A Special Announcement From Obsidian

[Volourn]

"People acting like Obsidian Entertainment accepting a business deal that means they don't have to constantly have the fear of bankruptcy and unemployment over their head is a big betrayal need to get a grip and get some perspective."

 

Obsidian as a company doesn't exist anymore. It's a division of MS much like BIO is a division of EA. There is no betrayal though because there was never 'loyalty' involved. Obsidian owners can do what they want with their own damn company and the crybabies  can go to a corner and play their violin music.

 

 

As for me, I have the same attitude I had with BIO. make games I want to play I will buy. if not, I won't. SIMPLE.

[Sarex]

Obsidian as a company doesn't exist anymore. It's a division of MS much like BIO is a division of EA. There is no betrayal though because there was never 'loyalty' involved. Obsidian owners can do what they want with their own damn company and the crybabies  can go to a corner and play their violin music.

 

 

As for me, I have the same attitude I had with BIO. make games I want to play I will buy. if not, I won't. SIMPLE.

 

 

I would have agreed had I not seen the video Fergus made when launching the KS for PoE.

[Serrano]

Congratulations, I hope this is the start of a great period for you guys. Looking forwards to seeing what you all come up with in the future.

[HoonDing]

Fable 4 by Obsidian.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

T:ToN had very short loading times and it’s based on the PoE engine.

But it sucked tbh. I'd take the insane loading times of Dos2 over a that disappointment.

[Wormerine]

Edit: Thinking about it, what's up with buying both obsidian and inxile? They fill the same niche. They wanted the IPs of both companies? They plan to merge them?

They are not merging them. Now, while they have been making similar, nostalgia driven old-school RPGs for a last couple years, who know what both companies want to do. 

 

Still, even though they both RPG focused companies their approach to the subject is quite different. Maybe Microsoft wants to take over RPG space.

 

Who owns Jade Empire IP? It was a bioware game, but Microsoft exclusive. 

[Antart]

I don't know the expectation from Obsidian (and InXile) when we know what happens when they are forced to make console-friendly an isometric-tactical RPG. You want Path of Exile 3 & Wasteland 3 forced to consoles from scratch like Dungeon Siege 3? 

 

Could be good to have a stable budget but I'm afraid for the entire isometric RPG genre, so unappealing on consoles but so rewarding on PC. 

 

And it is worst if we see how Bioware or Blizzard have systematically ignored their fan-base in their deeper RPG oriented franchises with Dragon Age 2/Inq, and Diablo 3/Immortal. Their words still shinning in our hardcore brains but their actions still oriented to the casual masses.

 

I really want to keep my hope in that MS understands they are buying the last bastion of the best way to play RPGs ever invented, and not to hire them to make more boring casual action games for a market saturated of them.

[juanval]

We must be realistic. Obsidian is a great company with talented developers that give much love to the things they create, but is a company that has been struggling finantially and it was even at the edge of dissapearing before PoE kickstarter campaign.

 

Reality is, that PoE2 is a lovely game and a true spiritual sucessor of IE series, but it hasn't had good sales.

 

With Microsoft, I'm glad for all the talented people of Obsidian and I hope the have enough freedom developing future games, but, like all of you, I'm not sure of that.

 

I'd be happy if, at least, a small team of Obsdian create a PoE3 following the style of PoE1 and 2. I think they can do a great tittle with low resources as they did with Tiranny.

 

It would be great to hear something from devs about their future plans.

[injurai]

We must be realistic. Obsidian is a great company with talented developers that give much love to the things they create, but is a company that has been struggling finantially and it was even at the edge of dissapearing before PoE kickstarter campaign.

 

Reality is, that PoE2 is a lovely game and a true spiritual sucessor of IE series, but it hasn't had good sales.

 

With Microsoft, I'm glad for all the talented people of Obsidian and I hope the have enough freedom developing future games, but, like all of you, I'm not sure of that.

 

I'd be happy if, at least, a small team of Obsdian create a PoE3 following the style of PoE1 and 2. I think they can do a great tittle with low resources as they did with Tiranny.

 

It would be great to hear something from devs about their future plans.

 

Obsidian was very much left to the whims of it's publishers. Inadequate resources, lack of investment to prepare for shifts in the market. If you look at Sony, you can see how much more efficient their investments are across all their studios and how bolstering of exclusives which sell consoles helps to offset disparities in sales.

 

I'm sure Microsoft will start Obsidian off on a scale they can manage, but over time they'll grow to meet the technologies that Microsoft equips them with.

[Gorgon]

Well, at least it's not Disney. So yeah, congrats.

[Gorgon]

Microsoft owns Freelancer IP. Sweet Jesus, I didn't even know how much I want a space sim by Obsidian. Different ships would be like classes and you'd get money from missions to upgrade your ship. It would be like a RPG in disguise in space!

Awesome game. 

[Volourn]

"Who owns Jade Empire IP? It was a bioware game, but Microsoft exclusive. "

 

EA does.  BIO devs still talk about making a sequel. L0L

[evilcat]

PoE3 need to happen. And even newer Vegas by Obsidian.

But if after that some Freelancer game will happen i will not complain.

When it comes to space + crpg we are running on fumes.

And Vampires, more vampires who do not suck.

Edited November 11, 2018 by evilcat

[SonicMage117]

We must be realistic. Obsidian is a great company with talented developers that give much love to the things they create, but is a company that has been struggling finantially and it was even at the edge of dissapearing before PoE kickstarter campaign.

 

Reality is, that PoE2 is a lovely game and a true spiritual sucessor of IE series, but it hasn't had good sales.

 

With Microsoft, I'm glad for all the talented people of Obsidian and I hope the have enough freedom developing future games, but, like all of you, I'm not sure of that.

 

I'd be happy if, at least, a small team of Obsdian create a PoE3 following the style of PoE1 and 2. I think they can do a great tittle with low resources as they did with Tiranny.

 

It would be great to hear something from devs about their future plans.

I agree... I think people here are confusing themselves as who they "think" Obsidian are with what Obsidian really is. Our perception usually tricks us into seeing something that's not there - especially when we're angry with the outcome lol

 

Obsidian is talented , yes, but again like you said they weren't doing okay. They made some pretty huge mistakes with Pillars 1&2. It's enough to tell us why Obsidian had to do this deal if they wanted to keep their doors open. Bad marketing was one of Obsidian's greatest issues, reaching out to non-Crpg fans was their greatest fault. They couldn't compete with Larian here and that was going to kill Obsidian eventually. You have to be able to communicate well with people OUTSIDE your fanbase if you want to succeed. Figure out ways to say "Hey! Never played a Crpg? Try this, you might like it!" Or "Don't like Crpg? Maybe this eill change your mind" And getting the person to actually buy it at full-price and winning them over. Eh... I wonder if anyone actually watched the retrospect video by Obsidian in which they talked about these issues after releasing the first Pillars on pc, you know, the same video where they said they'd never release Pillars on consoles.

 

So while they may be great devs with some great games, don't forget that the fanbase who will buy it's games at full price is very VERY small (as proven by the sales vs people who bought it at a low price/major price cut). Add to that, Pillars 1 being one of the worst sales for any XB1 and PS4 game to date. Reflective of that nature, and relying on crowdfunding tells us Obsidian wouldn't hage lasted much longer on their own and the thousands of members on this forum who would like yo argue that mean nothing because thousands of buyers is nothing when you need hundreds of thousands or millions of sales to survive in this dog eat dog world. And the fact of life is, they no longer need us. They have Microsoft now and soon, a whole new fanbase since they've joined the Microsoft family.

 

So again, everyone should be celebrating with Obsidian, it's a win for them and the only way they would survive. I really couldn't be happier for them, things couldn't be better for Obsidian. Telling them our angry feelings is pointless, what's done is done. I would much rather trust Microsoft with Obsidian than this community telling them what to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit:

Well maybe if we whine enough, scold them enough and threaten not to support them than maybe, just maybe Microsoft will see this and break off the contract. Yup, make them regret that contract

Edited November 11, 2018 by SonicMage117

[Tigranes]

It's worth remembering that 'Microsoft' doesn't mean one thing over time. When you have a massive corporation whose main strength is not in games, then it can sometimes be a question of "who is the one fellow in charge of games that they brought in to execute whatever wider strategy they thought up?" Does that person understand games as products and as an industry? Do they know anything about RPGs? Will they be gone in 12 months, with some other fellow to come in and cancel half the projects and change the entire strategy (as has happened before)? There's a wide variance in what kind of owner they could be for Obs.

 

So presumably MS & Obs talked to each other about what MS wants to do, what kind of support they want to give, and Obs explained what kind of games they would like to make. And all of those things are subject to change at any point as well. It's better to see this almost as Obsidian shutting doors, and opening as Obsidian II, with new management and new strategy, and hopefully it goes really well, but we really can't know either way.

 

Factually speaking, of course there are many historical examples of independent developers getting bought out then going straight down the gutter, with the result being not really great for the employees' creativity or job security. It's also worth remembering that in many cases, those same developers were either in dire financial trouble, or faced a growth bottleneck, so refusing the deal might not have necessarily been better for them either. It's one of those things where you often have to take everything you've got as a company, toss the dice - and you won't be the same company as before, but you have to hope you're still making some kind of good games (and still around as a company) a few years down the line.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Tigranes

[Volourn]

Obsidian is not a company anymore. They are a division of MS.

[SonicMage117]

Very true and those are good points.

 

 

 

 

Which got me thinking...

 

Personally I'd much rather see a company as such do a deal with "the devil" to stay alive and make games differently, which p1sses off the original fanbase and die eventually in years to come THAN to see them decline the contract, die as a company beloved for games like Pillars/Tyranny, being praised for not taking the contract at the expense of keeping their doors open. I know some people here might have preferred the latter (aa they've already stated here) - for them to have declined the contract and risked everything by continuing to do things like they were - but those people aren't even aware that this is which what was already sinking them financially and that's hella sad right there, to me, that people would rather have them sinking at their expense - to continue create Crpg, rather than to thrive as a developer, even if it's under the shackles of Microsoft, it's still better than going out on Pillars/Tyranny when they could have a chance to do so much better.

[M4xw0lf]

KotOR III and New Vegas 2 when? 

[SonicMage117]

KotOR III and New Vegas 2 when?

Fanbase:

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen, don't count on it. "

 

Microsoft:

"That's what they said about us buying Obsidian too ;)"

 

#Savage

[Leferd]

I'd like to see a Microsoft Office cRPG. The hero protagonist, recently-hired, forms a party among low-performing employees and level up and quest/politic their way to obtain control of the development of the Microsoft Office suite of products.

[Enoch]

Microsoft owns Freelancer IP. Sweet Jesus, I didn't even know how much I want a space sim by Obsidian. Different ships would be like classes and you'd get money from missions to upgrade your ship. It would be like a RPG in disguise in space!

A Freelancer-type game has long been what I've deeply wanted Bioware to do with the Mass Effect universe.  So, yes, this.

[LadyCrimson]

The video made me feel like I was watching something on the history channel or maybe an infomercial. I can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason I felt a little odd while watching it. No, that's not an angry criticism, it was just rather strange - the end of a "personal era" vibe perhaps.

 

If there's one thing I've learned over the many years, it's that there is no such thing as true permanence. Obsidian has made good games in the past which I've loved very much and even when it wasn't a game I was personally interested in, I admired their efforts/the folks behind it. So now, one moment of time is finished while another moment begins.

 

I must admit I'm generally pessimistic about these kinds of deals, in terms of the long haul. Pessimistic in terms of the big corp. actually keeping their hands mostly off for more than 2-3 years, if you know what I mean. But who knows, I don't have a crystal ball. Maybe in terms of games made, it'll be an interesting partnering and pessimism will be overturned. Or not. More importantly however, I wish Obsidian/gang good luck and hope it all turns out well and that THEY, those that actually work there, feel happy and successful.

 

So Obsidian, "you do you," as they say, whatever that may be. "Lucky-Cat Hugs!"

 

Oh and if you can, it'd nice if you were able to keep these forums up through it all. I'd hate to "move."

[AwesomeOcelot]

Umm, what? You think they would first buy a developer then immediately after hurt the brand name they just paid millions of dollars for by releasing something rushed.

Yes, they do that all the time when it comes to launch titles and money grabbing sequels. Ever heard of KOTOR 2? This is Microsoft we're talking about, it's not like they're an unknown quantity.

Not to mention, you forget the fact that Microsoft gets a cut from every sale on XBOX + whatever Obsidian's cut is of the sales.

Obsidian's cut? Since when?

They would be shooting themselves in the leg if they did that.

Developers have been bought and scrapped the projects they were working on before now. Obsidian almost went under a few years ago when Microsoft suddenly changed their mind about a project.

 

It wouldn't be so bad if you weren't aware of these practices that are quite common amongst big publishers, but Microsoft has a history of doing this with Obsidian, so it's not like what I wrote is bizarre or out of the question.

[Gorgon]

The video made me feel like I was watching something on the history channel or maybe an infomercial. I can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason I felt a little odd while watching it. No, that's not an angry criticism, it was just rather strange - the end of a "personal era" vibe perhaps.

 

I think the cinematographic term is industrial film making. It's always cringy. 

[tinysalamander]

It was good while it lasted, I guess.