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Company News Obsidian reportedly about to be acquired by Microsoft

Belegarsson

Think about hairy dwarfs all the time ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Patron
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
1,261
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Uwotopia
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Out there somewhere, MCA is reading this, and

kkJk5jT.png
 

Lawntoilet

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2018
Messages
1,840
If this puts Feargus on the out, it's a good thing.
If even 10% of what MCA said about his management practices is true, I can't imagine he'll be able to stay under the radar long before getting booted.

If we take Bioware as a case study - they put out 2 decent games after getting bought out in my opinion, DA:O and Mass Effect (I actually didn't mind ME2 or ME3 either for sci-fi pulp, but they weren't RPGs anymore). The :decline: had already started at Bioware at that point too, so we might get 3 more decent RPGs from Obsidian before they end up shunted to some retarded MMO department.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Don't be fooled by Microsoft, they aren't much different from EA, Age of Empires Definitive Edition was a mess, Microsoft pushed the game out of the door without fucking match making, exclusive for a certain version of Windows 10 and on the Microsoft store, the game had graphics that managed to be worse than the original Age of Empires too. They are seeking developers to produce popamole exclusives for Xbox One as they are being slaughtered by Sony on that front, you can consider any isometric RPG/traditional RPG inspired project from Obsidian an extreme low probability.

They want popamole exclusives to feed the Xbone and that is it.

Interesting is that I don't give a single fuck anyway, Obsidian completed its metamorphosis on a mediocre company as any other on the market anyway, their especial sthick of well written RPGs isn't a reality anymore, so nothing of value was lost. If they fail, they will be shot in the head by Microsoft and if they succeed, they will become like Raven, technically still existing and technically still making FPS games but now completely assimilated on the Borg manufacturing plants of Borg-Activision, shitting Call of Duty games forever, it will be just a zombie name that mean nothing anymore.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
Microsoft have hired some world class talent to go over Obsidians books, and are quite certain that buying the firm will be profitable. I never knew Stevie Wonder did accounting but there you go.
 

Mustawd

Guest
Why would you assume that?

Honestly, I don’t see why Microsoft would want to acquire Obsidian other than the PoE IP and the fact that it has a core team in place they can pump resources into so they can make console rpgs.

I doubt they give two shits about Lenny and Timmy.

The Outer Worlds IP belongs to Obsidian and most of the company's employees are now working on it. If you buy Obsidian today, you're doing it to release Tim and Leonard's game, not for that last PoE2 DLC.

An IP that hasn’t produced anything so far. In terms of a large company acquirig a smaller studio with projects in the pipeline, let’s not forget that Disney completly scrapped all the Star Wars projects in progress at the time of the LucasArts acquisition in favor of their own interpretations. I wouldn’t be surprised if that project is in trouble.

We’ll see. Would love to see it come to fruition.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,326
Location
Flowery Land
Let us look at current Obsidian and be honest. It is already not Obsidian as we knew it.

So nothing of value is going to be lost.

Yeah, I can't really tell what MS suits think they'll get beyond a name, the mediocre PoE and the dialog tools they made for Onyx (before porting them to other engines). At least Ninja Theory had motion capture stuff (which was the primary reason they lasted so long in the first place) lots of studios wouldn't mind having.
 

Big Wrangle

Guest
Feargus is a buisnessman, not a creator. As long as he manages to get the big profit, it's all good.
 

Decado

Old time handsome face wrecker
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Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
2,544
Location
San Diego
Codex 2014
Lots of companies are realizing they need smaller, "indie" shops in their stables. You can't just put one blockbuster out every 18 months -- they used to know this, they forgot in the early 2000s and now they're remembering. Especially since game development has gotten easier and more standardized with tools like Unity. This is why Take 2 opened Private Division, and why Sony and Nintendo have been pushing indie games on their platforms for years now.
 

Zakhad

Savant
Joined
Dec 10, 2012
Messages
284
Location
Gurtex
Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole Round Table is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world;
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
Lots of companies are realizing they need smaller, "indie" shops in their stables. You can't just put one blockbuster out every 18 months -- they used to know this, they forgot in the early 2000s and now they're remembering. Especially since game development has gotten easier and more standardized with tools like Unity. This is why Take 2 opened Private Division, and why Sony and Nintendo have been pushing indie games on their platforms for years now.
Competition over shelf space contributed to this, but now that digital distribution is running fine and well on consoles, it's no longer an issue.
 

Shin

Cipher
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
677
Oh boy, can't wait for Dungeon Siege IV..! Or heck, a new South Park game..! Or that amazing Pathfinder game for iOS finally ported to PC..!
 

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