Obsidian's Secret Project

[Nines]

GR: It's great that you can take an IP that's not original but you can do something completely different and fresh and new.

 

FU: There actually is another game that I can't talk about at all.

 

GR: Are you sure?

 

FU: No, I'll get killed, but it's a licensed product but it's a licensed product that when people hear about it they're going to be "well you had to do that. there's no option, if I was a developer and I was offered that I would just do it.

 

I've heard that it may be a new WoD game - Vampire the Requiem. Can someone at least refute these rumors?

[C2B]

GR: It's great that you can take an IP that's not original but you can do something completely different and fresh and new.

 

FU: There actually is another game that I can't talk about at all.

 

GR: Are you sure?

 

FU: No, I'll get killed, but it's a licensed product but it's a licensed product that when people hear about it they're going to be "well you had to do that. there's no option, if I was a developer and I was offered that I would just do it.

 

I've heard that it may be a new WoD game - Vampire the Requiem. Can someone at least refute these rumors?

 

That was South Park.

[PoetAndMadman]

But there's also another Secret Project, rumored to be a new IP.

[Pop]

From a minute or two ago. Seems unlikely to be related to South Park, and VA stuff is generally worked out pretty late in development, right? Or is that just recording?

 

Anyway, just got some folks into Bloodlines so I'd kill to have another good White Wolf game but that seems a bit unlikely given the sorry state of White Wolf as a company and the Vampire MMO (though maybe Activision still has rights?). More importantly, it's been outright stated that Josh's project is an original IP, possibly the "Like Tolkien if Sauron won" universe Feargus talked up once a year or two back.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Pop

[C2B]

But there's also another Secret Project, rumored to be a new IP.

 

If we take this comment by Feargus to be the same one. Yes.

The ultimate goal for a lot of studios making sequels is to finally jump off and work on their own original IP. Does Obsidian ever want to take that jump? "Absolutely," confirms Urquhart, before going on to say that Obsidian already has an original IP title underway. "We have a whole big cool world idea that we can hopefully talk about soon. That is a whole new world, a whole new thing. It's being put together by Josh Sawyer, who was the project director on Fallout New Vegas, and Chris Avellone is involved."

 

Anthony Davis

 

The secret project that Josh is the project director for ...

Edited January 26, 2012 by C2B

[HoonDing]

More importantly, it's been outright stated that Josh's project is an original IP, possibly the "Like Tolkien if Sauron won" universe Feargus talked up once a year or two back.

Mistborn RPG?

[C2B]

More importantly, it's been outright stated that Josh's project is an original IP, possibly the "Like Tolkien if Sauron won" universe Feargus talked up once a year or two back.

 

Might be. There's also that Josh went to Eidos Montreal last year and they talked with SQE about that project before too. Not to mention Josh's grim dialouge tweet.

[kirottu]

More importantly, it's been outright stated that Josh's project is an original IP, possibly the "Like Tolkien if Sauron won" universe Feargus talked up once a year or two back.

Mistborn RPG?

 

[Nonek]

Wouldn't the fact that the project is secret imply that the game in development is not an original IP? If I were Obsidian and pioneering a new property i'd be touting around every morsel of information I could possibly provide to drum up interest from fans and publishers. Then again i'm no expert on marketing, so maybe I have overlooked something and the game is not under wraps due to publisher stipulation.

[C2B]

Wouldn't the fact that the project is secret imply that the game in development is not an original IP? If I were Obsidian and pioneering a new property i'd be touting around every morsel of information I could possibly provide to drum up interest from fans and publishers. Then again i'm no expert on marketing, so maybe I have overlooked something and the game is not under wraps due to publisher stipulation.

 

Not really. New IP's seem to be kept just as much a secret by publishers as licensed products if not more.

Edited January 26, 2012 by C2B

[WorstUsernameEver]

I don't think Obsidian has quite that contractual power when it comes to approving marketing plans. If I were them, I'd probably try to learn from the Bethesda experience (their PR is some of the best of the industry, have to hand it to Pete Hines), and try to ask for something at least a little similar, check a little bit more what they do with the budget.

 

Of course, I never really got the chance to see one of their contracts, so these are pretty much just clueless assumptions.

[Nonek]

Ah that would explain it then, thank you C2B.

[Morgoth]

GDC seems like the right time to announce new stuff. If not, always count on E3 just to be disappointed that it doesn't show up there either.

[Sannom]

Isn't GDC the wrong event to expect news from? It is developer-centered and is more about the 'meta' aspect of game development than the announcement of new products and news about known ones.

 

Unless I'm confusing GDC with something else. GDC is the Game Developers Conference, right?

[Flouride]

I don't think they will announce it anytime soon if the publisher knows what they are doing. After all the game hasn't been in full development for that long. I would expect announcement late this year.

[Morgoth]

After all the game hasn't been in full development for that long.

How would you know? I don't think Josh & Co were just sitting around over a year after finishing NV and do nothing. Ferg mentioned once something about an XBLA game being released in early 2012? Well, is that still alive? Is that even Josh's project?

[Flouride]

How would you know? I don't think Josh & Co were just sitting around over a year after finishing NV and do nothing. Ferg mentioned once something about an XBLA game being released in early 2012? Well, is that still alive? Is that even Josh's project?

 

Yep, you are right they weren't just sitting around. For example they did the DLCs and some helped on DS3 and who knows how many of that team transferred to South Park team. I think it was Anthony Davis who wrote something about FNV and DS3 being the main reasons they got this project, since they could show how much it would cost them to make the game with Onyx and all that stuff. DS3 was finished some time last spring. To be able to show publishers both the finalized product (DS3) and the budget/resources it took for them to finish it, the game needs to be out. If we follow that logic that would mean the contract was signed last summer/fall and that's when full development most likely started.

 

XBLA = Project Virginia

Josh = Project North Carolina

Edited January 27, 2012 by Flouride

[C2B]

How would you know? I don't think Josh & Co were just sitting around over a year after finishing NV and do nothing. Ferg mentioned once something about an XBLA game being released in early 2012? Well, is that still alive? Is that even Josh's project?

 

Yep, you are right they weren't just sitting around. For example they did the DLCs and some helped on DS3 and who knows how many of that team transferred to South Park team. I think it was Anthony Davis who wrote something about FNV and DS3 being the main reasons they got this project, since they could show how much it would cost them to make the game with Onyx and all that stuff. DS3 was finished some time last spring. To be able to show publishers both the finalized product (DS3) and the budget/resources it took for them to finish it, the game needs to be out. If we follow that logic that would mean the contract was signed last summer/fall and that's when full development most likely started.

 

Davis didn't actually say that. He didn't use the word "since" and so on but both of these things were seperated.

 

That Feargus Interview was in February 2011. Also if it actually turns out that SE is the publisher the DSIII comment makes perfect sense too.

 

 

That said the majority of the project team was likely formed after DSIII and the FNV:DLC's.

[Nines]

That was South Park.

 

Nope. I know about SP and Wheel of Time.

And this is not a new IP.

No, I'll get killed, but it's a licensed product

Edited January 28, 2012 by Nines

[WorstUsernameEver]

The mystery-licensed project Feargus was talking about was South Park.

 

P.S. : The game wasn't announced when Feargus gave that interview, the timing of the announcements matches (wanted to announced it at E3 but they ended up announcing it later in 2011, in December) and Feargus even used pretty much the same words when he commented that Parker & Stone came to Obsidian to ask them if they wanted to do the project. I don't remember where it was said that the other project is a new IP, C2B/Funcroc/Flouride would probably be able to tell you tho'.

Edited January 28, 2012 by WorstUsernameEver

[C2B]

Furthermore, we can conclude that the Wheel of Time project doesn't seem to have started "full development" as of december? (Don't know exactly anymore) 2011.

 

We can conclude this because of:

 

-Obsidian's code names: F:NV was Obsidian's 9th started game, Virginia (which was a cancelled or put on hold XBLA game) was 10th, New York is 11th (which is the SP RPG) and North Carolina (Sawyers) is 12.

 

-Meaning they are working on 2 projects at the moment. According to a tweet by Chris Avellone in early december? 2011 they are working on two projects (SP and NC). Not on three.

 

 

Of course, it could suddenly turn out that Virginia has/had the WOT license. Or something else (like the WOT project not having an Obs project but that would not explain the 2 projects comment). It's speculation here anyway based on the few pieces of information we get. Been wrong before.

Edited January 28, 2012 by C2B

[C2B]

I don't remember where it was said that the other project is a new IP, C2B/Funcroc/Flouride would probably be able to tell you tho'.

 

I quoted it on the last page

 

The ultimate goal for a lot of studios making sequels is to finally jump off and work on their own original IP. Does Obsidian ever want to take that jump? "Absolutely," confirms Urquhart, before going on to say that Obsidian already has an original IP title underway. "We have a whole big cool world idea that we can hopefully talk about soon. That is a whole new world, a whole new thing. It's being put together by Josh Sawyer, who was the project director on Fallout New Vegas, and Chris Avellone is involved."

 

+Several devs hinted strongly to it.

[Nines]

The mystery-licensed project Feargus was talking about was South Park.

 

FU: It'll be an action RPG that's focused on fun, not Dungeon Siege, it's quite a bit different in a different genre with a different camera. - South Park

 

FU: There actually is another game that I can't talk about at all.

 

GR: Are you sure?

 

FU: No, I'll get killed, but it's a licensed product but it's a licensed product that when people hear about it they're going to be "well you had to do that. there's no option, if I was a developer and I was offered that I would just do it."

[WorstUsernameEver]

I'm not sure why you keep quoting that bit as if it's supposed to prove that it's not South Park. Again, that was before South Park was announced. Licensed property that no one would turn down -> South Park.

 

P.S. : South Park is not an action-RPG.

Edited January 28, 2012 by WorstUsernameEver

[C2B]

Edit2:

 

FU: It'll be an action RPG that's focused on fun, not Dungeon Siege, it's quite a bit different in a different genre with a different camera. - South Park

 

This line doesn't refer to South Park but to an "Original XBLA RPG" in the context of the interview. South Park isn't XBLA nor is it original.

Edited January 28, 2012 by C2B