With Xbox hiking prices and a newly private, $20-billion-in-the-hole EA looking ready to gut Baldur's Gate series creator BioWare, Larian boss Swen Vincke points out that 'making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never worked before'
As reported by GamesRadar, Larian studio head and Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke has taken to Twitter to remark on the state of the industry following Microsoft's Game Pass price hike and EA's purchase by private equity and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, a deal that seems destined to bury Baldur's Gate series creator BioWare.
When the EA buyout was still a rumor, Vincke quipped that "Someone really wanted to get the rights to Murder on the Zinderneuf," referring to one of EA's first games from back in 1983, an 8-bit detective mystery for personal computers of the time like the Apple II and Commodore 64.
Probably a good time to remind people that making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never worked before.October 2, 2025
Vincke had a more serious message today, following confirmation of the deal, as well as serial studio-closer Microsoft's announcement of a Game Pass price hike: "Probably a good time to remind people that making games faster and cheaper while charging more has never worked before."
Vincke doesn't name names, but this can pretty clearly only be commentary on the biggest stories in gaming right now. Microsoft's price hike on Game Pass has made its all-in bet on the subscription service look more ill-advised than ever, while EA's only hope for avoiding massive cuts under its new ownership appears to be a literal deus ex machina in the form of generative AI.
The Financial Times reported that people involved with EA's buyout have said that indeterminate AI advancements will help the math of the deal actually make sense.
Otherwise, EA has been bought for $12 billion more than its previously estimated value of $43 billion, and the buyout required a $20 billion package of high-interest "junk" loans that the publisher would struggle to service with its current revenue.
As for Game Pass, what was once a refuge from the increased price of games makes a lot less sense at $30 a month, particularly with Steam and GOG still here and offering games for cheap and for keeps. That's to say nothing of Microsoft imminently releasing the most expensive Xbox ever: an incrementally upgraded ROG Ally with Xbox branding.
Vincke's first joke tweet also touches on a smaller tragedy in the EA buyout, distinct from the seemingly inevitable job losses: EA has accumulated the rights to a shocking number of classic games over the years, and done very little with them.
Most notable is probably the Origin Systems back catalogue, which includes one of Vincke's self-professed favorite games, Ultima 7, as well as Ultima Underworld, the grandaddy of all immersive sims from Prey to Thief to Hitman.
Doing the opposite of "making games faster and cheaper while charging more" has clearly worked out well for Larian, but it's hard to imagine the rest of triple-A development trending that way anytime soon. At least we have Baldur's Gate 3 to tide us over until one of Larian's two in-development RPGs is ready for prime time.
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