Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[PrettyDeadman]

Both Icewind Dales were objectively superior to Baldur's Gates 1.

 

[DeepOcean]

In a perfect world this MS deal will mean that:

1) Boyarsky&Cain can create and work on whatever they fucking wish to work on with very limited interference from the "Upper Management".
2) Badler will direct the next Pillars of Eternity, finishing the trilogy. With proper marketing the game will end up selling millions of units making Badler a wanted project director.
3) Parker will get to create his own Skyrim (in Pillars universe I presume) that actually ends up being better than anything Bethesda has ever created. Both Parker and Feargus can finally stop talking about creating Skyrimesque game of their own.
4) Josh will finally get to work on his tactical game. The game is perfectly balanced and grognards everywhere are satisfied.
5) Feargus, Parker etc. will retire after their contract obligations are done and someone capable of leading the company will takeover the reins and mistreatment of employees (according to Avellone) will cease.

Though I fear that this will happen:

1) Boyarsky&Cain leave to work on some F2P shit after finishing The Outer Worlds and the 2 year period that they've been asked to stay at the company (presuming they are obligated to stay for a while). They never create anything meaningful and Codex mourns their disappareance every year.
2) Pillars of Eternity 3 will not happen. Half of Codex rejoices, while the other half are looking for sharp objects to hurt themselves. Badler forms a company with a number of Obsidian refugees and they manage to create a very mediocre game that the Codex adores, but no one else plays it.
3) Parker will waste 70 million dollars on his Skyrim game that bombs completely. He will be fired on the spot when 1st reviews are released. Parker's wife finally divorces him and takes half of what he earned from selling the company.
4) Josh never gets to make his tactical game. Instead he will forced to lead Parker's game. He spends 3 very unhappy years working on the game and one day just vanishes with his antique bikes, never to be seen or heard again. Codex members around the globe think they saw someone who looked like Sawyer bicycling past them while humming German/Austrian march songs.
5) Feargus now has enough money for three beachouses. His kid, the one who likes bad pizza gets a job at Obsidian angering Avellone yet again about nepotism. Much like his father before him, the kid slowly progresses from Q&A to leading a studio of his own under Microsoft.
6) No one still knows what Chris Jones does.

I got this ending slide:

"The Incline Dweller, after travelling through the harsh wasteland, finally found Vault 171 again, the Obsidian Vault as people called it, he left it with hope on 2012, seeking salvation for the Incline and endured the wastes for so long gathering valuable resources he suffered much to acquire, now, six years later, with the legendary Kickstarter GECK in hands, the Incline Dweller is finaly back to his home and in time to save it. Waiting for him at the entrance of the vault was the Overseer Feargus...

The overseer approaches the Incline Dweller, strange, why is he alone and the door to the vault locked?

Feargus: Incline Dweller, I'm so happy to see you again and see you have the legendary kickstarter GECK in hands, how wonderful, we are saved!

The incline dweller gives the Kickstarter GECK to the Overseer, finally getting rid of his burden he carried for a long time, now, with hopes of reunion and peace.

As the vault dweller approaches the vault door, the overseer stop him.

Feargus: You see, Incline Dweller, we are happy for your gift to the vault, we really are but there things I have to tell you... you've been a long time on the wastes and the wastes changed you, I admire you, you are a true defender of incline and the wastes only made you tougher but the future of this vault doesn't need you. I can't let you enter, the Kickstarter GECK was never mean to give you peace but to save the Obsidian Vault, you were a part of that but to enter on the vault, you need to forget the wastes and abandon the incline as we won't save a man at the cost of many that are too weak.

I'm not sure you are capable of that, then, you have to return to the wastes and forget this place exists.

The Incline Dweller at first was shocked at the realization that all his work was for nothing and only to the benefit of the Overseer and his cronies and everything was a lie.

With fury, he grabs his trusted 10 mm pistol and before the overseer can blink, one, two flashes, and Overseer Feargus was no more. The Incline Dweller left the GECK in disgust and decided to walk again in the wastes in search of a new place where the Incline can truly flourish.

 

[Luckmann]

Having a hard time getting my head around the business logic here. Microsoft must not be paying very much.

In a world where Fallout has become one of the biggest gaming franchises around, being able to say "From the creators of Fallout" probably doesn't hurt. They're also very clearly trying to build up developers so they don't have the whole lot of nothing they've had this console cycle with their Xbox One.

Hopefully this just means the two thirds of Troika at Obsidian get what they need for whatever. It'd be nice to get something like a big budget Arcanum that also as great combat that's on the level of everything else Arcanum does so fantastically.

At this rate, doesn't every damn studio have claim to "From the creators of (a) Fallout!"?

 

[Vulpes]

If you are not running Linux or BSD by now you are massively retarded.

Don't you know the SJW have come for your Linux and made it submit to their CoC?

Your tone suggests sarcasm, but here's a friendly reminder of the crazies involved and the situation:

Spoiler

Also, this: https://lulz.com/linux-devs-threaten-killswitch-coc-controversy-1252/ & this: https://i.imgur.com/6RrVQZm.png

So let's not pretend this is "muh SJW's xD" or not a legitimate issue. They are literally arguing against meritocracy and merit-based contributions to a bastion of neutrality, where the only thing that mattered previously was competence and willingness, and deliberately politicizing a previously apolitical project based on the false Marxist dogma of "everything is politics anyway lmao?", and if someone would have the stones to actually oppose them, the ones opposing them might have to take actions with very real, very enduring, very tangible real-life day-to-day ramifications.

That's what you get for using a GNU kernel. Operating anything but TempleOS is pure heresy and should be punishable by law

Spoiler

 

[lophiaspis]

... the fact that most sequels sell half of what the original game sold unless it's offer radical changes. PoE2 offered ship combat but it was fairly minor and cosmetic. The rest was 'more of the same', which after PoE + 2 expansions was a very hard sell.

How do you explain D:OS2 success? Wasn't it also "more of the same"?

 

[Vault Dweller]

... the fact that most sequels sell half of what the original game sold unless it's offer radical changes. PoE2 offered ship combat but it was fairly minor and cosmetic. The rest was 'more of the same', which after PoE + 2 expansions was a very hard sell.

How do you explain D:OS2 success? Wasn't it also "more of the same"?

Co-op.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/687020-pillars-of-eternity/72017511

Q: was wondering if i could play [Pillars of Eternity] with a friend?
A: Divinity Original Sin is the game you want.

 

[Infinitron]

Vault Dweller I realize that as an indie RPG developer you have a need to believe that the traditional RPG market isn't "oversaturated", but can't you consider the possibility that at the level of sales Obsidian is expecting maybe it is?

It is in fact possible that just one single developer of "AA" isometric RPGs, Larian, is enough to saturate the market. Not because players can't afford the games, of course, but because they don't have time to play them. Time is the constraint.

For you of course it's a non-issue. You would love it if Colony Ship sold as much as Tyranny and Deadfire. But this is a different league we're talking about.

 

[Bester]

I'm no VD, but I never thought RPGs competed with each other. They're single player games, people play one, then they'll play another, even if two came out at the same time.

 

[Life of the Party]

Where we're going, we won't need mouse to game.

 

[Thal]

On a more serious note:

We know that Obsidian wants to grow into 200+ employee company and that Microsoft is betting heavily on GamePass. Sawyer seems enthusiastic about getting to work on gamepass games, while Parker wants to create his Skyrim. This makes me think that Obsidian will stick to being 2-3½ projects company with 1 or 2 bigger projects and 1-2 smaller projects.
Gamepass obvisously requires continous stream of content so smaller projects like Pillars of Eternity 3 (+ numerous DLCs) and Sawyers tactical game are something they could throw in as a filler while Project Indiana and Parker's Skyrim are the bigger projects being worked on.

This. The fact that MS bought both Obs and InXile is about gamepass. Microsoft is going after Valve's monopoly using Netflix's toolbox. Steam's success has shown that pc is a viable platform and that gaming industry has immense growth potential. They've also certainly seen the numbers that indicate that players rarely complete games. Hence, to go after their money, they need to have new content available for them to play. If they pull this off, the environment might be transformed completely. How exactly, who knows yet? How about they'll eventually start making games exclusively available to gamepass? In any case, I have feeling that as the smaller player, it's GOG that will suffer the most.

Regarding crpgs specifically: Netflix has filler and low budged productions, which means that quality low budget stuff might still be viable to produce with gamepass. Maybe. Do hardcore cprg players buy lots of games? They play a lot at least, so at 10 bucks a month, it might be cost effective to pay for the service. Beyond that, we have to see how this pans out yet.

 

[commie]

Where we're going, we won't need mouse to game.

It's ok...I didn't use the mouse for the last two Larian games either.....

 

[Vulpes]

I'm no VD, but I never thought RPGs competed with each other. They're single player games, people play one, then they'll play another, even if two came out at the same time.

Tell that to the guys behind Troika. I'm sure they'd all agree that releasing VtMB the same day as HL2 didn't affect their sales one bit

 

[glass blackbird]

Weren't there already console versions of Pillars and Wastelands 2

 

[Andhaira]

So, Bethesda, Larian & CDPR are the only AAA+ rpg studios left.

 

[Mortmal]

... the fact that most sequels sell half of what the original game sold unless it's offer radical changes. PoE2 offered ship combat but it was fairly minor and cosmetic. The rest was 'more of the same', which after PoE + 2 expansions was a very hard sell.

How do you explain D:OS2 success? Wasn't it also "more of the same"?

Co-op.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/687020-pillars-of-eternity/72017511

Q: was wondering if i could play [Pillars of Eternity] with a friend?
A: Divinity Original Sin is the game you want.

Coop ? No , its an fine added feature that not everyone will use. Divos 2 was a success cause its a far superior game compared to anything released recently. Larian has attained the level of quality of the old blizzard studio. Microsoft wont buy them the price would be very high atm.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I'm no VD, but I never thought RPGs competed with each other. They're single player games, people play one, then they'll play another, even if two came out at the same time.

Most people aren’t autists like us and they only have time to play so many games in a year. When those games are really long, they play even fewer games total.

 

[Mortmal]

I'm no VD, but I never thought RPGs competed with each other. They're single player games, people play one, then they'll play another, even if two came out at the same time.

Most people aren’t autists like us and they only have time to play so many games in a year. When those games are really long, they play even fewer games total.

Have a look in the street, most kids are watching their phone screen 100% of the time , even when crossing the road, they are more autist than we ever were. Autism has won !

 

[Prime Junta]

GamePass is basically Netflix of gaming. You pay 10$ (right now they have 1 month promo for 1$) a month and you get ALL new games from MS and licenses their acquire AT RELEASE DATE OF SOMETIMES EARLIER THAN THAT. Right now they have around 100 games and they included Forza Horizon 4 AT RELEASE same as Gears and their other exclusives.

That's not a bad deal actually. It's about $120 a year, which is, like, two AAA releases. I could get onboard with that.

 

[glass blackbird]

GamePass is basically Netflix of gaming. You pay 10$ (right now they have 1 month promo for 1$) a month and you get ALL new games from MS and licenses their acquire AT RELEASE DATE OF SOMETIMES EARLIER THAN THAT. Right now they have around 100 games and they included Forza Horizon 4 AT RELEASE same as Gears and their other exclusives.

That's not a bad deal actually. It's about $120 a year, which is, like, two AAA releases. I could get onboard with that.

It is a very good deal on consoles (assuming you're willing to put up with not actually owning things) but not so much on PC, because it's only first-party shit with UWP ports there. I'm pretty sure Microsoft is trying to change that.

 

[Readher]

Those two acquisitions are clearly made with Game Pass in mind. Seeing as it's a subscription-based service, having diverse lineup with something for everyone is much more important than individual sales potential of games. inXile announcement being first makes obvious sense. Not many people from the PC crowd know about them, let alone Xbox crowd. Obsidian on the other hand can ride on their past titles, mainly KOTOR2 and F:NV, and to a lesser extent Chad Protocol. You have tons of people constantly wishing for Obsidian to make another Fallout game, unaware that they'd probably be very surprised with the outcome should their wish come true. Acquiring two PC studios also goes in line with Microsoft's "committing to PC" promises. While I obviously share fears that they'll end up making games that are clearly only with console in mind (maybe not right away, but sometime in the future), both inXile and Obsidian already put their cRPGs on consoles before, so it doesn't need to mean anything bad. If anything, having access to Microsoft's resources might allow them to adapt their games better for gamepads and by extension, consoles.

Now, back to Game Pass, I think Flou's comment, while obviously very optimistic, makes a lot of sense. With MS creating a completely new studio (The Initiative) with some impressive people on board, I expect that place being where a lot of money will go. Having that in mind, it's ridiculous to expect Obsidian to suddenly only make AAA RPGs, that will need a high budget, a lot of development time (which goes against Game Pass policy of releasing games in relatively short succession) and high consumer expectations to meet. Having multiple projects, ranging from indie, through AA and finally AAA makes absolute sense for Obsidian. Sawyer's tactical RPG would be the "indie" one, PoE3 will be the big comeback and final of "critically acclaimed RPG series" filling the AA spot, while Parker's game will be the AAA "big hit". Whatever Cain and Boyarsky come up with would be another AAA hit, provided they stay after Project Indiana (I don't think Indiana will be part of Game Pass, since they already have a deal with Take Two and I doubt they'll allow their game on Game Pass).

inXile will probably do 2 smaller projects simultaneously. One will be cRPG, perhaps making COOP one of the (optional) core elements similar to D:OS2, which would make seemingly PC-centric games more appealing for console players and the other project being more in-line with Bard's Tale. Some kind of crawler/RPG hybrid, maybe small-scale full-3D action RPG with one central hub (think Mass Effect's Citadel, but bigger, with more quests and more "dungeon" style areas) to keep the budget low.

First post by the way. Happy to finally join. I wouldn't say I'm a long time lurker, but I did visit from time to time since long ago and ended up bingeing over 200 pages in the last few days.

 

[fantadomat]

This thread is so depressing,it just shows how much the codex have declined. People talk as if there is no other RPGs than popamole shit from creatively bankrupt american studios. The last good thing that came from Obsidian was NV 8 years ago,last good inxile games was....non existent. While in the same time good RPGs are coming out but being ignored by most of you edgy poser retards.

 

[Roguey]

leaving the far more talented "B-team" largely alone.

That B-team went on to write for Deadfire (except Tim's husband who left the company).

 

[Fairfax]

It is in fact possible that just one single developer of "AA" isometric RPGs, Larian, is enough to saturate the market. Not because players can't afford the games, of course, but because they don't have time to play them. Time is the constraint.

I agree that games are competing for the player's time. However, I don't think there's a low ceiling on how many players are willing to spend their time with RPGs.

I believe the issue is a sort of barrier to entry. These AA RPGs aren't necessarily competing against another 50hr+ RPG. They're competing against 10 hours on game X + 15 on game Y + 10 on netflix + 5 on game Z + 10 doing whatever. Since most players know RPGs are a big commitment, they need a stronger incentive, otherwise they'll just stick to stuff they already play or wait for releases they're more familiar with. If it's a game from a company they know and love, they'll happily take the plunge and spend a lot more than 50 hours on it. If it's a slightly old-school RPG by a small and/or new studio, there's a lot less certainty.

A feature like co-op does go a long way ("well, if the game is mediocre, at least I'll probably have fun in co-op"), but it's not the only reason for Larian's success. D:OS had strong word of mouth, high review scores, co-op, and pretty graphics. D:OS2 raised the bar even more with more features and production values. Other indie RPG devs will obviously struggle to generate a similar appeal. Game Pass is good for Obsidian and InXile because the subscription is already paid for, so players only need a couple of hours to give their game a shot, not $50.

 

[Readher]

While in the same time good RPGs are coming out but being ignored by most of you edgy poser retards.

Are there? I guess it depends on what you're looking for in an RPG. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is certainly excellent, as I played it non-stop when it came out until reaching game-breaking bug in Act 4 (I'm yet to touch it since then). I'm yet to play that, but Underrail is at least worth playing from what I've read. What else did already come out recently that has the same scope as inXile and Obsidian's games (quality notwithstanding)? I know there are a lot of Kickstarters for cRPGs as I backed a few of them (Black Geyser, Realms Beyond) and seen some but decided not to back (Encased, since I felt there's too much possibility of it being a scam), but there's zero guarantee when it comes to quality of these games. Hell, you can't even know if they'll come out. You can shit on those bankrupt American studios all you want, but no matter how shit their games were (I'm never buying PoE2), I at least knew they'll come out and what I can expect. Almost every eurojank Kickstarter is a complete unknown though.

I suppose there are many more games for combatfags coming out, but I honestly couldn't care less. I love a good combat system, but only if it goes with a great story. Otherwise I'd rather play against real people in some MP game or play JRPGs where I can at least stare at big anime tiddies during fights.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Microsoft has clearly made EXCELLENT purchases here and I'm sure these studios and their associated properties will be handled with utmost...
*looks at the FASA properties*
respect, yes, that's the word