Sales Projections

[Bryy]

If the game is really bad then sales will be terrible.

If the game is good then sales will be good.

This is a terrible, terrible statement.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

The only costs I can truly see Obsidian incurring here are opportunity costs. They are not risking much of their own capital--if any. The only thing they are losing is money which could have been made producing content for other people's IP. That potential cash is surely missed, but that all it was, a possibility. With Pillars of Eternity, they are waging a gambit of love with other people's money and their own reputation.

 

It's an investment in the most conventional and textbook sense. Consumption is forgone in the present to create capital goods (intellectual property, game creation tools, etc.) with the aims of greater further goods produced. Investing is an inherently risky proposition for any industry. Ultimately, the only true risk from a business perspective that Obsidian is exposing itself to are smirches on its reputation. Nobody will forgive them if the game is buggy, or lack-luster. Nobody will over-look the restrictions of their budget, because Obsidian's woes have always been about control.

 

I'm optimistic though. I believe that they love what they are doing foremost, while having enough terror looming over the horizon to keep them hyper vigilant. The game will initially be played by people who are receptive to what this type of game is and has to offer. Critics holding the reigns of industry were weened on these games as kids and adolescents. All Obsidian has to do is not trip, and a combinations of encouraging reviews, nostalgia, curiosity, and an enticing entrance price will do the rest. Tint my glasses rose-colored, but I see champagne in Obsidian's future.

[Karranthain]

How much would the Arcanum license be worth at this point anyway? Uhm if anyone has a fair estimate.

 

Here's another idea - what if Obsidian's steampunk game would instead take place in the world of PE, only few hundred years later and during an industrial revolution?

 

I could see Obisidian doing some very interesting things with it - perhaps even acknowledging certain player-influenced events that took place during the timeline of PE?

Edited May 15, 2014 by Karranthain