey@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ve almost bought DIvinity Original Sin a couple of times, is it any good?
SCB@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I prefer D:OS 1s story and world to D:OS 2’s, but D:OS 2 has a lot more polish. Both are excellent games and worth your time.
k_mania@lemmy.nz 11 months ago
If you like bg3 and that style of game, definitely worth it
OmenAtom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Dos2 is really really good, if you like Larian games
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I have a hankering to go back to it regularly and I’m playing on the Switch so it is less smooth, but yes I am a forever fan of Larian Studioes after experiencing just a tithe of DOS:2. Hard to explain why it is so good, but the mechanics are creative, fun, and challenging. The story is epic and actually epic in scope and the characters are all so fleshed out and the voice acting is professionally done and immaculate. It is very open ended and very long but very very good.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
It’s slow like a TTRPG. If you liked Baldur’s Gate then you will like Divinity.
If one is too slow for you then you won’t like the other.
I personally can’t stand either but I’m not a TTRPG fan.
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This just reads to me that Divinity Original Sin 3 is on the far horizon. YES
MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 11 months ago
But no Larian studios Neverwinter 3??? 😢
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Somebody needs to make a company shit list so I can avoid them. I got EA, Hasbro, Nestle so far.
unreasonabro@lemmy.world 11 months ago
spoiler alert though, it’s literally everybody. because everyone else is doing it, it’s not possible to survive as a business in a competitive space without doing, for lack of a better word, the devil’s work. It will take a major social disruption to change this, but it won’t happen in an organized fashion because we as a species are pathetic. The disruption will be the end of the world - North America cracking down the middle due to all the fracking, the Greenland glacier sliding into the ocean all at a go, something like that.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Okay while I agree it’s everyone.
It is absolutely possible for a single corporation to not be the shittiest possible person in existence. They just can’t be public.
The stock market is the worst thing to ever happen to this country.
MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Honestly its kind of extremely crumby that hasbro owns the wizards
The DnD games from the 90s on steam went up in price because of the success of BG3 they are now on sale forbtheir old price lol
Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
list of the companies that arent garbage might be shorter
Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Good luck avoiding most of them. They own everything.
Nestle doesn’t just make Chocolate…
ninekeysdown@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Samsung, Ubisoft, Epic, Chiquita, Dole, Apple, …
Pretty much any big corp is gonna be really shitty…
uranibaba@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Create a github repo, put eveey company in the readme
chitak166@lemmy.world 11 months ago
All of them.
KeenFlame@feddit.nu 11 months ago
But what about the poor CEOs? Did they get their Christmas bonus? Think of the children!!
grayman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Thank you! The CEOs’ children need Maseratis, boarding school, college, jet fuel to pedo islands, and so many other necessities! We can’t let them suffer!
vexikron@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Please do not tell me that anyone is surprised that a triple A game studio laid off most of their employees as a reward for a job well done.
Please. Please tell me everyone has figured out that nearly all large game dev companies are pure fucking evil.
vladmech@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast, not at Larian.
Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I guess this is reddit and you don’t know how to read past the headlines?
Lemonparty@lemm.ee 11 months ago
About a week ago you decided to make your lemmy account. A better idea would’ve been to learn how to fucking read.
Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ll take “I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about” for $500, Alex
stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 11 months ago
You…You might want to consider reading the article.
Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, who own DnD. Larian, a completely separate company, got the rights to make BG3 from Hasbro. Hasbro laid off nearly everyone Larian Studios worked with at Wizards of the Coast.
zainitopia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Maybe reread the article
Poggervania@kbin.social 11 months ago
Try re-reading the headline again :)
Donebrach@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“I felt your breath upon my neck; investors’ wants as cold as death.”
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I can only ask how much cocaine remained on the table when they finally decided to do this. Not much, I’d wager.
joker125@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Haven’t played BG3 but wtf sense does it make to layoff these team(s)?
Plenty of people paid for the game and enjoyed it and it won GOTY.
thorbot@lemmy.world 11 months ago
CEO is aptly named, at least.
unreasonabro@lemmy.world 11 months ago
stop whoring yourselves to these evil fuckups
Destraight@lemm.ee 11 months ago
They are owned by Hasbro? Why?
quortez@kbin.social 11 months ago
Hasbro being the worst, yet again
BG3's only sin is having to be tied to the worst owner in tabletop gaming. Thank god Larian is independent.
sheogorath@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Larian pls make a new series based on the Pathfinder ruleset. I think the success of BG3 has helped the mainstream to get used to DnD ruleset. Although Pathfinder is more complex, I think they have the chops to make it more accessible to the masses.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I thought the whole idea of Pathfinder was to simplify D&D. It’s more complex?
Thatsalotofpotatoes@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I was impressed by how good Larian made BG3 in spite of using tabletop mechanics, but the Divinity games still had much better game play. I hope they start a new IP and add more of the roleplay options that made BG3 great, but with their own mechanics (hopefully without a charisma stat)
AlexisFR@jlai.lu 11 months ago
But we already got 2 good CRPG in this setting?
Carighan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Personally I would love if they made something based on FATE. I would have absolutely no clue how to do it in a CRPG, but I love the system for actual pen&paper.
Tarcion@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
This would be my absolute dream. I loved BG3 but the weakest part of me was being based on D&D 5e. PF2 is just a better system in pretty much every way imo.
If they could make a PF2 CRPG, that would be incredible.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
They have Divinity already, why go looking for other IPs?
Cybersteel@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Isn’t there kingmaker and path of righteous alr?
yamanii@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Just play Wrath of the righteous.
griefreeze@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Any chance you might be able to give some highlights of what you consider significant differences between 5e and PF1/2 (your choice)?
Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 11 months ago
PF2e is a lot more approachable than 1e. It’s a lot harder to truly botch a character in 2e, while preserving variety of options. The 3 action system is also much more intuitive than action types.
Diotima@kbin.social 11 months ago
I've been browsing older Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and the love that the authors put into those is amazing. It hurts to see D&D and the worlds I grew up loving destroyed by a soulless entity that cares only about profit.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 11 months ago
If it’s at all of interest to you, there are a bunch of good novels set in the Forgotten Realms, too.
There’s a pretty great thread from just a few years ago on the Candlekeep forums where someone read through every single book and gave a brief review of them. I can’t remember their opinion in great detail, but the biggest authors (Ed Greenwood and Bob Salvatore) were relatively lowly rated, while Elaine Cunningham and Erin M. Evans consistently rated much more highly.
I’ve never read Cunningham myself, but I’ve read all of Evans’ FR novels and am a huge fan. Plan to read her non-FR novels once I’m finished with what I’m currently working through, if I can find a copy that’s not from the rainforest company.