A debate has erupted on X about the lack of creativity in triple-A productions, and Larian’s publishing director wants to know the reasons behind it.
Swen Vincke, head of Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian, in particular, rarely holds back with his opinion on game projects driven by big publishers and has already taken several public shots at the usual development practices at large companies. Too little passion, too little respect, too much focus on the wishes of investors.
But other employees from the same company clearly share this impression. A post by Larian’s Director of Publishing is currently attracting a lot of attention on X. In a long post, Michael “Cromwelp” Douse describes why, in his view, many large publishers are no longer creative themselves, but primarily hope that indie studios will take on these tasks for them.
Much of the industry has been aggressively data-driven for so long that over generations of talent the ability (institutionally and/or intellectually) to lead with your gut has become a lost art. This is why AAA is becoming perversely fascinated by indie. Indie doesn’t have the… https://t.co/LxZVFrkcj4
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) August 23, 2025
A lost art
The post is a response to another user who wonders why so few games today take a specific idea and execute it really well. Douse then outlines his view of things and describes why no one in the triple-A industry really masters the art anymore:
Much of the industry has been aggressively data-driven for so long that, across generations of talent, the ability (institutional and/or intellectual) to make gut decisions has become a lost art. For this reason, the AAA industry is perversely fascinated by indies. Indies don’t have the data; they have to rely on their gut feelings.
Ultimately, according to Douse, this causes the big players to stumble. They cling to their seemingly promising data, but in many cases, it doesn’t work out. The data cannot predict the future and only shows what is working right now. According to him, gut feeling is needed to consistently meet the tastes of the gaming community.
The data sets are becoming increasingly useless because they can’t predict surprise successes or failures. And if you can’t rely on data and have lost your institutional “gut instinct” […] you’re stuck. If you’re publicly traded, panic breaks out. You play it safe (which is dangerous).
The result: genres disappear until indies deliver new data with surprise successes: a perverse attachment, and so on and so forth.
Words put to the test
Douse is an industry expert, and Larian in particular has recently demonstrated very clearly what can be achieved without this anxious focus on data. So his assessment certainly carries weight. However, it is always important to be careful not to generalize.
There are areas where the AAA industry is definitely struggling, such as with modern spin-offs of well-known game series or with attempts to compulsively copy a currently popular genre. This can be seen, for example, in the uninspired flood of extraction shooters or battle royals, all of which are failing.
However, there are also major publishers who are achieving record profits with this formulaic approach. Games such as EA FC (formerly FIFA) and Call of Duty are probably too big to fail.
It is also interesting to note that the bone of contention for Douse’s post was Mafia: The Old Country, which he described as extremely successful in another post. It’s a project with a rather limited budget, but it still has a huge publisher behind it: 2K. In terms of innovation, The Old Country isn’t necessarily a positive example, but it does what it sets out to do quite well.
