You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Former Call of Duty executive producer and producer of Ubisoft’s decimated XDefiant Mark Rubin has told other developers to “be more like Larian” after spending decades working under major publishers.  Larian Studios, who abandoned DLC for being too boring, has spent a full year adding major free updates to Baldur’s Gate 3 for no additional cost. While the studio is now leaving BG3 behind to focus on two new games at once, the team has never nickel-and-dime’d its audience.  Former CoD lead doesn’t want to be like Activision  Speaking to an xDefiant fan on Twitter, or X if you’re one of those, Rubin explained that Call of Duty’s long term success relies entirely on “FOMO marketing” while trying to “make the most money possible out of the player base”. However, Rubin’s sadly-killed work on xDefiant tried to move away from this, even if it didn’t pan out.  “They [Call of Duty] rely on FOMO marketing and EOMM matches. But I feel like it used to be just more about the quality of the game which would drive players to play,” the former CoD producer said. “And that means making the game more player centric.” Rubin explained that, like Baldur’s Gate 3 does for RPGs, the huge player counts of multiplayer shooters should only be because of their quality, not because of what skins are coming to the game or some weird form of IP loyalty.  “Your game should have a high player count because it’s good and people want to play it rather than people playing it because the game has a $250 million marketing budget,” the former face of Call of Duty said.  “Everything just said is very simplified as it would take too long to get really into it,” Rubin continued. “One last simple analogy: be more like Larian, less like Activision.”  Since leaving the Call of Duty franchise, Rubin has been quite vocal about his issues with the series’ more modern games including its fine-tuned matchmaking system designed to dish out the optimal amount of dopamine. For his work on xDefiant, he boldly removed skill-based matchmaking, but that didn’t help save the game.  As it is right now, Larian’s work on Baldur’s Gate 3 is the exact opposite of what modern Call of Duty is. At its heart, Call of Duty often feels like product for product’s sake, whereas Larian Studios’ finely-crafted RPG is not just product as art, but also art that offers far more value than anyone ever expected. At the end of the day, Rubin’s issues aren’t with the individual workers creating Call of Duty, but Acitivion’s approach to games as a product.  “Just want to add that there are some great people at Activision and their studios,” the game dev veteran said. “I just think they evolved into something they weren’t and haven’t been able to escape.” Baldur’s Gate 3 Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Adventure, RPG, Strategy 10 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share