Obsidian's Secret Project

[Morgoth]

NC = Josh's project?

 

Please say it ain't so.

 

I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.

 

But from everything we know.... it is.

 

I don't believe that. Josh's project wasn't even Next-Gen.

 

And they still got 116 people left, they have to work on something besides SP.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I doubt everyone was interested in updating their LinkedIn after being laid off, though.

[Flouride]

I doubt everyone was interested in updating their LinkedIn after being laid off, though.

 

Aye, I bet most of them got really really drunk. Down to 114 now.

[C2B]

Obsidian's ill-fated 'North Carolina' game was slated for the next Xbox and published by Microsoft, according to sources familiar with the project who spoke to Kotaku today.

Yesterday, after almost seven months of development, Microsoft cancelled the project, our sources said. Obsidian consequently had to let go of 30 people, as reported by several outlets this morning.

One source close to the project informed Kotaku that Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart choked up while addressing the company during a meeting yesterday afternoon. While he normally projects loudly, the source said, he was chillingly quiet while informing staff that North Carolina had been cancelled.

 

http://kotaku.com/5893427/rumor-obsidians-cancelled-project-was-for-the-next-xbox-published-by-microsoft

[serch]

Man, I want Obsidian to work. 6 months with no salaries for owners means that they are really trying to share the pain. Best of lucks for those of you that got laid off.

 

EDIT: As I didn't hate Microsoft enough by now.

Edited March 15, 2012 by serch

[Sannom]

The lay-offs suck. The cancellation of yet another Obsidian project sucks. But this latest development, if true, worries me the most : apparently the owners went without a salary for the entire production of that project, wouldn't that mean that the company was in a pretty bad shape before, and that the cancellation of that project will just make things worse?

[Flouride]

 

http://kotaku.com/58...ed-by-microsoft

 

 

So, I guess I'll buy PS4 nextgen instead of Xbox18000

[PoetAndMadman]

****

[Gorth]

I'm sad they lose a project and the people working on it. In a competitive environment you need success stories and a positive "I can do this!" spirit, not the doom and gloom in the lockerroom after your face hit the canvas

 

I don't even feel like making jokes about what people can do with next gen consoles.

[Zoma]

What now though? Seems Obsidian is running out of alleys to run except through kickstarter's door. But its unlikely they'll function as a mid-sized developer anymore.

[WorstUsernameEver]

What now though? Seems Obsidian is running out of alleys to run except through kickstarter's door. But its unlikely they'll function as a mid-sized developer anymore.

 

Obsidian as small-sized developers like Double Fine would be a better alternative than Obsidian disbanding and its talent bleeding in other places to me, but you have to wonder if that's possible. And either way, a lot of people would be out of a job, which is horrible :/

[Flouride]

Obsidian as small-sized developers like Double Fine would be a better alternative than Obsidian disbanding and its talent bleeding in other places to me, but you have to wonder if that's possible. And either way, a lot of people would be out of a job, which is horrible :/

 

I imagine South Park still employs about 40 to 50 people. That would leave about 40 to 50 people for other projects. Seeing how much money Wasteland 2 has gathered in such short time (even though InExile hasn't done any remarkable games) is good sign. Obsidian should be able to double the amount they have gathered for Wasteland 2 so far, that would give another 10 to 20 people something to do. I would personally give money to two Kickstarter games if that would mean the people will get to keep their jobs. Makes you wonder how good of a game they could come up with the over 2 million Double Fine got as funding...

 

Or they might try to push South Park faster depending on the deal they have with Matt & Trey and THQ. THQ is bleeding money, so I'm sure they would gladly get the game out sooner than later.

 

A lot is hanging in the balance though, they need another deal soon with South Park about to be released in Q3/Q4. Hopefully the deal they have on it isn't as bad for them as the one with Bethesda. And ffs, some publisher better pick up PNC (especially if it's that Defiance game).

[Morgoth]

If Obsidian does own Alpha Protocol, they should make a tactical isometric-view RPG, and call it....Alpha Protocol: Infiltrator.

 

I'd throw money at that.

 

But yes, Double Fine broke up into several smaller teams. Not sure if I want Obsidian to go the same route, but it's certainly better than going bust.

[Labadal]

AP IP belongs to SEGA. (Unfortunately.)

[WorstUsernameEver]

Kickstarter is really cool but it's not really a sustainable way to do business for a studio of the size of Obsidian, I think. I mean $1 million is a really tight budget for an RPG too, and Fargo was 100% aware that asking more was gonna stretch it. At most you could a project and then, assuming the Kickstarter and the project goes smooth, you could use the extra profit gained from the sales to fund something else.

 

EDIT: And don't get me wrong, I do want a Kickstarter from Obsidian.

Edited March 15, 2012 by WorstUsernameEver

[Lexx]

I have a hard time to believe that anything more than like 3 to 5 million dollars are even possible with Kickstarter (at least in one month). Also, as everyone probably knows, it's unlikely that this will hold up for a longer time... And: If the games made via Kickstarterfund tend to be ****, nobody will give money to it anymore anyway.

 

Long story short, yeah, I am pretty sure you can't survive over a longer time just with Kickstarter-like stuff.

[Zoma]

I agree that its not a sustainable way on kickstart. But its one way for Obsidian to finally own their own original IP that if successful, it can be used as a source of bread and butter in the long run through digital downloads ect.

 

In addition, Obsidian could do more in some ways due to their existing facilities like mo-cap studio and sound engineers, as well as the Onyx engine albeit a dumbed down version.

[C2B]

You don't need to survive solely on Kickstarter. It just has to help tiding over till a new project comes along.

 

Didn't Schaefer say too that they went the Kickstarter route apart from the adventure gig because they would have had to fire people otherwise?

Edited March 15, 2012 by C2B

[WorstUsernameEver]

You don't need to survive solely on Kickstarter. It just has to help tiding over till a new project comes along.

 

Didn't Schaefer say too that they went the Kickstarter route apart from the adventure gig because they would have had to fire people otherwise?

 

I don't know about that since I didn't follow it too closely, but tiding until a new project comes along sounds sensible. Not sure if that could have stopped the lay-offs that occurred though, sustaining all those people requires lots of money unfortunately :/

[Zoma]

Yeah. Last I heard Obsidian burns through 1 million per month in expenses.

[thesisko]

I don't think you guys are realizing what kind of possibilities Kickstarter holds for a mid-sized developer, even a bigger one like Obsidian.

The initial funding pays for the game's budget just like a publisher would, but once the game is released, the developer will not only own the IP and all assets but get to keep all future profits.

 

One single successful game could generate millions of dollars and keep on generating money long after it's release. This is something most independent developers dream of, but with publisher funding it's hard to generate any excess profits once the budget of the game has been paid.

 

Given the high profile of Obsidian's talent (MCA, Tim Cain, Sawyer), they could potentially fund a more expensive game than Brian Fargo. It would only need to sell a few hundred thousand to generate enough money for Obsidian to be able to easily self-fund their future games.

Edited March 15, 2012 by thesisko

[Tale]

Everytime I hear about projects getting cancelled, I get Ritual and Ensemble flashbacks. And if this was Sawyer's project, that's a great loss for us all. Is Obsidian running just the South Park and one other team now? And we don't know what the other team is? Or do they still have three projects in the pipe?

[Flouride]

Kickstarter is really cool but it's not really a sustainable way to do business for a studio of the size of Obsidian, I think. I mean $1 million is a really tight budget for an RPG too, and Fargo was 100% aware that asking more was gonna stretch it. At most you could a project and then, assuming the Kickstarter and the project goes smooth, you could use the extra profit gained from the sales to fund something else.

 

 

No one is suggesting they should go fully to Kickstarter projects. But if InXile can raise 1 million in just 3 days, I'm pretty sure Obsidian would get double if not even triple that amount in a month. You can do a fairly good quality indie rpg with that money and if it's succesfull they get some income from sales when it's released. And this while still doing work for publishers.

Also it's an opportunity do something of their own, and it will give them some cash flow while looking for the next two AAA projects.

[Gfted1]

Everytime I hear about projects getting cancelled, I get Ritual and Ensemble flashbacks. And if this was Sawyer's project, that's a great loss for us all. Is Obsidian running just the South Park and one other team now? And we don't know what the other team is? Or do they still have three projects in the pipe?

 

Isnt the other team on Wheel of Time?

[WorstUsernameEver]

 

Isnt the other team on Wheel of Time?

 

The Wheel of Time is pretty much vaporware. Not Obsidian's fault in this case at least, Red Eagle is just kind of sitting there with the license and doesn't seem to have their **** together.