‘Marketing is dead,’ says publishing director Larian – Baldur’s Gate III

Marketing games is certainly different than years ago. With so many gamers who are active consumers because they often have their ear to the ground and know what they like, it can be difficult to get someone to buy something with a bus ad or TV commercial.

This is a sentiment shared by Larian’s Michael Douse. The publishing director of the Baldur’s Gate III developer outlined his thoughts in a conversation with PC Gamer. “Marketing is dead. It really is – I can support this shit, man,” he began.

“There are no channels anymore, it doesn’t work. In the past you had marketing, communications and PR. Marketing was essentially a retail theory: you tried to get your box to the right point on the shelf and you have partnerships with stores. Those pipelines are gone. Now you have the internet. No one watches ads anymore… All the channels that we would normally market are no longer really viable,” he continued. “So their function is also diminished by the fact that players just want to be spoken to. They don’t want to be fooled – they just want to know what you’re making and why you’re making it and who it’s for.”

We still see a lot of ads these days, but it often feels like gamers are already tracking the developers, publishers, and genres they want to see in advance. To have something truly cross barriers along the lines of a Baldur’s Gate III is quite rare these days, but it can be done.