For context, Larian Studio founder Swen Vincke predicted that the game could reach 100,000 peak concurrent users during its debut period, and that was a fairly optimistic prediction. I work in IT, and really feel for those folks. I hope they designed their infrastructure to scale!
And that’s only Steam, not including GOG, or the influx of PS5 users next month. Let’s take it to 1 million!
Personally, I don’t mind reading and I wish we’d get more games that don’t require voice acting for everything. It’d allow them to do so much more with a lot less. I do think at some point we’ll get that that point with synthesized voices, but it isn’t quite there yet. I’ve used several in Ludum Dare games, and they sound great but not perfect. Still, even as they are if they let devs write more and create more options, I’d take it. Adding options with voice acting balloons work required fast, so that’s why it’s so often fake choice but the other person responds similarly no matter what you say.