Obsidian working on next-gen console game

[treave]

Rather than going all out working on big huge AAA projects they might do better to assign a few staff to produce multiple small-scale 2D indie style "proof-of-concept" RPGs that can be more experimental and push the boundaries of the genre. It'd bring in some money at least. It seems like nowadays any game with a decent amount of creativity and style will net you more than 10k worth of sales easy.

Indeed. That's what Double Fine have been doing now, making several smaller projects, and they have been quite succesful with it so far.

Again, Obsidian's too big for that. They are nearly double the size of DoubleFine. And an AAA Project will always be more profitable. It's a good idea of course, but its also risky and you still need publishers for them. Double Fine has an excellent reputation they can bank on as well.

(Also, Double Fine had its own problems. Layoffs were closing in before their Kickstarter.)

Well, because of their size they should be able to spare a small portion of their manpower for indie projects. While working on their AAA projects, some of the more dedicated or creative staff can be funded to pursue cheaper projects. These don't need to be ambitious, 50 hour epics. Short games with less than 10 hours of gameplay can sell (cheaply), especially if they have an interesting gimmick or style.

Sure, these little projects, by themselves, aren't going to keep the company afloat, but they have at least two other advantages:

1) Funding is inexpensive, so the profit margin is higher. Any bit of money counts.
2) If they're good at it (and part of the Codex certainly thinks they are), this will only help improve Obsidian's reputation. Right now they're known for being buggy and for only doing sequels to the IPs of others. Regardless of whether that reputation is deserved, this is what the casual gamer thinks of them. Releasing quirky, interesting RPGs (could even be episodic, as dreaded that word may be) often will change how people view them.

If the games are good, it increases their fanbase. A rabid fanbase practically ensures sales in the gaming industry. If the games are bad... well, Obsidian, you weren't as good as we thought you were after all, eh? Eh?

Rather than getting a publisher, can they not sell it themselves digitally? Though listening to Fargo talk about the way publishers behave, I could see how it could be that publishers do not like developers who have a successful track record of going indie. Such a move might harm their relationship with publishers for that petty reason, I guess. (edited for clarity)

Not coaching this as the be-all end-all saving strategy for Obsidian, but they could do with rethinking their approach to the industry. Then again, Fearghus is still at the helm isn't he?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Not sure about Obsidian having some spare manpower free for future AAA projects. I mean even today we see devs literally throwing hundreds of people at projects that only sell so-so. Obsidian, apart from F:NV, hasn't really done a huge production-heavy RPG ever, so they got away with it. Next Gen though is probably even gonna be heavier on production and costs. And as Daniel Vavra once stated, the most overcrowded genres right now that lose the most money are Shooters and Action RPGs. I doubt Obsidian can go on like that in the future, no publisher is gonna be interested on financing and publishing a full price products when the big boys (Ubisoft, EA, Acti) offer so much more for the same price.

Obsidian has no other choice but to make a choice here now. Either they wanna go on and thus become bigger and fatter like BioWare, or they change their policy, and start making preperations for more independent funding and more felxible pricing (smaller projects).

 

[J_C]

Though listening to Fargo talk, it almost seems like publishers do not like developers who have a track record of going indie. Such a move might harm their relationship with publishers for that petty reason, I guess.

Man. That's pure, fucking evil. If that's true, even my remaining faith is diminshed regarding to publishers. They don't even allow studios to try out something new for their own risk? No, they have to subject themselves to the corporations. Fuck them!

 

[treave]

Though listening to Fargo talk, it almost seems like publishers do not like developers who have a track record of going indie. Such a move might harm their relationship with publishers for that petty reason, I guess.

Man. That's pure, fucking evil. If that's true, even my remaining faith is diminshed regarding to publishers. They don't even allow studios to try out something new for their own risk? No, they have to subject themselves to the corporations. Fuck them!

Sorry, I got my memories mixed up. I confused Fargo's anti-publisher marketing speeches with someone from the Codex talking about why publishers would hate Kickstarter... I think?

I apologize for the misleading line.

edit: making it clear it's personal opinion.

 

[Duraframe300]

Well, because of their size they should be able to spare a small portion of their manpower for indie projects. While working on their AAA projects, some of the more dedicated or creative staff can be funded to pursue cheaper projects. These don't need to be ambitious, 50 hour epics. Short games with less than 10 hours of gameplay can sell (cheaply), especially if they have an interesting gimmick or style.

That's what I'm saying and mean when I say they should do "both".

Obsidian has no other choice but to make a choice here now. Either they wanna go on and thus become bigger and fatter like BioWare, or they change their policy, and start making preperations for more independent funding and more felxible pricing (smaller projects).

Or they do both, which benefits both.

This is not a black and white situation.


Edit: That's also what Avellone himself said in an earlier interview IIRC. They won't give up on publishers for smaller projects but they also want to work on kickstarter related stuff.

 

[Duraframe300]

Also relevant, I don't think publishers are completly against the recent old-school kickstarter craze. It gives them a chance licensing out their old IP's (which don't make money for them at the moment) while having no costs and still keeping the IP's in the long run.

 

[J_C]

Though listening to Fargo talk, it almost seems like publishers do not like developers who have a track record of going indie. Such a move might harm their relationship with publishers for that petty reason, I guess.

Man. That's pure, fucking evil. If that's true, even my remaining faith is diminshed regarding to publishers. They don't even allow studios to try out something new for their own risk? No, they have to subject themselves to the corporations. Fuck them!

Sorry, I got my memories mixed up. I confused Fargo's anti-publisher marketing speeches with someone from the Codex talking about why publishers would hate Kickstarter... I think?

I apologize for the misleading line.

edit: making it clear it's personal opinion.

No worries, publishers are still evil.

 

[treave]

Not sure about Obsidian having some spare manpower free for future AAA projects.

I have to disagree here. Avellone can afford to take out time to consult on Wasteland. Sawyer can tweak his own personal mod for New Vegas. I'm pretty sure the other staff do have pet projects they're working on in their free time. If they can manage to motivate the staff to come together and work on a pet project for commercial release, this could work out.

Of course they shouldn't make it mandatory, but if there's something that some of them think would be a really neat idea to cooperate on, challenge them to turn it into a short game for release.

 

[sea]

I have to disagree here. Avellone can afford to take out time to consult on Wasteland. Sawyer can tweak his own personal mod for New Vegas. I'm pretty sure the other staff do have pet projects they're working on in their free time. If they can manage to motivate the staff to come together and work on a pet project for commercial release, this could work out.

Yep. Game development isn't constant crunch. Developers have plenty of free time - most of them still don't work weekends, they have families to attend to, and they work fairly normal hours under most circumstances. It wouldn't surprise me if MCA was simply pulling weekends because he was so excited to work on Wasteland 2, or a few extra hours a day. Depending on how projects at Obsidian are going it might not actually be a big deal at all for him to take an hour or two off once or twice a week.

 

[Antagonist]

(Also, Double Fine had its own problems. Layoffs were closing in before their Kickstarter.)

Where did you learn about this? Not that I doubt you as I've been wondering myself for quite some time how DoubleFine manages to stay afloat but I'd like to have some more in-depth information about this. It's really hard to estimate how much revenue those small games they've been churning out the last few years are creating from an outsider's perspective.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Where did you learn about this?

I think Tim Schafer was mentioning it in one the Kickstarter videos.