Arkane founder: Skyrim is an immersive simulation, and Baldur's Gate 3 will be 'immersive simulator-adjacent.

WolfEye is the studio founded by Raphael Colantonio who was also a co-creator of Dishonored. They are releasing a new title. It's a first-person, immersive sim that has a structure somewhere between Prey and Fallout New Vegas. That's just the kind of thing PC Gamer HQ needs to hear in order to get the hype engines going.

Colantonio recently agreed to go into detail with PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens about what counts as an immersive simulation. It turns out that his definition of the word is unusually broad. When asked why there hasn’t been a Call of Duty scale hit in the genre he replied: Skyrim.

Colantonio stated that "if you really think about them, Bethesda or Obsidian are very, very immersive simulations." "The overlap between immersive sim and first-person RPG is very blurry. I would say that they are less physically demanding than Arkane, and they rely more on stats. But at the end of it all, they rely entirely on simulation. "Fooling a merchant into thinking it's a different person by putting a bucket over its head is definitely immersive, right?"

Colantonio's not the first to say that Bethesda open world RPGs should be categorized as immersive sims, regardless of whether the bucket is thrown over a shopkeeper. Oblivion was included in our list of the best immersive simulations because its physics engine, which lets you do crazy things like stack paintbrushes into ladders, and stealth missions like those for the Dark Brotherhood makes it a close relative to Deus Ex.

Colantonio clarified his meaning by saying, "We always create immersive simulations." We've always made them and will continue to do so. You can now make a RPG immersive simulation or an action immersive simulation when it comes to general. I don't speak for Bethesda but I'd be surprised if they said, "Oh, not at the least." Their games are heavily reliant on simulations."

Baldur's Gate 3 is a RPG that relies heavily on simulations. It has been compared with immersive sims because it allows you to rob a banking by stacking 45 crates to get the perfect position to shoot a magic arrow. Divinity Original Sin 2 was Larian's prior RPG.

Colantonio replied, "I see Baldur's gate as at least immersive-sim-adjacent," "if being turn-based makes sense for an immersion sim." You can see exactly where they were heading with that. By the way, I loved it. "I loved Baldur's Gate. Fantastic game."

Colantonio concluded by saying, "We could debate forever what an immersive sim is or not. To me, an interactive sim is a real-time game, but to others, an immersive simulation is a first-person game. It's like where do you draw the lines? "I think it's a waste of time and money from a marketing perspective."