Interview: Baldur’s Gate III exec on what’s right and wrong with today's game industry

The death of marketing, the trouble with consoles, the best moves for laid off devs, how to do early access, plus... serums, sweatpants and more.

Baldur’s Gate III. Screenshot: Larian Studios

The head of publishing at Baldur’s Gate III development studio Larian did not hold back, when we recently chatted in San Francisco about the state of the video game industry.

All of the layoffs from big game companies in the past two years? “They are an avoidable fuck-up,” Larian’s Michael Douse told me.

The state of big game publishers? “Being nimble is key. Big companies are not nimble.”

And, yet: “I’m an optimist.” There’s never been a better time to make a certain kind of video game, he said.