"The entire company." That's the answer Swen Vincke, Founder of Larian Studios, gave me when I asked him how much he has riding on the developer's next two games, Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin. There was no hesitation between question and answer; it's just a matter of fact, something that Vincke has come to terms with. He literally can't afford to be apprehensive.
Larian is in a unique position. After over a decade of making successful RPGs with the Divinity series, the studio is parting ways with publishers and doing the whole thing on its own. Larian has always been independent in the literal sense of the word, but now they're going positively indie.
But why now? It's not as if Larian's previous games haven't sold well; both Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity netted themselves a bunch of awards, and enjoyed commercial success too. They were action RPGs with the attention to detail that is often typical of European games. It was a great mix, and apart from a few shonky sections, the games were mostly excellent. The problem, then, wasn't with what they were, but with what they weren't.
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