The Daily Populous Monday October 14th, 2024 day edition
Authored by eurogamer.net and submitted by Darth_Vaper883

Baldur's Gate 3's director of publishing, Michael Douse, has called out scalpers for "making [people] sad".

Although the official website still shows the physical PC and PS5 collector's editions for Baldur's Gate 3 were priced at £217 (€260) before they were promptly snapped up, scalpers are trying their luck and listing the collector's editions on auction sites for thousands of pounds.

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Baldur's Gate 3 for dummies: Basics for EVERYTHING You Need to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask).Watch on YouTube

Appending an image that showed someone trying to flog their collector's edition for £2.9K (€3.4K), Douse said he "understand[s] how commodity works", but stressed that the point of releasing collector's editions like this is "to make someone happy".

"Hate scalpers, man," Douse said on X/Twitter (thanks, TheGamer). "I understand how commodity works, but this CE isn't a commodity, it's designed to make someone happy, not rich.

"If you're buying it to trade, all you're doing is making someone sad."

Hate scalpers, man. I understand how commodity works, but this CE isn’t a commodity it’s designed to make someone happy, not rich. If you’re buying it to trade, all you’re doing is making someone sad. pic.twitter.com/vtH2CX3OhQ — Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 12, 2024 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings

The post prompted over a hundred replies, many from fans who were equally frustrated.

"That someone is me," lamented one commenter.

Last month brought news that Baldur's Gate 3 was a step closer to getting the series' classic real-time with pause combat thanks to one enterprising modder, but there was plenty to chew through even before official modding became a thing.

daiz- on October 13rd, 2024 at 19:07 UTC »

It's almost as if creating a limited edition collectors market that thrives on scarcity and fear of missing out encourages people to buy them just for their potential value at a future date.

I'm sorry, but that's a problem of design. You either make them to order so that everyone that wants one can get one or you create a scenario where you encourage people to impulse buy before they are all gone.

I just kind of resent the idea where people at Larian feel like only they should be able to try and profit off that FOMO. It's like they don't understand that they willingly created that scenario as a scheme to make money off their fans and want to throw shade at others even though anyone could have seen this coming a mile away. A ton of people just collect, they take pride in never opening the box and see it as an investment. That's just how the collectors market works.

FF_Gargamel on October 13rd, 2024 at 18:45 UTC »

Yeah, how about a better system where you let everybody pre-order who wants to buy one, and then make at least that many so that everybody who really wants it will get one. Only if you come in late do you deal with the after market.

THEzwerver on October 13rd, 2024 at 17:46 UTC »

I hate scalpers too, but there isn't really much stopping them from continuing to create more CE copies.