Speculation: Obsidian skyrim clone in development

[Machocruz]

Clones are bad enough. A clone of something that wasn't anything special in the first place is a whole nother level of banalshitboring

 

[Safav Hamon]

It's Confirmed

Josh Sawyer has tweeted about Skyrim five times during work hours.

 

[Wunderbar]

Josh Sawyer has tweeted about Skyrim five times during work hours.

rpbably because he's playing it?

 

[Safav Hamon]

During work hours!

 

[Roguey]

During work hours!

Well what else is he going to do except fail to make a Pillars of Eternity P&P game?

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Despite the OP's trollish nature, this is actually interesting to think about. I am shocked that Obsidian has NOT done their own open world RPG yet.

If you are an RPG studio right now with some resources and money (which Obsidian should have after Microsoft's acqusition), you have to be nuts not to think about doing an open world game. This is where the money is, the excitement, the future. And with New Vegas, they showed they can actually do a decent job.

If I was running Obsidian, I would start a limited size open world RPG project (taking an example from Piranha Bytes, who excel at producing smaller open world RPGs with small budgets). In other words, make the world open, but make it relatively small and condensed and not huge like Skyrim. Try to pick an engine that's not cutting edge but has good performance and few loading times. Hire competent systems designers (possibly from other genres, ffs please don't let Sawyer design combat after PoE). Focus on your strengths, and have a ton of quests with choices and consequences, rpg mechanics in dialogue and world, interesting factions, and so on.

It's a no brainer really, because no matter how bad Obsidian is, it''s not like you can be worse than Bethesda.

 

[Puteo]

Where is my vote option for "KingComrade" or "RTWP is the epitome of decline that has been sucking the life from the cRPG genre for decades"

These fucking codex noobs, goddamn

 

[Urthor]

People bought way, way too many copies of Skyrim for this not to be true

They don't call it Micro$oft for nothing, selling your studio to Microsoft on the basis of "well we are making this sick Fallout 4 clone with the chicks from Borderlands, and if you buy us we promise to rip off Skyrim" makes too much sense.

 

[Wunderbar]

Well what else is he going to do except fail to make a Pillars of Eternity P&P game?

dude was a FNV project director, don't you know that?!

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'd like to see Obsidian's take on the 150+ dungeons style open-world that Bethesda does. I'd like to see something like that. I could be wrong but recently playing New Vegas I didn't notice a ton of dungeons in the game.

 

[Wunderbar]

I'd like to see Obsidian's take on the 150+ dungeons style open-world that Bethesda does. I'd like to see something like that. I could be wrong but recently playing New Vegas I didn't notice a ton of dungeons in the game.

FNV was good because it wasn't focused on exploring 150 similar dungeons.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

FNV was good because it wasn't focused on exploring 150 similar dungeons.

Nah I agree, I'm not saying New Vegas was lacking or anything. It's a different open world from Beth's games. I just think it would be interesting to see Obsidian do the 150+ dungeon thing that Beth does. I'd like to see some of the unique dungeons they could come up with in that scenario.

 

[Safav Hamon]

How about 15 quality dungeons instead?

 

[Wunderbar]

How about 15 quality dungeons instead?

how about 1 dungeon located under your own castle?

 

[The Bishop]

I am shocked that Obsidian has NOT done their own open world RPG yet.

Yeah, strange. It's almost like nobody wanted to give them a huge pile of money out of a blue. Can't think of any reason why.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

My inside sources have given me permission to release a transcript of one of the Microsoft/Obsidian business calls.

Spoiler

Microsoft: "Greetings, we here at Microsoft have big plans for you. Your task is simple... you will make Skyrim, but better."

Obsidian: "Well we have this idea where-"

Microsoft: "Does this lead to complicated gameplay mechanics and the need of a manual to understand completely?"

Obsidian: "Yes."

Microsoft: "Cancel it. Make Skyrim, but better."

Obsidian: "How about if-"

Microsoft: "Are you going to suggest something that deviates from an insufferably cinematic experience with a big world filled with a whole lot of nothing except repetitive dungeons with new names to trick the player into thinking they stumbled upon something fresh?"

Obsidian: "Yes."

Microsoft: "Cancel it. Make Skyrim, but better."

Obsidian: "Can we have a level-up character progression system?"

Microsoft: "Did Skyrim have levels?"

Obsidian: "Kind of, but they scaled the world to you making the ascension of power feel hollow and unsatisfying."

Microsoft: "Get rid of them."

Obsidian: "But Skyrim had levels."

Microsoft: "But you're making Skyrim, but better. Get rid of levels entirely."

Obsidian: "Are you sure you want an RPG?"

Microsoft: "Was Skyrim an RPG?"

Obsidian: "Supposedly."

Microsoft: "Make it a racing game."

Obsidian: "An open world racing game that's supposed to be Skyrim, but better?"

Microsoft: "You are correct, that is too much of a drastic change. Make it a battle royale like Fortnite, but better."

Obsidian: "So you want us to now make a battle royale game like Fortnite, but better?"

Microsoft: "Yes, you will make a battle royale game like Fortnite, but better, which with our marketing campaign will have it be seen as Skyrim, but better."

 

[laclongquan]

Clones are bad enough. A clone of something that wasn't anything special in the first place is a whole nother level of banalshitboring

Fallout 3 fit your description to a T.

Yet we have Fallout New Vegas.

 

[aweigh]

Yeah, Obsidian cloned Fallout 3 and made a fucking masterpiece, and I'd like tot hink they would do the same if they cloned Skyrim.... but... you know what they say about Hope.

 

[ADL]

Given proper management and a similar amount of resources, they'd easily see the kind of success Bethesda has seen with TES while hopefully using tech that could match the level of their ambition. The latter is definitely covered under the Microsoft umbrella but the former has yet to be dealt with.

 

[Doktor Best]

I'd like to see Obsidian's take on the 150+ dungeons style open-world that Bethesda does. I'd like to see something like that. I could be wrong but recently playing New Vegas I didn't notice a ton of dungeons in the game.

But those dungeons that were in the game were vastly superior to Skyrims loottubes with mostly autogenerated loot, levelscaled enemies and a little bit of "enviromental storytelling"

Quality>quantity

 

[laclongquan]

Yeah, Obsidian cloned Fallout 3 and made a fucking masterpiece, and I'd like tot hink they would do the same if they cloned Skyrim.... but... you know what they say about Hope.

First, an Obsidian-ed Skyrim is impossible. Forget about it! They learn their lessen with Fallout3 already~. Second, The new trailer for The Outer World is not bad. It remind me of many things in FNV. Good thing. There's hope!

Third: what the hell do you mean they clone Fallout3? That's enough to get you drawn and quarter, saying that about Fallout New Vegas.

 

[Ranarama]

Skyrim was a racing game, or did you fools not master the torch bug?

 

[msxyz]

If it's released also on GoG, it is not set in the PoE universe and Josh Sawyer is not put to work on the game play mechanics, I might give it a try.

 

[Reinhardt]

150 dungeons sounds really cool if we are talking about tb game with full party creation.

 

[SpoilVictor]

If M$ really is seriously trying to comeback on gaming scene Obsidian's Skyrim is very reasonable course of action. In the end, XBone lost console war for the very same reason as any other console: NO Fucking games. If they don't plan to ditch Xbone altogether then exclusive Skyrim But Better would be great selling point for Xbox Two or whatever it will be called.

Obsidian with bigger staff and sweet M$ dollars could pull it off. I'd like to mention that RPG better than Skyrim still doesn't mean it would be worthwhile, but again Target Audience doesn't care.