Who owns Obsidian?

[aratuk]

Just curious if Obsidian is owned (in whole or in part) by the five people listed as founding it -- Feargus Urquhart, three Chrises, Darren Monahan. I'm guessing there would be additional investors, and maybe a bunch of other employee shareholders. No parent company, right?

 

(Excuse me if this is widely known or in some obvious place. I looked around the website, searched the forum, read Wikipedia page.)

[C2B]

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

Edited March 30, 2013 by C2B

[Nonek]

Think i've got a piece on a shelf somewhere, yes it's by my collection of Blue John from the Speedwell cavern.

[aratuk]

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

 

They don't seem to be described as owners, but founders. Not necessarily the same. "Founders" would have an ownership stake, but it can actually be a small minority stake depending on the sources of capital for starting the company, etc. From your phrasing, I can't tell if you're saying you know particularly about Obsidian, or if you're just saying founders are owners.

[Apatia]

From what I've gathered they are owners. Or at least Avellone's LinkedIn profile says he's a co-owner.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Apatia

[Malekith]

 

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

 

They don't seem to be described as owners, but founders. Not necessarily the same. "Founders" would have an ownership stake, but it can actually be a small minority stake depending on the sources of capital for starting the company, etc. From your phrasing, I can't tell if you're saying you know particularly about Obsidian, or if you're just saying founders are owners.

This 5 are the only owners i think. Not by the same perscentage, Feargus owns the bigest share and the other's shares may vary, i don't know.

[C2B]

 

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

 

They don't seem to be described as owners, but founders. Not necessarily the same. "Founders" would have an ownership stake, but it can actually be a small minority stake depending on the sources of capital for starting the company, etc. From your phrasing, I can't tell if you're saying you know particularly about Obsidian, or if you're just saying founders are owners.

 

Owners and Founders. Trust me on that. They are refered as such all over including in discussions with (ex)employees. Also their Linkedin-profiles says.

 

I know particulary about Obsidian, do a lot of research. Ofc, research can be wrong too if sources aren't correct.

[C2B]

 

 

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

 

They don't seem to be described as owners, but founders. Not necessarily the same. "Founders" would have an ownership stake, but it can actually be a small minority stake depending on the sources of capital for starting the company, etc. From your phrasing, I can't tell if you're saying you know particularly about Obsidian, or if you're just saying founders are owners.

This 5 are the only owners i think. Not by the same perscentage, Feargus owns the bigest share and the other's shares may vary, i don't know.

 

I'm not so sure Feargus owns the biggest actually. Darren invested a lot too.

 

I think it was mentioned once by Feargus or someone else, but don't remember when.

Edited March 30, 2013 by C2B

[aratuk]

 

 

Yes, the owners own it. Feargus, Avellone, Parker, Jones and Darren. It's not owned by anybody else. AFAIK.

 

They don't seem to be described as owners, but founders. Not necessarily the same. "Founders" would have an ownership stake, but it can actually be a small minority stake depending on the sources of capital for starting the company, etc. From your phrasing, I can't tell if you're saying you know particularly about Obsidian, or if you're just saying founders are owners.

 

Owners and Founders. Trust me on that. They are refered as such all over including in discussions with (ex)employees. Also their Linkedin-profiles says.

 

I know particulary about Obsidian, do a lot of research. Ofc, research can be wrong too if sources aren't correct.

Thanks, that's what I was curious to know… assuming you are a reliable source. 

[Darren Monahan]

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

[Aoyagi]

That's why you're so awesome. If you didn't love so far south, I would move to your are and stalk the office.

 

Seriously though, from what I can tell, privately owned game industry companies are the best (from my point of view).

[aratuk]

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Thanks for the response! It says something I very much like about a company when one of its owners pops up on a message board to answer my random, impertinent question.

 

Also bodes well to hear that you guys are holding your own purse strings. I hadn't expected that.

[Chilloutman]

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Good for you guys, few more projects like P:E and you will be disgustingly rich. Also love your UO avatar.

[Hurlshort]

 

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Good for you guys, few more projects like P:E and you will be disgustingly rich. Also love your UO avatar.

 

Actually that's the exact opposite, in order to get filthy rich they need to sell to a big time publisher.  Kickstarter simply covers base salaries and operating costs, it's not really a windfall.

[C2B]

 

 

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Good for you guys, few more projects like P:E and you will be disgustingly rich. Also love your UO avatar.

 

Actually that's the exact opposite, in order to get filthy rich they need to sell to a big time publisher.  Kickstarter simply covers base salaries and operating costs, it's not really a windfall.

 

?

 

Yes, but he probably meant more Obsidian gaining money through the sales of P:E.

[Hurlshort]

 

 

 

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Good for you guys, few more projects like P:E and you will be disgustingly rich. Also love your UO avatar.

 

Actually that's the exact opposite, in order to get filthy rich they need to sell to a big time publisher.  Kickstarter simply covers base salaries and operating costs, it's not really a windfall.

 

?

 

Yes, but he probably meant more Obsidian gaining money through the sales of P:E.

 

Ah, I read it that he was implying P:E has already made a lot of money.  I hope P:E sells millions when it is released as well.  

[aratuk]

 

 

Yep, the five of us (Feargus, me, and the three Chris') own Obsidian 100%. No outside investors or banks or anything.

 

Good for you guys, few more projects like P:E and you will be disgustingly rich. Also love your UO avatar.

 

Actually that's the exact opposite, in order to get filthy rich they need to sell to a big time publisher.  Kickstarter simply covers base salaries and operating costs, it's not really a windfall.

 

Nope. By self-publishing they get to keep *all* of the profits from sales.

 

Publishers can just pay developers a flat rate to make the game, but no royalties. For instance, Bethesda paid Obsidian a flat rate to make New Vegas, and although Obsidian would have received a bonus if the game scored at least an 85 on Metacritic, it missed by one point.

[Hurlshort]

But by self-publishing they are also taking on all the risks.  Kickstarter is mitigating that a bit by covering all the front end costs, but in order to turn a profit they need to sell copies above and beyond the 74k that go to the backers.  It will be interesting to see how that works out.

[Chilloutman]

Well if they complete P:E in time they are on 0 profit (but we keep their families feed up for year and half) and anything they sell afterward is just pure profit. No middleman helps quite a lot. If they manage to get it on steam then I am quite sure they can make some nice profit from it. Even 100K sold copies is quite nice buck if you dont have producer who would eat it all for marketing bullsh*ts

 

100K*40= 4M - more than we fund on kickstarter and I think its not too fantastic number of sold copies - I would be quite happy if I have 200% refund of invested money

 

There are studios with producers who sells milions of copies and still cry that its not enough (well keeping marketing and DVD production guys alive actually cost a lot when I look on it)

[Jenda]

I'm not sure if the kickstarter money really covers all costs. My guess the development of the game costs a lot more than what was raised on kickstarter, but some of it is simply absorbed by the company and will hopefully be recovered from sales. In other words, it's impossible to hit exactly 0 at the time of release (because it's not an exact science, really), and I think the actual numbers could be in the far negative, because of all the resources Obsidian invested in the game (some pre-kickstarter). I doubt the kickstarter money would cover all the overhead the company generates as well as the actual cost of development. On the other hand, it benefits us all to maintain the illusion that $1 on KS = $1 for game development, because that's what draws the money in.

[Hurlshort]

I agree with Jenda, particularly with a decent sized developer like Obsidian.  Luckily they have other projects that are probably paying to keep the lights on.  Also, that size means turning a $4 million profit will probably be eaten up pretty quickly.  Plus, doesn't Steam get a cut of the sales?

 

Regardless, to reach filthy rich status for the owners, I'm guessing the game needs to move millions of units.    

[alanschu]

 

100K*40= 4M - more than we fund on kickstarter and I think its not too fantastic number of sold copies - I would be quite happy if I have 200% refund of invested money

 

Don't forget that Steam will take their cut (usually believed to be about 30%).

[Chilloutman]

Sure, they will not be filthy rich and yes steam ofcourse take some percentage for sales but I want to point out that even with 100K sold copies there is still a profit. But I think that all cash from kickstarter goes to development. They would create that game even if we put only 1M into it. Where do you think all those money goes? (yeah I know even kickstarter take some percentage from it)

[alanschu]

I am pretty sure they will put all that money into development (although I don't think there is any obligation to).

 

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if additional money was still put into it beyond that.

 

Yes their sales will still make a profit, and yeah they don't need to turn a ton of sales.  Although Feargus has stated that he would love to not have to use Kickstarter again in the future, so it'll still need to have decent sales in order to do that, IMO.