Seasoned RPG devs from Obsidian and BioWare blame the temporary death of the isometric CRPG on 'vibes-based forecasting' from retailers

Gaming IndustrySeasoned RPG devs from Obsidian and BioWare blame the temporary death of the isometric CRPG on ‘vibes-based forecasting’ from retailersWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Volo, a bard extraordinaire, holds up his hand in caution in a brightly-lit forest grove, from Baldur�s Gate 3.

Game developer veterans from RPG companies like Obsidian and BioWare say that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling, as outlined in a series of tweets made just before the holidays.

“I completely forgot how big a deal it was for Best Buy/Walmart/etc. buyers to see your game which determined your shelf space and thus your sales,“wroteChapman, to which Sawyer noted that Walmart had been “prudish” about content in the past—while hypocritically clearing the shelves for GTA.

Chapman added: “I think the worst thing was the self-fulfilling vibes about a certain genre or mechanic or whatever not selling well, so the retailers wouldn’t stock games with it.” Eventually, a commenter asked Sawyer for specifics—which he outlined in afollow-up thread.

(Image credit: @jesawyer on Twitter/X.)

A post that reads: “BioWare made Baldur’s Gate, which sold well, and BG2 sold very well. Black Isle made Icewind Dale, which sold also sold well, but after BioWare announced Neverwinter Nights, retailers decided that 2D iso games were dead. Temple of Elemental Evil was the last for a long time."

According to Sawyer, it was a snake-eating-its-own-tail situation: “I can’t stress enough how often I’d hear a retail rep declare a genre/style/look was dead with zero supporting data. Truly vibes-based forecasting, which resulted in self-fulfilling prophecies.”

The idea that isometric RPGs aren’t popular is hogwash, considering how obscenely wellBaldur’s Gate 3has been doing for Larian Studios. While you can make a case that the 2D/pre-rendered backgrounds aesthetic is perhaps outdated, I’d hesitate to even argue that.

Pillars of Eternity did well, and whileits sequel didn’t sell as Sawyer had hoped, it was still critically well-received—we gave Deadfire an 88 in ourreview. Whether that was true back in the days of big-store dominance, though, is another thing entirely.

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(Image credit: Larian)

BG3 Volo holding arms up angry

David Gaiderchimed in with something to this effect. Gaider is the co-founder and Creative Director at Summerfall Games—and a former narrative designer at BioWare who worked extensively on the Dragon Age series as its lead writer.

“It wasn’t just retailers,“Gaiderwrote. “There’s an ‘industry wisdom’ which creeps into dev teams where some things are simply declared dead or too old-fashioned, and there’s no opposing this certainty up until someone else comes along and proves it’s 100% untrue.”

Gaider reminds me of a talk that’s grown infamous, where Emil Pagliarulo (the lead writer and designer on Starfield) spoke at theSTORY conferenceabout his work on Fallout 4 and Skyrim. In it, he makes the assumption that gamers will “tear out the pages” of a game’s story and “make paper airplanes” with it, arguing developers ought to “keep it simple, stupid”—limiting a game’s narrative to one or two core central themes.

While that might be true in some cases (who among us hasn’t skipped a cutscene) Baldur’s Gate 3, has a messy, sprawling and multi-layered story that deals with everything fromthemes of abuse and survivorshiptosilly, Terry Pratchett-style wholesomeness.

While I’d like to underscore that Pagliarulo said this seven years ago—and that his opinion may have changed—the relative lack of persisting interest in Starfield’s world and story is a nice example of what Gaider’s talking about: conventional developer wisdom from the story lead at a major studio has been proven wrong, very recently. Granted,Starfield still flew off the shelves.

While big-box retailers are no longer the make-or-break genre setters they once were, thanks to the advent of online stores, I can totally see the lingering frustration from the developer side of the coin—and the player’s, too. Pagliarulo came under fire for his assessment because people were yearning for the more complex fallout of yesteryear—and we’ve lost track of the amount of timesPC gaming has been declared ‘dead’. Whether it’s vibes-based forecasting or vibes-based dev wisdom, games that play it 100% safe are rarely memorable.

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