Camael

The Jefferson engine isn't one of the assets he purchased - A couple of months ago this is what Feargus said about why finishing Jefferson wouldn't happen:

My guess is that BG3 will be made by "Irrational Games". This has been a hunch of mine for a while now. There are a few things that make this look like a possibility. Irrational Games created Freedom Force, a squad-based tactical game. That style of game has similarities to BG, so they have experience and an engine that could support BG Recently, Irrational Games and Bioware have announced an odd partnership, where Bioware is selling freedom force from their online store. This seemed strange at first, but it could make a lot of sense if they are teaming up for a collaboration on BG3 behind the scenes. For the same reason Atari moved the NWN2 boards to Bioware, they would want BG3 to be linked to the Bioware community, and no doubt Atari would want to see some sort of collaboration with Bioware if for no other reason than the community exposure. In a recent Irrational Games interview, one of their employees talked about how the party-based role playing game has been overlooked by publishers I also read (about a year ago) on some forum that someone believed that BG3 was being developed by some Australian developer. I can't remember where I read that or the source, but I do remember reading that rumor, and coincidentally, Irrational Games is based in Australia

Holy crap, those screenshots look unbelievable. I thought Gothic 2 was well worth the $9 I paid for it at GameStop.

..So I wonder who Atari has doing BG3 then? It doesn't look like it will be Obsidian afterall, unless Atari decided to make BG3 a console game. Or, since Obsidian looks like they are practically hiring a whole new team, maybe they will have 3 teams, in which case one team could still do BG3, but that seems unlikely as well. Maybe Bioware will still have a part in BG3 afterall. Maybe Bioware will develop the game, or partner with a smaller developer like Irrational Games to make it. We will probably find out at E3 about BG3 As for the new Obsidian game, it will probably be a while before we know much more, but at least we will see some NWN2 stuff at E3

...depressing *EDIT (several hours later) - after thinking about this a while, it now seems less depressing, that is just an instant reaction when I read "console". But, the Unreal engine is awesome, and the publisher probably will port to PC if the game is a hit, which it will be, so as long as they avoid the '10 hour long', dumbed down console RPG stereotypes, this could turn out good afterall.

What interview is that? I think if they are making BG3, there will be something said at E3, but if they are making something else, E3 will probably be a little too soon to expect anything (except the New Jersey forum, that is )

Those screenshots looked pretty good 7 years ago.

LOL I totally forgot about that game! A friend of mine had it and it rocked! :D Oh and the old Tandy stuff where a cassette tape was your hard drive. " Tsel <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Looking back now that does seem weird, buying games on a cassette tapes . It was amazing what game programmers back then could do with so little resources to work with. Some of those text adventure games were great - drawing maps as you went. Kids these days are spoiled with their fancy 'auto-maps'

while all my friends had a C64, I was stuck with a Radio Shack TRS-80. Did anyone ever play "Dungeons of Daggorath" (vintage 1982)? I didn't think so, but if you did you know how awesome it was for the time

I would like to see them do BG3 as well, simply because I think Obsidian could be a good counter balance to Atari

My wild guess is that it will be Atari publishing - because they were shopping around for a developer to do BG3, and since they already have a good working relationship with Obsidian because of NWN2, and since Obsidian is already working on a similar D&D game with them already (and my bet us that they are probably impressed with Obsidian's work on NWN2 already), and because no one besides Bioware has more BG related experience, and because it would be a tough offer for a fledgling developer to turn down, in my opinion. I just think the stars are aligned for this to happen, and in my estimation, it will. Just a hunch

It's not so much that there is no market, it's just a market that many publishers don't understand and there is a stigma about making PC only games right now. I've seen this happen a lot in the industry over the past 10 years. People were more interested in buying a crappy CD-ROM game than a floppy game, a poor looking 3D game compared to a 2D game, a boring real-time game compared to an engaging turn-based game, etc... Unfortunately publishers like to fund what is currently fashionable because they see that as safe. That's why I said we would probably have to fund a game like ourselves. I think there is a market, but I don't have the $2M it would take to make the game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Aren't there venture capital and investment capital groups that you could try to secure funding from? 2 million isn't really all that much relative to the amount of venture capital requested to fund many new business projects. My shiftless brother-in-law secured well over a million dollars in investment capital for a company he started for some doomed, half-assed, web-based service something-or-other that anyone with opposable thumbs would have laughed at, yet he was able to get his business funded. I bet you could put together one hell of a slick proposal

...Obsidian is probably being just a little more cautious about opening this forum, perhaps more so since they have been re-evaluating the existence of these forums altogether. They might be concerned about any potential damage that could result to the delicate relationship between them and their publisher. It may even be that they are not going to open forums for unannounced projects anymore to avoid any potential negative consequences. What if, for example, some highly educated, intelligent, clever forum member pieces together several bits of information they have been gathering from the New Jersey forum and determines beyond a reasonable doubt what the upcoming project is? Now, assume that info is rampantly disseminated to all of the news-starved RPG sites and general gaming sites, etc. etc. Even if Obsidian did not actually violate their agreement with the publisher, if they had never opened the New Jersey forum, the

I think the whole point of their code name system is so they can talk about projects before they are announced, and if it is in pre-production then it is already a done deal. There are plenty of vague aspects of the game that could be discussed without violating their agreement with the publisher (wishful thinking). In any case, it was Obsidian

I think an engine like the "Silent Storm" engine would be ideal for an infinity style game that could offer the kind of strategic party based gameplay you had with the infinity games, and still give you the ability to show publishers some snazzy 3D super cool effects when needed.

How about opening the

Project New Jersey......how about that forum now? (.. it doesn't really have that nice of a ring to it..)

It's not a sequel <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ..maybe a prequel??? (BG3 from PC Gamer "..The plot will be set in the early days of Baldur's Gate, but don't be surprised if you run into a hamster-toting ancestor of Minsk.".. or in other words, a prequel)

I think if it's a completely new engine, than it wouldn't involve Bioware.

Congratulations on getting the third project lined up!

Well, it's my impression that Feargus had wanted a more robust community, a place where people would talk about things with merit and substance, and not be filled with spam, flames, whining, griping, indignation and arrogant demands. These boards have been provided as a courtesy, not as a right, and I believe Obsidian feels that courtesy has been abused. From a moderator perspective, it was their/our hope that the forums would not need to have strict moderation, and that people would respect that and act with consideration. Of course we all know there will be trolls and problematic people, but it's pretty clear that Obsidian feels the ratio of trolls and problem people is greater than the good that is here. Were the boards to remain open, or re-open at a later date, we would be excercising much stricter moderation and sterner enforcement of board rules. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think something they should try first would be to just close down the KOTOR2 forums and just keep the

I thought someone would have posted this, but I didn

those genres are also far more saturated with titles, so the competition is also more fierce. Obsidian's best financial strategy may be just sticking with a nitch market they are good at (RPGs). Also, because of the high platform fees, PC titles can be more profitable despite lower sales numbers

Even if Obsidian doesn't have their own booth, they will still be showing off NWN2 stuff at the Atari booth - and who knows, maybe stuff at the Lucasarts booth as well. I read one of the many posts on the NWN2 forums asking for screenshots, where a dev said something about E3 being big for them this year and there would be lots of NWN2 goodies, and then he said something about how maybe even a screen would come out prior to E3- I can't seem to find that post now though - my God there are a lot of posts to wade through on that forum, oh well. But, unless things have changed, there will be NWN2 screens by E3, and Obsidian folks will be there..somewhere....maybe wearing Atari t-shirts ....Ok I found the post by Brian Lawson: "...Seriously though...we want to show some shots just as bad as you guys want to see them. It's not up to us, but we're pushing for something pre-E3 if that helps. Although at this point, E3 is really not that far away. But hey, we'll all take what we can get...right?.." So E3 it is

Yep, here is the PC Gamer tidbit about BG3 "..When asked if the follow-up would stick with isometric perspective, John Hight, Atari Executive Producer, indicated that Atari wasn't "afraid to move the camera for cinematic effect. [Your viewpoint] will be immersive then the traditional isometric perspective and bring you closer to the action. You want to see the fear in the orc's eye as you blast him with a fireball, don't you?"