Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Morality Games]

Business got slow because studios couldn't retain or cultivate talent in the face of the indie revolution; when any Minecraft or Stardew Valley has the potential of transforming it's makers into ultra millionaires, coding on the assembly line at EA becomes an increasingly unattractive prospect. That's also when you consider that indies grant coders (the muscle of the gaming industry) more opportunities to serve in creative roles (like they did in the good ole' days of the 80s and 90s). The indie fever can strike anywhere, as well; assembly line coders, sure, but also high ranking creative and technical leads.

Then, what talent could be retained demanded better work-life balance (or else it's the indies for me), further crippling production.

Not that I see a problem with any of this. The volume of games coming out is so huge that things developing slowly is only a problem when every project you are looking forward to is moving at a glacial pace.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I'm still coping that Outer Worlds was a result of it being a smaller Private Division label game. Doesn't excuse the writing but it might excuse the scale. Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 may still be large, ambitious productions.

The Outer Worlds’ problem is the problem basically ever ‘90s era PC developer has when they do a console game. They don’t think the thing they’re known for will work for a mainstream audience, and they do a bunch of dumb shit to make it more “mainstream.” Rarely does his ever work out for the developer.

The funny thing with The Outer Worlds is he could’ve just made a classic “Fallout” game and it would’ve liked done better than The Outer Worlds did. It ain’t even like Fallout and Arcanum are deeply complex games, at least not on any kind of level that would be off-putting to a mass audience.

With the success of Baldur's Gate 3 I do wonder if Tim Cain regrets the direction he went with The Outer Worlds. In hindsight, just given the sales I wonder if if he regrets the direction he went in, since he could’ve probably just got the same sales with so isometric RPG with some form of turn based tactical combat.

 

[Roguey]

Josh Sawyer is the only guy at Obsidian who has ever been efficient, but they can't (or won't) use him for every project.

Sawyer's become very big-headed and complacent and hasn't been working on anything since Pentiment shipped in November 2022. Guy's just been raking in that 210k/year playing Avowed and TOW 2 and giving notes.

The Outer Worlds’ problem is the problem basically ever ‘90s era PC developer has when they do a console game. They don’t think the thing they’re known for will work for a mainstream audience, and they do a bunch of dumb shit to make it more “mainstream.” Rarely does his ever work out for the developer.

Tim says he and Leonard were told to make a casual game. That wasn't up for debate.

With the success of Baldur's Gate 3 I do wonder if Tim Cain regrets the direction he went with The Outer Worlds. In hindsight, just given the sales I wonder if if he regrets the direction he went in, since he could’ve probably just got the same sales with so isometric RPG with some form of turn based tactical combat.

They would not because they didn't have the foundation to make a BG3.

 

[Morality Games]

Josh Sawyer is the only guy at Obsidian who has ever been efficient, but they can't (or won't) use him for every project.

Sawyer's become very big-headed and complacent and hasn't been working on anything since Pentiment shipped in November 2022. Guy's just been raking in that 210k/year playing Avowed and TOW 2 and giving notes.

That's probably the way things are supposed to be. The ordinary course of a career is to get more pay for doing less (moving into vague, supervisory, "elder statesmen" roles).

They've also relied on Sawyer too much, too often. Organizing all of your resources and infrastructure around one person works great until that person doesn't exist anymore (as with Otto von Bismarck in the German Empire).

At a certain point, for Obsidian to have a future, the younger employees have to start doing the heavy lifting.

 

[Silverfish]

South Park: Swearing is funny

Actually funnier than any SP game title to date.

 

[Roguey]

That's probably the way things are supposed to be. The ordinary course of a career is to get more pay for doing less (moving into vague, supervisory, "elder statesmen" roles).

They've also relied on Sawyer too much, too often. Organizing all of your resources and infrastructure around one person works great until that person doesn't exist anymore (as with Otto von Bismarck in the German Empire).

At a certain point, for Obsidian to have a future, the younger employees have to start doing the heavy lifting.

They do have Patel and Adler directing those two big projects. I just think he should be on a smaller something instead of doing nothing.

 

[Takamori]

Like opinions aside from whatever the fuck Avowed will become and TOW2, this time they can't blame the market environment. After Bethesda fucking up with Slopfield, Obsidian just need to deliver a fucking 6.5/10 product, the retards will chow down like its the second coming of Christ.

 

[Morality Games]

That's probably the way things are supposed to be. The ordinary course of a career is to get more pay for doing less (moving into vague, supervisory, "elder statesmen" roles).

They've also relied on Sawyer too much, too often. Organizing all of your resources and infrastructure around one person works great until that person doesn't exist anymore (as with Otto von Bismarck in the German Empire).

At a certain point, for Obsidian to have a future, the younger employees have to start doing the heavy lifting.

They do have Patel and Adler directing those two big projects. I just think he should be on a smaller something instead of doing nothing.

Arguably. I assume he's scouting out his last big project, the one he's going to retire on. Pillars Gate III could be it (BGIII's success was easier to ignore when was expected to hover within 5-10 million copies, but now it's probably approaching or past 20 million), but again, I think making Pillars Gate as the BG3 killer is pretty dumb when you are sitting on Shadowrun (the next most popular TRPG system/setting).

 

[fantadomat]

They need a serious themed game.Their fan base is like 40 years old by now.Nobody wants fart jokes and infantile writing at this point. Even young people prefer something with a bit more substance.

 

[fantadomat]

Shadowrun

That could be a good fps rpg,a cybercuck killer.

 

[Morality Games]

Shadowrun

That could be a good fps rpg,a cybercuck killer.

Shadowrun would work great as anything (as long as it was made well). Whether or not it's worth even creating a Cyberpunk 2077-killer (commercially speaking) is difficult to judge, though -- that game ultimately had very high sales numbers, but only because it was effectively in development years after it released.

If you're going to spend 8 years developing a game and another 3 years developing it after releases, you're approaching the point where even 25 million sales isn't enough.

They also had to a buy a success with the promotional anime (although that ultimately worked out very well for them).

 

[luj1]

Tim says he and Leonard were told to make a casual game. That wasn't up for debate.

Amazing how its never their fault

 

[scytheavatar]

It's more like they've become so big they can't govern themselves efficiently anymore, so everything takes at least twice as long and is 3 times more expensive.

I wish Microsoft governs their studios more, cause from what I see they are hands off and let them do whatever they want. Reading online you see a shocking amount of commenters begging Microsoft to buy those Embracer studios and give them the financial freedom that Embracer couldn't. These people seem to think Microsoft is free money and studios working under them can spend their money with no consequences. I wonder if devs working under Microsoft feels the same way. That there's no stress working under Microsoft and no consequences to underperformance.

 

[Zeriel]

If you can stomach the weapons grade cringe, you'll be reminded that they were priming their audience for "We're AA guys! This is going to be another unambitious product." from the outset of TOW2.

That's a "We have nothing to show but they told us to make a cinematic trailer" trailer outright stating it as such.

And the subtext is "We're total outsiders. Just like the players, we're aware of how formulaic all these big budget game trailers are."

"We're corporation-hating commies just like you! Working for a corporation. So please buy our game, so the corporation can have a higher quarter and juice the stock price. This is praxis."

I would laugh, but honestly it isn't even funny anymore, just how all modern lefties are. They style themselves as the resistance while being the biggest boosters of capitalism & defenders of actual, definitional fascism.

 

[Tyranicon]

- Tries to post low-effort cringe humor trailer.

- Trailer is clearly high-budget, high effort, unfunny.

Bitches please. This is how you do it.

I spent no money/fucks on the below shit and it shows.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Avowed bros did the hype die...?

I'm pretty sure even the developers don't have hype about this one...

 

[scytheavatar]

Avowed bros did the hype die...?

I'm pretty sure even the developers don't have hype about this one...

Didn't one of the developer came here and whine about how we have no idea how amazing the game is? And that what we have seen isn't a good representation of how special the game is?

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Funny that you talk about all these details but forgot yo mention Feargus and his gluttony almost bankrupting Microsoft

 

[La vie sexuelle]

If you can stomach the weapons grade cringe, you'll be reminded that they were priming their audience for "We're AA guys! This is going to be another unambitious product." from the outset of TOW2.

Weaponized cringe.

 

[Yosharian]

Yeah that trailer is fucking awful

 

[Justinian]

- Tries to post low-effort cringe humor trailer.

- Trailer is clearly high-budget, high effort, unfunny.

Bitches please. This is how you do it.

I spent no money/fucks on the below shit and it shows.

I've seen those sprites in at least 4 different games, it def shows

 

[Silverfish]

Amazing how its never their fault

In their defense, it's impossible to adapt over the course of 20 years, especially after you know what to expect.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

So can Avowed be the Baldurs gate 3 killer or will we have to wait for Dragon Age 4

 

[duskvile]

So can Avowed be the Baldurs gate 3 killer or will we have to wait for Dragon Age 4

Avowed is aiming to be first person. Pillars 3 could potentially aim for isometric turn based game but I hope it will stay true to the roots with RTWP. Dragon Age 4 is it's own thing.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So can Avowed be the Baldurs gate 3 killer or will we have to wait for Dragon Age 4

The only thing DA4 is gonna kill is itself.