Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion actor thinks putting "the player first over profit" is why the RPG is so successful, urges other devs to do the same: "You're probably gonna sell a s***-ton of copies"

Baldur's Gate 3 pale vampire elf Astarion, a man with curly white hair and red eyes
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Astarion's actor from Baldur's Gate 3, Neil Newborn, believes the key to the RPGs omega success, including tens of millions of copies sold and numerous accolades, is developer Larian's insistence on putting "the player first over profit."

Speaking at a panel on Baldur's Gate 3 at Rhode Island Comic Con featuring five of the game's actors, the fan-favorite character's actor gives his opinion on why the tabletop-style RPG was so successful, giving the example of Larian's late addition of more player pronouns.

BALDUR'S GATE III (Rhode Island Comic Con 2025) - YouTube BALDUR'S GATE III (Rhode Island Comic Con 2025) - YouTube
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The cost Newborn is likely talking about is in hours spent in the booth. Actors need to record several versions of each line, not only to offer different versions to the director, but so there are versions for differences like pronouns. With how much dialogue there is, it's very likely the addition of just one extra set of pronouns added up to dozens of extra voice acting hours for the cast.

"I think the point is that," Newborn adds. "As we've known before, and as we've seen Larian and other games coming up afterwards as well of different genres within the gaming space, if you put the player first over profit, you're gonna make a better game, it's going to be well received, and you're probably gonna sell a shit-ton of copies of it." And we didn't think we could stan our problematic fave vampire any harder.

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George Young
Freelance News Writer

Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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