Rumours about acquisition by Microsoft

[Marceror]

 

What are we talking about again?

 

MS rumor. And salt prohibition.

 

 

Smashing!

[sokretch]

wow, this is quite interesting indeed. 

let's see what the future holds then i guess lol. 

what if it is for the better?

[ParabolicDreams]

I guess time will tell, I'd rather things stayed like they are. But Money talks, I suppose M$ money would really talk.

[Tagaziel]

Soo, did it happen or was it just a rumor?

[Night Stalker]

Soo, did it happen or was it just a rumor?

MS, or anyone else, has not yet acquired Obsidian as of this post as far as I know.

 

It may happen in the future though.

[LadyCrimson]

 

Soo, did it happen or was it just a rumor?

MS, or anyone else, has not yet acquired Obsidian as of this post as far as I know.

 

It may happen in the future though.

 

It's currently at the stage where a rumor has become a rumor that the original rumor is definitely happening.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by LadyCrimson

[IndiraLightfoot]

Indeed. Chinese whispers at its finest. Just watch what happened in connection to Blizzcon now. All the rumours about D4 for months made it basically true, to the point where Blizzard felt the urgent need to kill the hype with an official message saying that it won't be anything fancy like that, but still something Diablo. Perhaps Nintendo Switch, the Netflix comics and a third thingie, and that's all.

[Guest]

 

 

Soo, did it happen or was it just a rumor?

MS, or anyone else, has not yet acquired Obsidian as of this post as far as I know.

 

It may happen in the future though.

It's currently at the stage where a rumor has become a rumor that the original rumor is definitely happening.

 

Redline process can take weeks (best case scenario) or months (fairly typical), depending on legal teams (Microsoft obviously has dedicated resources, whereas Obsidian probably outsources). So yeah, the rumor could just be a rumor, but if it’s not a rumor it may be quite some time before we hear anything more.

[Silvaren]

Do you want atomic bomb? Here we go:

 

Feargus Urquhart's firm called Dark Rock Industries Limited have rights to Pillars of Eternity franchise as card game, RPG and computer games. I guess it's "the Llengrath's Safeguard" for Pillars of Eternity.

 

Consider this:

Feargus was CEO of Black Isle (cell of Interplay focused on cRPG genre). They published Baldur's Gate and produced Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale series. After fall of Interplay rights for AD&D products have gone to Atari, rights for Fallout was bought by Bethesda.

 

Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Jason Anderson formed Troika Games. They produced Arcanum, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Arcanum was published by Sierra and after shutdown of Sierra the rights for Arcanum have gone to Activision. Activision isn't interested in that franchise itself or selling the rights. ToEE was owned by Atari. Paradox Interactive bought White Wolf so they have rights to entire World of Darkness.

 

Obsidian was formed. They did 2 sequels to BioWare's games. KotOR II was published by LucasArts (which was shutdown by Disney and Disney has licences agreements with EA). NWN 2 and its expansions was properties of Atari. Then Obsidian made Alpha Protocol, which was published by SEGA. Chris Avellone wrote design documents for sequel but SEGA wasn't interested in making that game. Obsidian made spin-off to their old franchise of Interplay - Fallout: New Vegas (Tim Cain - father of Fallout works in Obsidian since Troika went down) for Bethesda. Obsidian made Dungeon Siege III for Square Enix. And they made South Park: The Stick of Truth for UbiSoft. And funny fact - rights for Tyranny are owned by Paradox Interactive.

 

They lost rights for every fracking game that Feargus Urquhart and most of his coworkers made since 1997 to this very day. There is Pillars of Eternity ofcourse. But it isn't owned by Obsidian but - like I mentioned - Dark Rock Industries Limited, which is owned by Feargus Urquhart.

 

I gues it's clever protection for the franchise. If Obsidian goes down by bankruptcy or by hostile takeover etc., rights for Pillars of Eternity won't be lost. Feargus can gather poeple and make great come back with well known series. It has even more sense now, when all the rumors about Microsoft buying Obsidian are flying arround.

 

Dark Rock (Industries Limited) sounds pretty similar to Black Isle, you know?

 

https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/dark-rock-industries-limited-3316531/

Edited October 19, 2018 by Silvaren

[Ethics Gradient]

 

Do you want atomic bomb? Here we go:

 

Feargus Urquhart's firm called Dark Rock Industries Limited have rights to Pillars of Eternity franchise as card game, RPG and computer games. I guess it's "the Llengrath's Safeguard" for Pillars of Eternity.

 

I entirely agree.  Though, it's hardly an atomic bomb.  We were discussing that very idea a little earlier in this same thread.

 

Aside from providing some nominal shelter for their IP should the studio fold, it also makes buyouts a little less straightforward as well.  Should Microsoft acquire Obsidian, all they will get is a production studio.  DRIL IP can remain outside any deals that are made.

 

The downside to that, is that the IP is not an asset that Obsidian has on the books.  The Pillars IP isn't part of their valuation for the purposes of determining the company's total worth, or for business loans... etc...

[Night Stalker]

Dark Rock (Industries Limited) sounds pretty similar to Black Isle, you know?

 

Considering that Obsidian is a black rock, I don't think you have to go that far into the past.

[Volourn]

"hostile takeover"

 

How is that possible? Isn't Obsidian privately owned. It can only be 'taken over' if the Obsidian owners agree to it. That is not 'hostile'.

[ShadySands]

That's a good point but it does probably protect them against something like bankruptcy.

 

Not that it really matters as I'd be very surprised if any acquisition didn't include any and all intellectual property.

[Flouride]

That's a good point but it does probably protect them against something like bankruptcy.

 

Not that it really matters as I'd be very surprised if any acquisition didn't include any and all intellectual property.

 

Yes, they are privately owned. Hostile takeover in this case would mean the Bethesda approach on getting studios. Bleed them dry by withholding payments and then make a lowball offer to "save the company". Not very like in this scenario though, unless Private Division suddenly swoops in and buys the company with very cheap offer

[kirottu]

I'm going full tinhat mode here, but I just noticed Way Off-Topic is in single page mode now. Maybe they are censoring us to make them seem more appealing to Microsoft, since Way Off-Topic is where the most controversial stuff is. Maybe this even happened when the forums were down a while ago.

 

Or maybe it is been like that for quite some time and I haven't put enough points in perception to notice it sooner.

[InsaneCommander]

I'm going full tinhat mode here, but I just noticed Way Off-Topic is in single page mode now. Maybe they are censoring us to make them seem more appealing to Microsoft, since Way Off-Topic is where the most controversial stuff is. Maybe this even happened when the forums were down a while ago.

 

Or maybe it is been like that for quite some time and I haven't put enough points in perception to notice it sooner.

 

It just made it to page 2, thanks to the new FUNNY STUFF thread.

 

Maybe they saw your comment?  

[BillyCorgan]

 

Violent...

[Murp]

Avellone still buttmad I see. Probably has his codex goons backing him up as well.

[SonicMage117]

The fanbase:

"Why is this happening? Obsidian is doing just fine!! Obsidian goanna end, OH NO'S!"

 

Obsidian Ent.:

"We're not doing fine, you don't know the hardships we face because we don't tell you and you don't need to know as you're just the consumers"

 

*Signs contract from Microsoft*

 

*Is more secure and employees can now actually eat and feed their families at the expense of "some" development freedoms*

 

Anyone here would do the same, it's the only logical choice, plus I imagine that fundraising is ultimately damn boring after awhile.

Edited November 9, 2018 by SonicMage117

[injurai]

Maybe MS nets them. I feel like Take-Two would be a better partner honestly. Especially if the Private-Division venture does well.

[evilcat]

I do not feel like M$ is very bad publisher.

EA is famous for killing studios to the degree it seems they planned it all along.

Ubisoft seems to trying to be better than ea  with various effect.

Paradox is ok (so many dlc) but smaller

Sony is ok, but focues on own platform so less good for pc users.

Activision, focused on game as service. Maybe not

Asians in general, make a bit different games, and are more into mobile. Not perfect.

 

Take two is good, but may have limited resources.

 

So M$ is not bad.

Edited November 9, 2018 by evilcat

[SonicMage117]

Yeah, take what's said about Microsoft here lightly, as members can be extremely picky on this forum. Of course Microsoft has closed down studios, no less than Sony or Nintendo so, there ya go. The risk wouldn't be any lesser by going with anyone else, really.

[injurai]

MS does bold investments but seems to shift if things aren't working. Going on their track records I'd say they are awful. Going on what is only a promise so far from their 2018 E3 Press Conference, then I'd say they might be turning a new leaf. Too early to say.

[InsaneCommander]

The fanbase:

"Why is this happening? Obsidian is doing just fine!! Obsidian goanna end, OH NO'S!"

 

Obsidian Ent.:

"We're not doing fine, you don't know the hardships we face because we don't tell you and you don't need to know as you're just the consumers"

 

*Signs contract from Microsoft*

 

*Is more secure and employees can now actually eat and feed their families at the expense of "some" development freedoms*

 

Anyone here would do the same, it's the only logical choice, plus I imagine that fundraising is ultimately damn boring after awhile.

 

It's like when someone famous like a soccer player, for example, changes company/team. Many people complain, say they are only interested in money. But who wouldn't do it if they had the option once a contract ends (if there is even one)?

[Leferd]

So this happened...

 

 

Guess it's official.

 

 

*edit. Woah. They also picked up InXile.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Leferd