Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[agris]

It's over for Obsidian's former owners, they messed up so much with Avowed that they have an official babysitter.

Obviously they can't fire Feargus as it would be a huge PR issue for them and probably would cost them a lot of money to get rid of the owners sooner rather than later.

Oh sweet summer child, this has been thought through and addressed by corporate raiders decades ago. Let me illuminate you:

Owners selling to big corpo Daddy Cashbags are seeing $$$ in their future, but if they don’t already *want* to exit post-haste - perhaps their ego still demands that they “are the only thing keeping this damn ship afloat” - Daddy Cashbags needs a way to handle the owners’ likely poor leadership and managerial ability.

Anticipating this, buried in the employment contract will be, in an innocuous boiler-plate sounding section, a provision allowing the corp to modify the specific roles and responsibilities of the owner, and/or how their decisions are approved. This section is framed as “if needed and subject to change” and if even discussed verbally with the owner, down played as marginalia needed by the lawyers because “owner clearly knows their shit”.

Fast forward to owner(s) not only not knowing their shit, but actively hindering the realization of project milestones and thus revenue projections, the executive team responsible for managing obs will execute their contractural right and limit owners ability to conduct oversight.

Are you following? Because this is where the magic happens. The execs who do this know how to exert oversight in such a way that it damages owners ego and infuriates them. With no contractural recourse and flush with cash, the most reasonable move is to quit. The ego is assuaged because “the idiots won’t let me manage!”, and the Corp gets the product of the Peter-principle off their hands without the messy optics of firing them. This is a long slow process usually, and HR massages the acquired company’s staff concerns throughout the whole thing, and can even convince the dolt owner it’s for the best and he’ll help calm staff as well.

Nothing new about this, legacy owners are almost always a problem after acquisition so this play has been performed many many times such that the director refined its execution long ago.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lismobe...ofile:ACoAAAp4mn4BddO4pentS2Oa74vMh0NhU_A7Tro

Lis M. (cba to find her full name). Experience from Avalanche and few smaller studios.

Lis Moberly. Working on Avowed and worked on that Hogwarts RPG according to her website.

 

[Flou]

Managed to find the elusive narrative designer:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zfranznick/?miniProfileUrn=urn:li:fs_miniProfile:ACoAACfufzwBjg-br8Xno7bCdWaLv_dnAUfeojU

Seems like an entry level narrative designing job which should be fine considering that she doesn't really have experience with it to begin with.

Edit:

There's still on writer whose profile I can't open and he doesn't look familiar either.

 

[koyota]

Devs try to make their games playable as quickly as possible. Doesn't mean they're anywhere near complete. He could have been playing a test build with wireframe maps and placeholder character models.

Playable The Outer Worlds:

https://youtu.be/7MRxaqbcVn0?t=574

 

[Nano]

Managed to find the elusive narrative designer:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zfranznick/?miniProfileUrn=urn:li:fs_miniProfile:ACoAACfufzwBjg-br8Xno7bCdWaLv_dnAUfeojU

Seems like an entry level narrative designing job which should be fine considering that she doesn't really have experience with it to begin with.

Edit:

There's still on writer whose profile I can't open and he doesn't look familiar either.

Obsidian is doomed. Why do you still even care?

 

[LESS T_T]

There's still on writer whose profile I can't open and he doesn't look familiar either.

If you're referring to this, there's not much to see. https://www.linkedin.com/in/daaniel-rehman-850ab519a/

I'm not even sure if this account is legit.

 

[LESS T_T]

Feargus talk at a conference will be live in a hour and half. Pre-recorded though.

Feargus Urquhart, the head of the famous RPG developer Obsidian, talks about being acquired by Microsoft, what studios should consider when being bought, and his experiences of working with publishers

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...gus-urquhart-completes-gi-live-london-line-up

Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart completes GI Live: London line-up
More investors and publishers sign-up

Obsidian Entertainment boss Feargus Urquhart is our final big name speaker for GI Live: London this week.

In a pre-recorded conversation with GamesIndustry.biz, Urquhart will discuss his experiences of working with publishers and give advice for studios looking to be acquired. Obsidian is best known for making RPGs, including games in the Star Wars, Fallout and South Park universes. It is now owned by Microsoft and working on The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed for Xbox.

He joins a huge roster of exciting speakers, which also includes PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, Haven Studios head Jade Raymond, plus Valve, Xbox, Warner Music and many more.

You can see the full line-up here. Tickets are available here.

GI Live: London takes place online and in-person alongside the consumer show EGX between Wednesday, October 6th - Friday, October 8th. The venue is the Platinum Suite at the Excel Centre in London.

The first day of the event is a digital-only meeting day, where attendees can arrange meetings online and connect over video calls. We will also be re-running some of our best talks from the past 18 months.

Day two and three will take place in-person, and will feature networking, roundtables, talks, plus in-person meetings. Talks will also be streamed and available to view online for ticket holders.

Publishers and investors set to attend the event include: Bandai Namco, Barclays, Curve Digital, Devolver Digital, EA Originals, Epic Games, Fundamentally Games, GamesCo London, Global Top, Hiro Capital, Humble Games, Kickstarter, LEGO Ventures, London Venture Partners, Makers Fund, Marvelous Europe, Merge Games, Miniclip, Netease, Playstack, Secret Mode, Sega, Sold Out, Splash Damage, Sumo Digital, Team17, Thunderful, TinyBuild, Twitch, Ubisoft, Valve, Wired Productions, Wizards of the Coast and Yogscast Games.

Standard tickets include access to all three days, entry to the EGX consumer show, the physical and digital meeting system, all the talks and lunch on both in-person days. Digital-only tickets are also available.

For more information, check out live.gamesindustry.biz.

 

[Duraframe300]

Feargus talk at a conference will be live in a hour and half. Pre-recorded though.

Feargus Urquhart, the head of the famous RPG developer Obsidian, talks about being acquired by Microsoft, what studios should consider when being bought, and his experiences of working with publishers

In a twist of fate Feargus will come out, drop F-Bombs for half an hour and ending with a 10 minute rant about Chris Parker before telling Microsoft to suck his dick for getting them a babysitter.

Oh wait, this is Feargus. Nevermind.

 

[Latro]

 

[Infinitron]

It's live now.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So in the Q&A section will anyone ask him about how he will continue to effectively sideline Sawyer?

 

[Sannom]

It's pre-recorded, Q&A isn't a thing in those cases.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

sawyer finally found a boyfriend
that's nice

 

[Atlet]

sawyer finally found a boyfriend
that's nice

I can say the same about you with Gregz

 

[Infinitron]

In this video we talk to Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer and Lead Creative Designer John Gonzalez to explore why Fallout: New Vegas is famous for its freedom. In New Vegas you can go anywhere and be anything, yet the game still manages to tell a cohesive story. It accomplishes this by offering the player meaning choices and through the clever design of the reputation system.

Special Thanks
Josh Sawyer
John Gonzalez

 

[Gahbreeil]

In this video we talk to Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer and Lead Creative Designer John Gonzalez to explore why Fallout: New Vegas is famous for its freedom. In New Vegas you can go anywhere and be anything, yet the game still manages to tell a cohesive story. It accomplishes this by offering the player meaning choices and through the clever design of the reputation system.

Special Thanks
Josh Sawyer
John Gonzalez

Wow, I can even farm and take care of livestock. Apart from that I can actually take over a casino or become a khan. Also, highwaymen to ride through the Nevada desert. If you know they did not aim for the sky it is passable. Yet why not use the copyrighted material?

 

[Pink Eye]

What the fuck are you even saying? Is this the power of ELS?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Ahh, discussing the peak of a man's career. How many years ago was it now?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Bigg Boss]

If I wasn't banned from Twitter I would retweet that.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

all these images make me think of is that dialogue is being done wrong

 

[vortex]

So he's making sawyervania RPG game.

 

[Hellion]

According to this website, Obsidian is planning to "release one game every year, for the next 7 years".


https://technewsinc.com/xbox-rumors-1-obsidian-game-a-year-and-xbox-game-studios-details-xbox-one/

Xbox Rumors: 1 Obsidian Game a Year and Xbox Game Studios Details | Xbox One
The latest rumors about Xbox Studios’ plans were shared in the latest Xbox Two podcast hosted by Rand al Thor 19 and Jez Corden. The latter has already proven in the past that it has reliable sources within Microsoft and has shared a lot of information about some of the projects going on at Xbox. With three hours of podcasts to listen to, we bring you a recap!

The latest rumors from Xbox Studios
A lot of information was shared during the show and while we already know a lot of Xbox exclusives are in the works, a few more details have arrived with this podcast. It should be borne in mind that these are rumors until anything is officially confirmed, but that is already enough to wait before future announcements at the end of the year.

Avid, Outer Realms 2 and Obsidian
Avowed has already been talked about recently with details suggesting that the medieval RPG looks like it will follow in the footsteps of The Elder Scrolls and The Outer Worlds. About 100 people are currently working on Avowed according to Jez Corden, and about 70 are on The Outer Worlds 2. The podcast talks about more than 120 people, but Jez later changed his mind.

Studio Obsidian actually aims to release one game per year for 7 years, or one game per year for the entire current generation of consoles. Therefore, 2022 will be allocated to Grounded and 2023 to Avowed. But another secret game, Josh Sawyer’s, is said to be in development. This will be developed by a small team, somewhat similar to the team that took care of Grounded.

Obviously, the number of developers in each of the games will fluctuate as Avowed’s development slows down and The Outer Worlds 2 picks up pace, and those numbers don’t take into account outside developers.

When it comes to The Outer Worlds 2 more specifically, what he saw in the game clearly looks a lot like the first, but feels a lot more solid. Although it was developed with the same game engine, this sequel could be better controlled from a technical point of view.

As for Avowed, the game appears to be currently in almost pre-alpha state and Jez confirms what we saw in the CGI trailer with the character’s hand casting a spell in real time prior to its release. The expressive game could be released in 2023.

They misspelled Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 in that headline for some reason lol.