Obsidian Project to be announced at GDC 2014

[Darth Trethon]

Anything Obsidian does is pure excellence. I bought South Park the Stick of Truth just because it has Obsidian's name on it and it's great.....if Obsidian could make a South Park game great they can make anything great no matter what it is. So whatever they are doing they've got my support. 

 

I would absolutely love Fallout 4 but after the shenanigans Bethesda pulled after New Vegas and refusing to pay Obsidian I don't think we're going to see another partnership between Obsidian and Bethesda again. 

[Spider]

Bethesda didn't pull any shenanigans. They followed their contract. The issue isn't that Bethesda did anything wrong it's that the clause was crap to begin with.

 

Or at least it seems it was as things stand. Had FO:NV been a critical hit but a financial fiasco, obsidian would have gotten paid.

 

But bonuses based on performance has to be a smarter than bonuses based on opinions.

 

Regardless, I am sure Obsidian would jump at the chance to work with Bethesda again, in business you can never be upset at the other party fulfilling their part of the deal. You just have to make better deals.

[Flouride]

Bethesda didn't pull any shenanigans. They followed their contract. The issue isn't that Bethesda did anything wrong it's that the clause was crap to begin with.

 

 

 

You mean other than change the release date so they had less time to finish the project than originally promised? I would call that shenanigans...

[Elerond]

 

Bethesda didn't pull any shenanigans. They followed their contract. The issue isn't that Bethesda did anything wrong it's that the clause was crap to begin with.

 

 

 

You mean other than change the release date so they had less time to finish the project than originally promised? I would call that shenanigans...

 

And doing half asset job in QA, which was their responsibility, especially considering that criticism that F:NV got was from how full of bugs it was on launch day.

[Spider]

I wasn't aware of them changing the release date, hadn't seen anything about that. Then for that yeah they do deserve some criticism for sure.

 

How poorly their QA was is hard to determine, it could also be that there were so many bugs in the game that they were completely swamped.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Spider

[Apatia]

I remember reading about the changed release date somewhere. Was it the case when they basically learnt about the new release date from an ad before Bethesda actually informed them about it or am I making stuff up?

 

Anyho, tomorrow GDC 2014 starts but does anyone know when will they actually make the announcement? Can't wait!

[teknoman2]

i dont remember for what game, but Urquhart said in an interview that they had the original plan to make come out in december, then the publisher said "you know, we like where this project is going so we will push back the release to april to give you time to make the most of it". they changed the work plan to match the new date, and in november they were told "we changed our mind, we want it for chrismas"

[Apatia]

i dont remember for what game, but Urquhart said in an interview that they had the original plan to make come out in december, then the publisher said "you know, we like where this project is going so we will push back the release to april to give you time to make the most of it". they changed the work plan to match the new date, and in november they were told "we changed our mind, we want it for chrismas"

I believe this was KOTOR2.

[Sannom]

I remember reading about the changed release date somewhere. Was it the case when they basically learnt about the new release date from an ad before Bethesda actually informed them about it or am I making stuff up?

 

Anyho, tomorrow GDC 2014 starts but does anyone know when will they actually make the announcement? Can't wait!

Didn't Obsidian participate in the creation of the trailer with the release date? How could they have been surprised with the release date?

 

I think people are starting to make s*** up to continue blaming the publishers for every bad thing about Obsidian's games. As far as we know, Obsidian's relationship with Bethesda was one of, if not the, best they've ever had with a publisher. The Metacritic thing is an unfortunate turn of events that Urquhart has decided never to repeart, but I'm not sure Bethesda or Obsidian can be blamed for it.

[Darth Trethon]

Bethesda didn't pull any shenanigans. They followed their contract. The issue isn't that Bethesda did anything wrong it's that the clause was crap to begin with.

 

Or at least it seems it was as things stand. Had FO:NV been a critical hit but a financial fiasco, obsidian would have gotten paid.

 

But bonuses based on performance has to be a smarter than bonuses based on opinions.

 

Regardless, I am sure Obsidian would jump at the chance to work with Bethesda again, in business you can never be upset at the other party fulfilling their part of the deal. You just have to make better deals.

Obsidian missed the mark by 1 point on a scale of 100 and the game was a financial success. That's the part where a sense of decency and honor needs to be present....but Bethesda have shown themselves to be petty and greedy. I see no reason why Obsidian or anyone else for that matter would ever deal with them again. Doing business with someone who robbed you once is plain retarded.

[Longknife]

I think the announcement will be Obsidian developing Fallout 4 for Bethesda, while Bethesda is making The Elder Scrolls VI

 

 

I am prepared to sacrifice 14 lambs and 3 young pastey virgins to make this happen.

[Wolfenbarg]

Obsidian missed the mark by 1 point on a scale of 100 and the game was a financial success. That's the part where a sense of decency and honor needs to be present....but Bethesda have shown themselves to be petty and greedy. I see no reason why Obsidian or anyone else for that matter would ever deal with them again. Doing business with someone who robbed you once is plain retarded.

 

But in collaboration with that company, they created the best game they've ever made. They clearly love that license. Even after how distant and messy their relationship was with LucasArts, they wanted a chance to work with them again to make KotOR 3. Besides, we don't know all the details of that working relationship. Whether or not they want to work with them again may not be as dicey as it looks to us.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Wolfenbarg

[Apatia]

Didn't Obsidian participate in the creation of the trailer with the release date? How could they have been surprised with the release date?

Like I said, I read it from somewhere and asked if that was it or was it something else but I do know I have read that something similar has happened. I just didn't remember if it was with New Vegas or was it even with Obsidian to begin with.

[Longknife]

 

Obsidian missed the mark by 1 point on a scale of 100 and the game was a financial success. That's the part where a sense of decency and honor needs to be present....but Bethesda have shown themselves to be petty and greedy. I see no reason why Obsidian or anyone else for that matter would ever deal with them again. Doing business with someone who robbed you once is plain retarded.

 

But in collaboration with that company, they created the best game they've ever made. They clearly love that license. Even after how distant and messy their relationship was with LucasArts, they wanted a chance to work with them again to make KotOR 3. Besides, we don't know all the details of that working relationship. Whether or not they want to work with them again may not be as dicey as it looks to us.

 

 

 

And this is exactly why people love Obsidian.

 

Some art is made with love, because an idea or concept was important enough to it's creator that they wanted to dedicate a work of art to expressing it and sharing it with all.

Some "art" is manufactured, with money in profit being the core driving force behind it's creation, forcing a product and telling inspiration to hurry it's ass up.

 

Obsidian makes games because they want to, and it shows in the quality of their work. At the very least, while an 84 point score on a website might not win them a big cash price, it certainly earns them some well-deserved respect.

[Spider]

Obsidian missed the mark by 1 point on a scale of 100 and the game was a financial success. That's the part where a sense of decency and honor needs to be present....but Bethesda have shown themselves to be petty and greedy. I see no reason why Obsidian or anyone else for that matter would ever deal with them again. Doing business with someone who robbed you once is plain retarded.

 

 

Yeah, but they missed the mark. Decency and honor has no place in big business (as much as I personally would prefer it to be otherwise). Had the game sold poorly but reviewed well, I am sure Obsidian would still have collected that bonus, even though in that case it wouldn't have been decent for them to do so.

 

Would I have liked Obsidian to get that bonus? Of course I would. I've been posting on these boards since they opened, so obviously I'm a fan of Obsidian. I just don't think we can paint Bethesda as the bad guy for simply upholding their contract.

[Endrosz]

^ What he said. A contract is a contract is a contract. Business is business is business. 84 is less than 85. And what came out of it? Feargus saying in a South Park interview that nowadays Obz doesn't sign development contracts where payment depends on Metacritic scores. It's called "learning the hard way".

 

 

We have a general policy whenever we're talking to different publishers now: we don't do anything that has to do with Metacritic. It's an unfair way of... in a lot of ways it can only be used as a way to take advantage of a developer.

 

The other shenanigans with the deadlines and QA are nasty tho, but sadly, not unique to Bethesda. Kotor 2 was created under similarly unfavorable conditions.

[Noviere]

C'mon Obsidian! Please be something I  want

Edited March 17, 2014 by Noviere

[C2B]

 

Obsidian missed the mark by 1 point on a scale of 100 and the game was a financial success. That's the part where a sense of decency and honor needs to be present....but Bethesda have shown themselves to be petty and greedy. I see no reason why Obsidian or anyone else for that matter would ever deal with them again. Doing business with someone who robbed you once is plain retarded.

 

 

Yeah, but they missed the mark. Decency and honor has no place in big business (as much as I personally would prefer it to be otherwise). Had the game sold poorly but reviewed well, I am sure Obsidian would still have collected that bonus, even though in that case it wouldn't have been decent for them to do so.

 

Would I have liked Obsidian to get that bonus? Of course I would. I've been posting on these boards since they opened, so obviously I'm a fan of Obsidian. I just don't think we can paint Bethesda as the bad guy for simply upholding their contract.

 

 

Basing contracts with contractors (who only get to operate based on said contracts) on something as arbitary and manipulative a score as metacritic IS a shady thing to do.

 

*Big business* is NOT AN EXCUSE REGARDLESS OF ITSELF. You said it yourself *as much as you'd prefer it otherwise*. Shady things NEED to be called out. If it leads to publishers not making questionable Metacritic deals then thats great and what should happen.

 

If you do nothing. NOTHING HAPPENS. And things stay in place.

 

And no, it isn't enough if Obsidian changes their policies. Private developers aren't the ones in power during contract meetings. A publisher can say *Well, that's the deal, you don't like it. You leave* and move on to the next developer. Developers usually don't have that luxury unless they want to lay people off/fold.

 

Edit: Not that Bethesda is the only one at fault here. It is an industry wide issue.

Edited March 17, 2014 by C2B

[WorstUsernameEver]

Man, I was hoping C2B had insider info on the new project that everyone thinks is going to be announced soon, but instead it's just more Metacritic Metadiscussion

 

Anyway, I don't remember anything about Bethesda moving the release date up, and when it was first announced it seemed to pretty much fit everyone's expectations, given the release window was announced a lot earlier (Fall 2010, see the teaser trailer).

[C2B]

Confirmation

 

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/445702367929856000

[Wolfenbarg]

Well on the speakers lists, it says he speaks tomorrow. The other speaker I could find was Justin Bell, who I don't expect to make the announcement unless it turns out to be a rhythm game. 

[Bryy]

I honestly do not expect it to be a second Kickstarter.

[C2B]

I honestly do not expect it to be a second Kickstarter.

 

We already know they are working on one and will announce/publish it before PE's release. And the original GDC info was Katrina Schnell related who is most likely working on it.

 

I'd say Kickstarter isn't that bad a bet. 

[Nines]

Bethesda didn't pull any shenanigans. They followed their contract. The issue isn't that Bethesda did anything wrong it's that the clause was crap to begin with.

 

Or at least it seems it was as things stand. Had FO:NV been a critical hit but a financial fiasco, obsidian would have gotten paid.

 

But bonuses based on performance has to be a smarter than bonuses based on opinions.

 

Regardless, I am sure Obsidian would jump at the chance to work with Bethesda again, in business you can never be upset at the other party fulfilling their part of the deal. You just have to make better deals.

 

Bethesda is a dirty player. If you think that they didn't want to cheat the Obsidian you are wrong. They probably foresaw this kind of situation even before the contract was signed. They might even pay some of the reviewers, or they might push the game to its release.

 

Just read: http://www.destructoid.com/predation-bethesda-tried-to-buy-human-head-255483.phtml

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1fqkcx/ign_bethesda_tried_to_kill_human_head_prey_2_to/

 

The same they probably did with Arkane/Splash Damage/MachineGames. It would be wise for Obsidian to just stay away from Bethesda, otherwise they may end up making endless DLC for Elder Scrolls.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Nines

[HoonDing]

Take off that tinfoil hat.