Head of Publishing Department Larian Michael Dawes during GDC 2024 visited for round table State of PC Gamingwhere they discussed, among other things, the topic of gaming advertising.
During the conversation, creative director Warframe Rebecca Ford shared her opinion that video game marketing is dead. “Real players don’t want to be sold anything,” she says. As it turns out, Ford’s opinion is shared by the studio behind the hit Baldur’s Gate III.
Daus confirmed that marketing in the industry is dead. Previously, “there was advertising, communication and PR,” but it was all tied to retail. Now there is the Internet, and no one watches advertising anymore.
“The channels we used to sell through have become unviable. They become less important as players just want to be talked to. They don’t want to be lied to—they just want to know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and who it’s for,” Dawes explained.
Dawes added that millennials have always hated advertising, and modern tools are helping them avoid them. The best place to sell the game, in his opinion, is the store itself.
“Everything else is not worth it. We realized this with Baldur’s Gate 3, but it took some time to realize.”
Eirun Jonsdottir, vice president of the company’s publishing department, joined the discussion CCPwhich created EVE Online. She noted that players often want to take part in the production of the game, providing feedback to the developers.
Such cooperation also worked well in the case of Baldur’s Gate 3, which was in early access for a long time.
Tags: creators Baldurs Gate Larian personally death game marketing
