When the iPhone launched on June 29, 2007, it did so without any third-party apps, much to the chagrin of its customers and the skeptical tech press. The original iPhone only had 15 native apps, and users wanted more.

Apple encouraged iPhone users to use “web apps” with limited features in place of the native apps that existed on other mobile platforms of the era, including Palm, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry. Users and developers were undeterred. In just over a month, not only was the iPhone “jailbroken” (a term meaning unauthorized software can be installed, manufacturer policies be damned), but the first third-party game was released for the burgeoning smartphone.

By the time Apple announced the iPhone software developer kit (SDK) in March of 2008, interest in the groundbreaking smartphone had increased greatly and there was already a flourishing jailbreak community of app developers. This primed the pump for the launch of iPhone OS 2 in July 2008. Launched alongside the iPhone 3G, iPhone OS 2 brought a slew of new features, including support for Microsoft Exchange and Apple’s revamped cloud offering, MobileMe. However, the real star of the show was the App Store, the new centralized digital storefront where users could find and download apps — free or paid — for their iPhone or iPod touch (remember those?), right on their device.

It's not an exaggeration to say that within days, the mobile software industry, if not the software industry as a whole, completely changed.

Video games often fall back on a binary state of either success or failure. It's why “Game Over” is such a ubiquitous phrase. If you don’t do things properly, you lose and have to start over until you manage to get it right.

Baldur’s Gate 3 throws that mentality out the window thanks to its wholehearted embrace of the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons, leaving the player to constantly live with their decisions no matter what. It’s a novel approach — and it means that failing often leads to some truly wild and unforgettable moments.