People News Brian Fargo and Matt MacLean Talks at Digital Dragons 2015

[Infinitron]

Tags: Bard's Tale IV; Brian Fargo; InXile Entertainment; Matt MacLean; Obsidian Entertainment; South Park: The Stick of Truth; Torment: Tides of Numenera; Wasteland 2

Brian Fargo recently went on tour in Europe. One of his stops was Poland, where he gave at a one hour talk at the annual Digital Dragons gaming conference in Krakow, which has now been uploaded to YouTube. It's a fairly typical Fargo talk, with a short recap of his career, the latest version of his crowdfunding evangelization speech, and most interestingly, an explanation of his project management and RPG design philosophies. Although he mentions all three of inXile's Kickstarter projects, the talk doesn't really go into detail about any one game.

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There's also a Q&A session at the end, where one of the questioners is none other than Obsidian's Matt MacLean, who was at Digital Dragons to give his own talk about the design of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Apparently, he wanted to talk about Pillars of Eternity, but PR wouldn't let him, because there was "big news" coming up. Well, at least there's E3. There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties...

 

[himmy]

Apparently, he wanted to talk about Pillars of Eternity, but PR wouldn't let him, because there was "big news" coming up.

Gosh, I sure am happy that Obsidian doesn't depend on a big bad publisher any more.

 

[Athelas]

There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties...

Shouldn't that be the other way around?

 

[Infinitron]

There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties...

Shouldn't that be the other way around?

Well, since Paradox is listed as "Publisher" on Steam, they're the ones who are supposed to be getting all the money. Unless they're supposed to be turning it all over to Obsidian, then getting royalties back.

But "royalties" is something that content creators get, otherwise the payment would probably be called something else, so I doubt it.

 

[Grotesque]

I wonder what's Fargo's opinion on the new Mad Max!


Edit: Redneck Rampage a title to be proud of?! oh, come on....

 

[Veelq]

I wonder what's Fargo's opinion on the new Mad Max!

"BTW I never mentioned how much I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Mad Max film. It made me want to run out of theater and start Wasteland 3." Brian on his Twitter.

 

[Infinitron]

Chris-A: Hey, Freddy.

Freddy: Chris-A. I’ve been looking for you.

Chris-A: Yeah, sure you have. You have my money, right?

Freddy: Yeah. It’s coming. It’ll be here in a few weeks.

Chris-A: What do you mean it’s coming, Freddy? Where’s. My money?

Freddy: Okay. Just give me five weeks. Just give me five!

Chris-A: Five weeks? You want five fucking weeks, Freddy? You know what? I haven’t got five fucking weeks! (he pulls a gun on Freddy) I’m going to ask you again, Freddy. Where’s my money?

Freddy: I don’t have anything.

Chris-A: Where’s my money, Freddy? Where’s my fucking money, Freddy?! What’d you do with my fucking money?!

Freddy: I swear to god, it’s coming!

Chris-A: Where’s my fucking money, Freddy?!

Freddy: Put the gun down.

Chris-A: My fucking money! Where’s my fucking money, Freddy?!

 

[Morality Games]

There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties

Exact time? I heard him ask about physical goods but nothing else.

EDIT:

Oh I see. It was in his own speech.

 

[Kz3r0]

​

There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties...

Publishers, publishers never change.

 

[Volrath]

Obsidian getting fucked in the ass by another publisher. How surprising

 

[m_s0]

There is an interesting bit at the beginning, though, where Matt seems to be implying that Paradox are dragging their feet on paying Obsidian their royalties...

Shouldn't that be the other way around?

Well, since Paradox is listed as "Publisher" on Steam, they're the ones who are supposed to be getting all the money. Unless they're supposed to be turning it all over to Obsidian, then getting royalties back.

But "royalties" is something that content creators get, otherwise the payment would probably be called something else, so I doubt it.

Didn't they claim it was strictly a (in terms of the physical release, at least) distribution deal at some point? Or am I confusing my crowdfunded 'suck it, publishers' projects that got picked up by publishers?

 

[tuluse]

Didn't they claim it was strictly a (in terms of the physical release, at least) distribution deal at some point? Or am I confusing my crowdfunded 'suck it, publishers' projects that got picked up by publishers?

It was Fargo who was very clear his deal with Deep Silver was distribution only, Paradox is indeed the publisher for PoE.

 

[m_s0]

Yeah, that's probably what I was thinking of.

 

[Kz3r0]

It was Fargo who was very clear his deal with Deep Silver was distribution only, Paradox is indeed the publisher for PoE.

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

 

[cherry blossom]

Edit: Redneck Rampage a title to be proud of?! oh, come on....

One of the best damn first person shooters before they all started taking themselves too seriously.

 

[tuluse]

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

I believe so.

 

[Kz3r0]

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

I believe so.

They are mindfuckingnumblingly retarded.
I hope that Paradox at least gave them that extra million to finish the game.

 

[Infinitron]

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

I believe so.

They are mindfuckingnumblingly retarded.
I hope that Paradox at least gave them that extra million to finish the game.

Keep in mind that the "royalties" are probably 90% of the money.

 

[Athelas]

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

I believe so.

They are mindfuckingnumblingly retarded.
I hope that Paradox at least gave them that extra million to finish the game.

Apparently they used their own funds to finish the game.

 

[Kz3r0]

Keep in mind that the "royalties" are probably 90% of the money.

After accounting and still seats in Paradox' pockets until they pay, probably tranche by tranche and not all at once.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Wait what?
Publisher in the sense that grant them access to Steam, has the rights for both physical and digital distribution and collect all the money while paying royalties to Obsidian afterward?
A publisher in that sense?

I believe so.

They are mindfuckingnumblingly retarded.
I hope that Paradox at least gave them that extra million to finish the game.

Pretty funny to look back on this thread now, where comments described the deal as just 'saving Josh from licking envelopes' etc.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...rs-of-eternity-distribution-deal.90524/page-5
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-pillars-of-eternity-distribution-deal.90524/

Tongue-in-cheek Roguey quotes stand the test of time though:

Infinitron, I don't know where you got confused, but I'll put it into a sentence for you:

Obsidian, running low on Kickstarter funds, took on an "opinionated" publisher who needs the game to be profitable to gain a return on its large investment.

The Double Fine thing is just an ironic comment on fanboys, not part of the argument. You're blind and biased.

the bigger issue is euro physical distribution and backer fulfillment. paradox is way, way better suited for that than OEI.
...
Yeah Paradox isn't funding or directing our development in any way. They're handling things that would be very hard/time consuming for us: physical fulfillment and general distribution. Over half of our backers are in Europe. I'm not sure why anyone would want us to spend their money and our time personally handling fulfillment. It was heartwarming to see Stoic figuring out how to get thousands of Banner Saga posters out of their house and shipped out to people but that's not really what developers are built to do.

Josh is a pretty straight-forward person and has never been deceptive. Your armchair accountancy is wrong.

 

[Infinitron]

What's the problem? They're also saving Josh from the effort of having to open envelopes of money himself.

 

[Grotesque]

Edit: Redneck Rampage a title to be proud of?! oh, come on....

One of the best damn first person shooters before they all started taking themselves too seriously.

In '97, the same year Redneck Rampage (which is a watery shit bathed by the warm sun) came out, another FPS launched that is trully worthy of the title "One of the best damn first person shooters".
And it's name is Blood.

 

[m_s0]

I enjoy Redneck Rampage, probably because of the overall insanity and the Build engine, which I am very fond of, but putting all that aside it's not very well designed at all.

 

[Turok]

I remember redneck rampage, nice game and funny.