The RPGenius

To be fair (And I myself am pissed) - Obsidian isn’t owned by Private Division. They just have the publising roights (which sadly also includes the right to choose distribution channels) - Future Obsidian titles will most likely not be on the Epic store, rather on Steam considering Microsofts recent moves. Then I will consider - with some very suspicious scrutiny, thanks to all of this - future Obsidian title purchases. But by that same token, this means that this situation in particular is as much on Obsidian's head as Private Division's, because not being owned by PD means that Obsidian chose to deal with a company that has no qualms about harming its customers. So my grudge with Obsidian isn't really abated by all that much from learning this.

The problem with defending Obsidian as the stooge with no say in the matter is that they're still owned by Private Division, and my buying this or any other Obsidian game will still mean financially supporting Private Decision. So whether Obsidian is guiltless in this matter or was chomping at the bit to slap customers around a bit for some extra shekels, my course of action to protest is still the same: refusing to buy this Obsidian product is refusing to support the asswipes who made this decision and refusing to support the asswipes in charge of Epic. If Obsidian decides in the future it wants to cut ties with its corporate masters, then I will potentially reevaluate my position on their non-Outer Worlds products. Until then, the reality is that showing my displeasure for companies that abuse their customers, abuse the people they owe their existence to, is boycotting this and likely future games by Obsidian, regardless of whether owner or dog is the one truly responsible.

I unearthed and blew the dust off my account here to let the nice folks at Obsidian and whatever corporate masters they've prostrated themselves before know that I won't be purchasing The Outer Worlds during the year it's exclusive in The Epic Games Store. And then, when it releases elsewhere, I still won't buy it. Nor am I too likely to buy any other Obsidian products going forward. Steam may be garbage - GOG is the only proper digital retailer - but Epic has, in its short time of functioning, been composing a whole list of anti-consumer policies like this exclusivity nonsense, invasion of privacy, and letting publishers decide whether or not their game can be reviews. That's the kind of scumbags that Obsidian has allowed itself to be dragged into bed with. Well, I can't speak for others and I'm sure there's more than enough gamers with little enough discretion that you'll still do just fine, but I, for one, don't support companies that spit in the face of their customers, so I'll be taking a hard pass on all titles that go Epic-exclusive for any amount of time. You've lost this sale, and you'll probably be losing more from me in the future. I have a long memory, and the market is over-saturated with so many RPGs that I'll never find myself without something to play, with or without your products.

Everything sounds nifty. I just hope that Pillars of Eternity will be able to properly follow through with the Ranger, without falling into the nonsense trap that practically every other RPG does--nerfed bows and crossbows. In real life, bows and especially crossbows were insanely deadly, far more powerful and penetrating than any weaponry known to man until modern firearms. Additionally, a skilled longbow archer in the middle ages could fire several rounds a minute, each one easily powerful enough to pierce the heaviest plate mail. Crossbows were even more powerful (though not as quick to fire). Most RPGs I've played completely ignore the reality of bows and crossbows and relegate them to, at best, slow mid-damage weaponry, or, all too often, the very slow, low-powered throw-away weapons of character classes like mages who don't rely on physical attacks, when the fact of the matter is that bows and crossbows should be far more damaging than the majority of melee weapons, including the overused RPG favorite, the sword. I'm really hoping we'll see a dose of rare reality in this game with crossbows having extremely high power, and bows being high-powered and reasonably fast to use.

So basically you guys' idea was to take the most awesome class in RPG history, but make it roughly 3x more awesome than before. I approve.