C2B

I think its best if we stop arguing Hassat. Doesn't seem to be worth it atm. If Armored Warfare ends up being a success I'm going to be suuuuuuuch a ****, though. (Also, whatever devs stay on the title. It's not the devs responsible for things you prefer about their games. Most/Nearly all of their rpg specialists aren't even on this game. As I have repeated multiple times now.)

Yes

Thinking about it, there's one thing about MMO's that is actually in Obsidians ballpark. Being able to provide post-release support for an extended time without getting ****blocked.

You almost definitly heard about it. Sawyer Project. March 2012. George Ziets + Co went away? That thing. Not everyone is as dialed in these boards as others regarding project status and employee turnaround. Some of these references can get pretty esoteric even for board regulars. Yeah. Those were the worst layoffs though Obsidian's ever had and were covered by media outlets. 30-40 people lost their jobs. It came out that a project lead by Sawyer got cancelled and Microsoft was mentioned as the publisher. That's the gisht of it.

The Armored Warfare forums have amassed 12'000+ Members in a day. Lots of people who are a bit disappointed with WOT as well.

The AAA Game would be focus group designed with publisher design input. That I can assure you of.

That would assume in a different scenario they would actually make more rpgs. Obsidian constantly works on a variety of projects, so I don't really see the problem here. Especially with kickstarter coming up and the extension that Obsidian will now pretty much guaranteed constantly work on more rpgy rpgs rather than shooter hybrids and so on. For example would you prefer if this was an AAA Rpg and in turn Obsidian never hopped on the Kickstarter bandwagon?

You almost definitly heard about it. Sawyer Project. March 2012. George Ziets + Co went away? That thing.

So, you want them to downsize and make less games? What? Pillars of Eternity won't bring in enough money to go fully indepenendent and suddenly produce big AAA titles. There's people that are fans of Obsidian's AAA titles as well. That would be an argument if Obsidian wasn't doing RPG's anymore. They are. They currently have the most rpgy project in production they EVER did.

Rich Taylor spaks

2012 March Layoffs were because of a cancelled deal with Microsoft. So, yes. We do know.

While the project itself it sub-optimal I wouldn't assume they don't like what they are doing or not making it quality. There's lots of MMO players at Obsidian (And World of Tanks ones)

Daniel Platt - 3D Artist Brad Boyles - 3D Artist

Justin is now giving his talk.

I... I don't think you are able to really make that call.... Well, Obsidian's strengths are narrative and characters, not exactly something that shines in an MMO, especially a F2P tank warfare one. EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Depends on the specfic developers themselves.

Just so people know who works on it. I hope the mods forgive the seperate thread, I also don't know if this wouldn't fit better in the general discussion Richard Taylor - Project Director Matt Festa - Systems and PVP Lead Justin Bell - Audio Director Rob Nesler - Art Director Katrina Schnell - Associate Producer Carlos Rodriguez - Producer Mac Smith - Concept Artist Drew Bradford - Lead Producer Bree Maldonado - Level Artist More to come

Yes it is. Very far; and gladly so. I'm not particularly keen on AAA titles anyway; they always seem too scattered around with their focus. Of course, though, that comes with it's own set of hopes and expectations -- DS3, for eg., was a mid budget game (yes?), but I wouldn't consider it a home run from any angle. Anyways, we'll see where this train goes eventually; it's not in the sunniest of places right now and there's no predicting if it will stop next, but... eventually. DSIII was a bit special in the regard of that it was Mid-Budget with AAA budget production values..

Not asking for miracles; just hoping for something decent. I know how the market is (or seems to be for the most part -- Ubisoft did publish MMX). I'm not arguing. I've no desire to change your mind about anything, just trying get my point of view through whether or not you agree with it. 1. Yes, but MMX is far from a AAA game. Mid-Budget. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of that and that IS the market that is going to be interesting for the likes of us in the upcoming years.. AAA style we'll get what we get. Obsidian is now working on more than they ever have, so I'm sure there will be always something for everyone. 2. Then you don't mean something different. Forget that post.

Or you mean something different in which case that's a dumb argument because you're ignoring the reasons those games came to be and cancelled projects.

Meaning more so than before. KOTORII has/had half the game missing, NWN2 OC was a bad/mediocre game in general, Alpha Protocol was a complete mess from a gaming and development standpoint with one really big saving grace. DSIII was a solid, good fun game (Sawyer agrees). F:NV was great and South Park is well liked and a big success. Nope, unless we are counting expansion packs. As games they are a lot more solid. They're just not D&D, Star Wars D&D or Fallout (well except Fallout ) and their attached benefits (also in the gameplay department) Which is certainly a thing to be disappointed about, but saying the games themselves are worse is a bit tinted. I'm talking about what games they've made and are making, and how they could be identified; not so much about their problems at making those games. DS3, South Park, AW, Russian MMO... Compare that to Kotor and NWN, and even New Vegas as what kind of games they were. Certainly you see where this is going. There's a clear path in how this has been evolving. Anyway, like I said, it's not the end of the world, just a bit disappointing to see. In terms of AAA you're most likely not going to see that anymore at all. New Vegas style (with better mechanics of course) is the best you can hope for AAA related. There's a reason Pillars exists. And the whole discussion around it. Big publishers just won't go for that style anymore to make big bucks. Mid-Budget games? Kickstarter? Yes. But that's all you can realistically hope for.

I don't think they will go under and I absolutely do not think they are selling out. I think Obsidian will have to take on projects that might not be games that fans of the studio expected to see. (It has already happened.) As long as they work on games like Pillars of Eternity, I can live with some of their games not being of interest to me. I'm just disappointed to read that this is what they have to do to keep going for now. If only they could get another big deal going for a new game and not having it cancelled. Anyhow, asked them on twitter, and they seem to have a few things that are yet to be announced. It's not the end of the world, and I do admit that the views I have in this thread are very selfish. I meant no disrespect to Obsidian at all. Their games are part of why I'm still gaming. And if this thread seems to be in bad form, that wasn't the intention either. I simply hope that the studio gets some hits so they ultimately can work on whatever they want and avoid cancelled projects like in the past. If it's any concellation, because of this game being what it is, all the rpg experts at Obsidian are working on Pillars of Eternity. This wouldn't really be the case otherwise.

Ehhhh, more or less. The company specifics should still carry through and nearly everyone who actually specializes in the things you mentioned is working on Pillars of Eternity.

Meaning more so than before. KOTORII has/had half the game missing, NWN2 OC was a bad/mediocre game in general, Alpha Protocol was a complete mess from a gaming and development standpoint with one really big saving grace. DSIII was a solid, good fun game (Sawyer agrees). F:NV was great and South Park is well liked and a big success. Nope, unless we are counting expansion packs. As games they are a lot more solid. They're just not D&D, Star Wars D&D or Fallout (well except Fallout ) and their attached benefits (also in the gameplay department) Which is certainly a thing to be disappointed about, but saying the games themselves are worse is a bit tinted.

Of course they will. What can be expected from now on is a bit more complicated question, though. Good, detailed Games made with effort. That, if not completly rpg's still feature some interesting systems. Have no idea how AW will fare in that regard, but that is what I'm expecting from Obsidian since becoming a fan. Sure. However, the road has been a bit uneven recently to say the least and to trust a company logo on the box to deliver, is all. Unfortunate events, bad luck and everything, but nonetheless - it's a bit disheartening to look at where they are and know what they're capable of. I'm not overly worried about this, though, projects come and go, just saying what things look like currently. Recently? It has been uneven from the very beginning and NWN2 OC is arguably their worst game so far. If anything it has stabilized in a lot of ways, though the actual game opportunities have gotten worse compared to Star Wars or Forgotten Realms.

Of course they will. What can be expected from now on is a bit more complicated question, though. Good, detailed Games made with effort. That, if not completly rpg's still feature some interesting systems. Have no idea how AW will fare in that regard, but that is what I'm expecting from Obsidian since becoming a fan.