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

Game marketing is clearly different than it was years ago. Since so many players are active consumers, meaning 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 an opinion shared by Michael Douse in Larian. The director of publishing for the Baldur’s Gate III developer outlined his opinion when speaking to PC Gamer. “Marketing is dead. It really is — I can back this shit up, man,” he began.

“There are no channels anymore – it doesn’t work. Before we had marketing, communications and PR. Marketing was basically a retail theory – you tried to get your box in the right place on the shelf, and you had partnerships with retail. These pipelines is gone. Now you have the internet. No one is looking at ads anymore … all the channels that we normally market through are no longer viable,” he continues. “So their function is also reduced by the fact that the players just want to be talked to. They don’t want to be tricked – they just want to know what you’re making, why you’re making it and who it’s for.”

We still see a lot of advertising today, but it often feels like players are already paying attention to what developers, publishers and genres they want to see in advance. Getting something to truly cross barriers in the same way as a Baldur’s Gate III is pretty rare these days, but it can be done.