Larian publishing director on industry layoffs: 'None of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt'

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When​ ​her friends​ ​were falling in love with soap stars, Vikki was falling in love with​ ​video games. She's a survival horror survivalist​ ​with a penchant for​ ​Yorkshire Tea, men dressed up as doctors and sweary words. She struggles to juggle a fair-to-middling Destiny/Halo addiction​ ​and her kill/death ratio is terrible.

Larian Studios' publishing director, Micheal Douse, has commented on the recent wave of current industry layoffs, calling the mass redundancies"avoidable" and suggesting"none of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt"." are an avoidable fu*k-up," Douse said."That's all they really are. That's why you see one after the other. Because companies are going: 'Well, finally. Now we can, too. We've wanted to do it for ages. Everyone else is.

"None of these companies are at risk of going bankrupt," he added."They're just at risk of pissing off the shareholders. And that's fine. That's how they work. The function of a public company is to create growth for its shareholders... It's not to make a happy climate for the employees." Interestingly, the industry's instability further saw Douse admit that whilst he's not in control of if and when Larian may go public, he believes part of Baldur's Gate 3's success was in part because the studio isn't beholden to shareholders.

"Creating the games that we wanted to make, going public might give us more money, but it would be antithetical to the quality part of what we're trying to do," Douse said."So it wouldn't make our games better. It would just make us rushed."The rights to Baldur's Gate belong to Wizards of the Coast, who are free to enlist another studio to make further games in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, and even use Larian's characters.

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Larian Director Criticizes Mass Layoffs in Game IndustryLarian director of publishing Michael Douse criticizes the wave of mass layoffs in the game industry, calling them avoidable mistakes. He argues that better planning and leadership could have prevented the layoffs.
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