The Indispensable Newsletter #13

EA vs. Larian: How the little guy absolutely wrecked the giant 🎮💥

March 28, 2025

Dear friends,

I am excited to share that I am now writing a weekly column on corporate management and innovation for Bloomberg Opinion. In addition to publishing my first column last week, a piece called Why All CEOs Should Play ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’, I also made my debut on TikTok (not unrelated). You can see the clip below.

Let me know what you think — especially if you’ve sunk 100+ hours into Baldur’s Gate 3. No judgment. I get it.

On the surface, the piece is about two games — Veilguard and Baldur’s Gate 3 — but it’s really about two entirely different philosophies.

@bloombergopinion

What makes a a company thrive? Playing this hit video game will teach you. #business #leadership #gaming #BaldursGate #DragonAge

One was made by BioWare under EA, a corporate giant focused on short-term profit. The other? A passion project from an indie studio, Larian, led by a CEO obsessed with making something great — even if only 0.001% of players would see some of it.

Guess which one became a record-breaking classic and which one… did not.

This story isn’t just about games — it’s about how companies thrive when they focus on excellence, not quarterly earnings. EA tried to force BioWare into making a "live service" cash cow. Larian spent nearly a decade polishing a 2-million-word RPG masterpiece. The results speak for themselves.

And the parallels go beyond gaming — I think this tells us a lot about all industries. You can swap in Boeing, GE, Intel, Nike… the moment companies start prioritizing numbers over products, they stumble. Every time.

I had a lot of fun writing this one, and if you like underdog victories, corporate faceplants, or just seeing why passion beats profit-chasing every time, I think you’ll enjoy it.

One of the biggest challenges of writing a weekly column is that it can be hard to come up with new ideas—so if you have any thoughts about what you’d like to see in this column or a fresh take on innovation, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.

-Gautam

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