A Special Announcement From Obsidian

[ShadySands]

I just want Mitsoda back

[Abel]

Well now, i always understood the problems with stability and the problem of surviving. I guess the stress can kill people over time. So i have never denied this problem, and that's why i supported Obs on Kickstarter and Fig. I even backed Pillars 2 while pretty convinced i will never play it (and in fact i never installed it).

But now, Feargus, you spend your time speaking about family, while pretending that one of the 4 bros never existed (Chris?). You spend your time talking about how great Microsoft is (we all know that they are gaming industry's philanthropist), explaining how they will give you money for games, stability, and technical expertise for development. That's all nice and great, but there is one thing that bothers me...

You never speak about what Obs will give Microsoft in return. Well, Ensemble Studios gave them their skin and their life, after all. I believe that if you don't bother to speak about it, it's because it's only obvious and does not need an explanation. Please, take note: i'm only trying to be rationnal here. Still, i just can't see any other reason why this question is not tackled, and since this one (the answer is obvious and does not need explanation) makes sense, i will say "Ok". But now, if the answer is obvious, that should mean that in order to understand the answer to this question (what Obsidian will give Microsoft in return), we have to look at how Microsoft and the gaming industry work as a whole. Especially when a studio which is struggling to survive as an independant company is bought by a bigger fish.

Ok, i explored my memory a bit, tried to use wikipedia and some other websites and skimmed through things again. Well. From there, this is all about my own feelings regarding this. And feelings can't be explained rationaly or demonstrated, so i won't claim i'm talking the truth or predicting accurately the future. I'm not God.

So, my feelings are... I don't buy any of this bull****. Microsoft changes, cuts anything that may not bring enough money for their tastes, and closed quite a few studios they bought (Ensemble being only the most famous for me). And you know it full well Feargus. What's more, you're trying to strike a chord in the people who trusted Obsidian but are rightfully defiant of Microsoft, emphasizing family, passion, freedom, legacy and crap like that. There is no freedom or legacy when everything you created becomes immediately the property of someone else, nor their is family. The way this video is made only awakes some memories i have of others developers in the past spouting the same things with the results i know. It almost feels to me that Microsoft bought the successful Kickstarter trio (Double Fine (2019) inXile (2018), Obsidian (2018)) precisely because their crowfunding successes guaranteed their images were good in the customer eyes, and Microsoft now tries to benefit indirectly from that. What, do they think trust can be bought? And you Feargus, that trust can be sold?

Even if i were to be mistaken, and the fact that these 3 studios were bought by MoneySoft is actually a really good thing, i don't live in fantasy world. There are always counterparts to everything. For anything you get, you need to abandon something. Life is just like that. The fact that you spent 6 minutes spouting that just about everything was wonderful and for the best only makes it sound more fishy to me.

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by Abel

[Boeroer]

On 9/21/2019 at 2:06 AM, Abel said:

[...] i'm only trying to be rationnal here [...]

Well... at least you tried. 

[Zafar1981]

On 9/21/2019 at 9:06 AM, Abel said:

Well now, i always understood the problems with stability and the problem of surviving. I guess the stress can kill people over time. So i have never denied this problem, and that's why i supported Obs on Kickstarter and Fig. I even backed Pillars 2 while pretty convinced i will never play it (and in fact i never installed it).

But now, Feargus, you spend your time speaking about family, while pretending that one of the 4 bros never existed (Chris?). You spend your time talking about how great Microsoft is (we all know that they are gaming industry's philanthropist), explaining how they will give you money for games, stability, and technical expertise for development. That's all nice and great, but there is one thing that bothers me...

You never speak about what Obs will give Microsoft in return. Well, Ensemble Studios gave them their skin and their life, after all. I believe that if you don't bother to speak about it, it's because it's only obvious and does not need an explanation. Please, take note: i'm only trying to be rationnal here. Still, i just can't see any other reason why this question is not tackled, and since this one (the answer is obvious and does not need explanation) makes sense, i will say "Ok". But now, if the answer is obvious, that should mean that in order to understand the answer to this question (what Obsidian will give Microsoft in return), we have to look at how Microsoft and the gaming industry work as a whole. Especially when a studio which is struggling to survive as an independant company is bought by a bigger fish.

Ok, i explored my memory a bit, tried to use wikipedia and some other websites and skimmed through things again. Well. From there, this is all about my own feelings regarding this. And feelings can't be explained rationaly or demonstrated, so i won't claim i'm talking the truth or predicting accurately the future. I'm not God.

So, my feelings are... I don't buy any of this bull****. Microsoft changes, cuts anything that may not bring enough money for their tastes, and closed quite a few studios they bought (Ensemble being only the most famous for me). And you know it full well Feargus. What's more, you're trying to strike a chord in the people who trusted Obsidian but are rightfully defiant of Microsoft, emphasizing family, passion, freedom, legacy and crap like that. There is no freedom or legacy when everything you created becomes immediately the property of someone else, nor their is family. The way this video is made only awakes some memories i have of others developers in the past spouting the same things with the results i know. It almost feels to me that Microsoft bought the successful Kickstarter trio (Double Fine (2019) inXile (2018), Obsidian (2018)) precisely because their crowfunding successes guaranteed their images were good in the customer eyes, and Microsoft now tries to benefit indirectly from that. What, do they think trust can be bought? And you Feargus, that trust can be sold?

Even if i were to be mistaken, and the fact that these 3 studios were bought by MoneySoft is actually a really good thing, i don't live in fantasy world. There are always counterparts to everything. For anything you get, you need to abandon something. Life is just like that. The fact that you spent 6 minutes spouting that just about everything was wonderful and for the best only makes it sound more fishy to me.

 

I agree with you on most of the points but there are some real issues we need to understand. Pillars 2 from Obsidian & Bards Tale from Inxile didn't do well commercially and there was no guarantee that The Outer Worlds and Wastelands 3 could preform well. Its not easy to make a game and more difficult to produce financially.  

Let me be a devil advocate first:

If Microsoft wants to force Obsidian to make a looter shooter then they could bought Gear Box or any other studio who has an expertise in making a looter shooter or the next 343 and Collation game would be a looter shooter instead of Gears & Halo. As the next gen console are on the horizon and Microsoft didn't want to repeat the previous mistake by letting Sony play without any competition so they are focusing on what Sony strength is which is Single player games. Microsoft knows that they are lacking Single person story driven games and they need it in their inventory so when someone is going to buy a new console it will be difficult decision for make. In my view Microsoft bought Obsidian, Inxile & Ninja Theory for story driven single player games and the new Studio Initiate would also focus on single player the team they are hiring has a background of these games. Plus due to game pass Microsoft need content to sell the service and to have content they need a good amount of in house studio to produce.

Now on the other side of the coin:

Now let's consider Microsoft didn't bought Obsidian and one day you wake up and heard news that Obsidian is closed due to Bankruptcy is this fine for you. Let say Microsoft do the same with Obsidian which EA did to BioWare (I am not taking your example of Ensemble as it is a different story) then we loose interest in Obsidian games and Microsoft has to close the studio or ask them to make what they are best know for. 

So in my opinion support Obsidian as long as they are making content which they are know for and Microsoft will know that it is in their benefit to let Obsidian do what they want.          

[GabiJohnson]

Congratulations!

I believe in POE-III

[mkreku]

Hey @Mikey Dowling, now that Microsoft owns the Fallout franchise, do you think it's possible you'll get to make another spin-off in that universe?