"Baldur's Gate 3 Publisher Urges Developers to Pirate BioWare's Approach"

Recent layoffs at BioWare, the creators behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard, have sparked widespread discussion about the state of the gaming industry. Michael Daus, the publishing director of Larian Studios, has taken to social media to express his views on this troubling trend. He emphasizes the importance of valuing employees and argues that the responsibility for such decisions should fall on the shoulders of decision-makers, not the regular workforce.

Daus points out that it's possible to avoid massive layoffs between or after projects, stressing the significance of retaining institutional knowledge which is vital for the success of future endeavors. He critiques the common corporate justification of "trimming the fat" or reducing redundancies, especially in times of financial difficulty. While he acknowledges the rationale behind this approach, Daus questions the necessity of such aggressive efficiency in large corporations. He argues that if companies were consistently releasing successful titles, the need for such drastic measures might be less apparent. However, he sees aggressive layoffs as an extreme form of cost-cutting rather than a solution.

Daus suggests that the real problem lies in the strategies developed by those at the top of the corporate hierarchy, yet it's the employees at the bottom who bear the brunt of these decisions. He humorously proposes that video game companies should be managed like pirate ships, where the captain—akin to the decision-makers—would be the one to face consequences, rather than the crew.

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