Obsidian future plans for PoE series

[juanval]

After finishing PoE2 I see that Deadfire is a great RPG game (I read steam reviews and they are very positive too).

In comparison with Tiranny or Pathfinder, PoE2 has less steam reviews, so this means it has less popularity than the other two games.

Obsidian was excited to release and show PoE2, and even one dev said they have a complete worldmap of Eora for new games, but, after the lower reception Deadfire has had, I wonder if there will be a PoE3 or perhaps another isometric game in Eora's setting.

We are close to 1 year anniversary of the release and this forum is completely abandoned by Obsidian devs. That makes me think in a pessimistic way.

What do you think? Will we enjoy another Eora's gem in the future or Obsidian will move to other different projects?

Any info from any Obsidian dev would be much appreciated.

[Almaar]

Most of all, I don't know if Microsoft will be interested in producing such a niche type of game.

Isometric crpgs are not very popular and don't fit the console market.

I didn't like Deadfire that much (as it gave me "Skyrim feelings" in the sense that the side/faction quest are completely detach from the main quest and the Watcher has no reason for doing them) but i'm invested in this series. I love the gameplay, the setting, the characters from the first game and i want to know how it ends the Watcher story.

 

[MaxQuest]

On 4/28/2019 at 11:51 AM, juanval said:

We are close to 1 year anniversary of the release and this forum is completely abandoned by Obsidian devs. That makes me think in a pessimistic way.

What do you think? Will we enjoy another Eora's gem in the future or Obsidian will move to other different projects?

I really hope there will be PoE3 in not so distant future. And I'd also love to play some other RPGs from Obsidian IN ADDITION to PoE3 (and hopefully not space or fallout related - just not my thing when it comes to rpgs, even through I'm eager to try Outer Space Worlds). NWN3 would be also great!

But the future seems to be quite unclear. As there have been a quite sensible lack of communication from Obsidian devs. 

Edited April 29, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Evange]

PoE2 ended on a cliffhanger so it will really suck if there isn't a part 3 to tie up all the loose ends. However i do agree with you that cRPG is really a niche genre and with Deadfire abysmal sales the future looks bleak. I remembered reading somewhere that Josh is taking a break from the PoE series too.

[DozingDragon]

PoE 1 sold over a million copies. Even looking past Deadfire’s estimated sales figures, there is no way an IP with that kind of reach is entirely scuttled by Obsidian and Microsoft. Maybe it means that we won’t see another Unity-based PoE for a while (it could still happen as part of the GamesPass program), but if Obsidian is actually developing a Skyrim-like game using UE then I wager it would be part of the PoE IP. 

[TheisEjsing]

Like the most of this forum, I hope PoE III is secretly in production now. But it kinda seems like the team behind the games needed some time from it all after the second one finished. So a break was/is probably needed.

I hope Microsoft will bet on another PoE game for their game catalogue, since it was OE's poster game when they bought them. I personally think they should do a third part as isometric game in the same style as the first two games. If they, god forbid, wanna do a MMO type game in full 3D with the IP, they should keep it apart from the Watcher Saga, imo. 

Edited April 28, 2019 by TheisEjsing

[Wormerine]

Considering that Deadfire clearly leads into PoE3, it would be sucky if the game to be not released in the near future. I would hope that folks at Obs are interested in continuing the series, even if they might change a wee bit. 

Even though Deadfire was released a year ago, the last content drop was just few months ago, and there is still a team working on Deadfire. If one of the secret projects is PoE3, it is in very early stages, and we might not hear details about it for a while - probably even longer if they won’t use crowdfunding (which considering they are owned by a corporation, i don’t think it would be appropriate to do so).

[Gromnir]

8 hours ago, MaxQuest said:

I really hope there will be PoE3 in not so distant future. And I'd also love to play some other RPGs from Obsidian IN ADDITION to PoE3 (and hopefully not space or fallout related - just not my thing when it comes to rpgs, even through I'm eager to try Outer Space). NWN3 would be also great!

But the future seems to be quite unclear. As there have been a quite sensible lack of communication from Obsidian devs. 

if the future is "quite unclear," and the obsidians do not know whether or not they are doing a poe3, then we should be worried for obsidian. 

am gonna be positive and assume obsidian knows what is or is not happening with a poe3 development, but is no longer solely up to them to decide when to announce such. 

genuine uncertainty?  that would be bad.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[InsaneCommander]

PoE3 is a "Schrödinger's game": it's both in development and not in development.

[Gromnir]

5 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

PoE3 is a "Schrödinger's game": it's both in development and not in development.

...

often overlooked is that the cat dies regardless in schrödinger's thought experiment. as such is perhaps not the best omen for poe3.

HA! Good Fun!

[InsaneCommander]

1 minute ago, Gromnir said:

...

often overlooked is that the cat dies regardless in schrödinger's thought experiment. as such is perhaps not the best omen for poe3.

HA! Good Fun!

Not necessarily. If they reveal it is not in development, that doesn't mean they can't develop it later.

Assuming they use the PoE2 system and resources, it should be easier to make than PoE2, so I'm confident we will see it eventually.

[Wormerine]

17 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Not necessarily. If they reveal it is not in development, that doesn't mean they can't develop it later.

Assuming they use the PoE2 system and resources, it should be easier to make than PoE2, so I'm confident we will see it eventually.

It's Obsidian, remember? Surely, they will complicate things for themselves by being creative.

[-dib-]

18 hours ago, MaxQuest said:

and hopefully not space or fallout related - just not my thing when it comes to rpgs, even through I'm eager to try Outer Space

Sounds very contradictive considering Outer Space is a combination of, specifically, those two things.

[AndreaColombo]

Count me in with those who hope PoE 3 will come.

I would prefer it be a party-based isometric game like the first two as that's my preferred genre; to date, I've been unable to finish an aRPG regardless of its quality (that includes The Witcher 3, arguably one of the best aRPG released.)

But so long as I can purchase the game from GoG, I'll buy anything that has the PoE brand as I want to see where the lore goes.

[juanval]

Watching the positive critics of PoE2 on Steam I think that, if Obsidian choose a good setting and plot, PoE3 could be a more succesfull game than Pathfinder or Tiranny.

Choosing a setting like Deadfire perhaps was a risky election.

 

[MaxQuest]

4 hours ago, -dib- said:

Sounds very contradictive considering Outer Space is a combination of, specifically, those two things.

It is. And I realize it 

It's kinda an irrational thing. For example I love Galactic Civilizations series which is a space strategy. And I remember playing starcraft like 15 years ago just fine.

But as for space/fallout RPGs... I am aware only of Fallout and Mass Effect series. And was trying to get into them at some point, but when watching gameplay streams on Twitch..  I felt an unusual for me aversion when seeing that tomboy mascot, green interface of fallout, facial expressions of ME, and shooting combat (which gave an impression that targeting is more important than whatever character building was previously done). That said I would probably give them a try, if someone told me that my weird inner resistance is completely unbased, and that these series have deep character build customization, interesting and balanced combat (were talents matter a lot, but are not broken/op), and an engaging story were protagonist has the ability to shape/change the world (and is not railroaded to a single ending).  <- and that's why I am eager to try Outer Space Worlds, because so far I hope it fits these erm ~requirements~.

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by MaxQuest

[daven]

Wait i'm getting confused here, do you mean Outer Worlds? Or another game called Outer Space?

[MaxQuest]

Oops. I meant The Outer Worlds)

[Moriendor]

Like just about everyone else here I'd love to see a PoE 3 rather sooner than later (since I "have to" wait for the GOTY it is many years away for me personally anyway) but I don't think it is very realistic at this point. Microsoft bought Obsidian for one specific purpose and that is to win the next gen console war against Sony via better exclusives. Microsoft has been left in the dust this current generation. They do not want this to happen again and have acquired many devs including Obsidian in order to kick Sony's butt come the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.

No matter what MS and Obsidian are saying on the matter, I'm not convinced that Obsidian can just roll on as they please. They have a certain number x of employees and they can work on a certain number y of projects simultaneously. Microsoft is going to want a strong focus on exclusive quality games that shift console units.

Is PoE 3 realistically a game that fits that bill? Not really. It looks like the sales of Deadfire pretty much fell off a cliff compared to the first game in spite of being a better/improved game in many ways. This was probably due to market saturation and the fact that the craving for a "next gen Baldur's Gate" had been satisfied.

My guess is it will now all depend on the console sales performance of Deadfire. They might be hoping to reach Divinity Original Sin levels thanks to the newly introduced TBM. But if they don't, well, then I'm afraid we will be waiting a very looong time for a third installment.

[umie214]

i'm really hoping for a PoE3. Deadfire got so many things right (and a few things left unfinished). After my first playthrough (154 hours), I hopped right into the second...this game will leave me thirsty for more.  it also ruined DoS2 for me (which I played for 450 hours), but that's another topic.

[bringingyouthefuture]

I agree about shooting CRPGs, I enjoy the medieval and colonial settings much better - there is just something satisfying about CRPG combat with magic and magic weapons that make it so much more fun - I tried playing Wasteland 2 but couldn't get into it ... POE3 is a must - and if Microsoft wants to win they need solid RPG games exclusive to their console right!?

In the grander scheme of classic RPGs series - not everyone needs to be the best game ever - so it seems silly for Obsidian to abandon POE3 just yet, especially with all the positive reviews it got ...

[daven]

Console wars... ha! It just sounds so lame. This is still a thing?!  Agh I'm getting old.

[Potwizz]

I wouldn't get my hopes up for a PoE3 any time soon, given most development is focused on Outer Worlds currently and I now that Microsoft owns Obsidian it's easy to entertain the thought that the first game they want to make (With a bigger more solid budget) is something that appeals to a broader market. But that said, I love the series and I do hope that we some day will go back to Eora! I am almost certain it will happen at some point. Sawyer is currently working on the Pillars TTRPG and if Pillars really was scrapped forever, I doubt there be any incentive to do this (Unless it's purely a passion project).

And what has been pointed out, Deadfire was recieved well, it just didn't sell that well (to my understanding). Pillars is kinda also Obsidians child in many aspects and I doubt they would want to just abandon it.

[Boeroer]

Outer Worlds is done by a different team than PoE and Deadfire were. Just because they are currently developing Outer Worlds does not mean they are doing nothing else.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Boeroer
oh the typos...

[Wormerine]

11 hours ago, daven said:

Console wars... ha! It just sounds so lame. This is still a thing?!  Agh I'm getting old.

Don’t worry, we might be on a verge of the Great Storefront War instead. Exciting times.