Capelworth

105.

I'm haven't finished the game yet, but I'm far enough along to have my entire cast of companions. At this point, I'd have to say that Jolee is my favorite. Zaalbar and the R2D2-type droid are the only characters that no longer accompany me on excursions from the ship.

I've read that Black Isle Studios was named by Mr. Urquhart for Scotland's Black Isle. I was simply curious if there's any story behind the name "Obsidian." Is the Black Isle in Scotland composed of obsidian?

Ugh, that was the worst economics explanation I've ever heard. The most basic idea in economics is that the lower demand the LOWER the cost and vice versa. If less people were willing to buy cars, then car dealerships would have to lower their prices in order to sell the same volume. You contradict yourself with your next line because you then correctly say that decreasing costs will result more buyers. However, volume by itself has no bearing on the pricing decision. The decision to raise and lower prices to maximize revenue has to do the price elasticity of the product. If the product is readily substitutable and becomes more price elastic (market is more sensitive to changes in price), then the producer should generally lower the price in order to maximize revenue. If the product becomes less price elastic, then the producer should then raise the price. Now if you gave evidence for why you might feel those markets (car dealerships, RIAA, and game publishers) are all highly price elastic, your arguments might have made sense. Thankfully someone here has a decent understanding of microeconomics! In the game industry, supply is fairly elastic. Once a game has been created, the marginal cost of producing additional units is relatively low. That's why the price of a game may come down relatively quickly if demand for that title is low. If western gaming companies charge high prices in Asia, it's likely that demand there for western games is fairly price inelastic. They probably oberserved that lowering the price did not yield a sufficient increase in volume to come out ahead. If they can sell 10 copies for $50 each or 12 for $25 each, they should obviously price the game at $50. That may be because pirates, who don't have the same production costs to cover, will always be able to offer the product for less, taking most of the volume gains that a price reduction by the company would bring. Faced with asymptotic demand like that, it makes the most sense for the companies to simply charge as much as they can for those who, for whatever reason, wish to have a genuine copy of the game. If the data suggested that they would make more money by reducing the price of games in Asia, believe me, it wouldn't take them long to do it.

If the rumors are true and Obsidian did manage to land the contract for Knights of the Old Republic 2, kudos to them. Has a new developer ever managed to acquire a license as valuable as this one for a first project before? Heck, it's difficult to imagine a better start for a company than an opportunity to develop a sequel to a high-profile, multi-platform game of the year.