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Incline Black Isle Studios Rebirth (Obsidian)

Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,110
So as I posted a while back in one of the PoE threads, despite all the Codex hate PoE was getting in the beta, I expected it to do well since the same pattern repeated itself with D:OS and W2, lots of pre-release hatred, good games released. But I didn't expect it to do this well: 9.2 average on Metacritic, and even mainstream sites like IGN, sort of notorious for ripping on games from smaller studios paying it homage.

Now, because of things like isometric perspective and higher difficulty than modern games, it will never sell like a Skyrim, but with all these great reviews all over the Internet and all the positive feedback on forums, youtube channels, comments and so on, you have to figure this game should sell pretty well, especially by Black Isle/Troika/Obsidian standards. And most of that money should go straight into Obsidian's pockets, because there is no publisher, the costs have been covered by the KS campaign, and the distribution is digital. A percentage will go to Steam, Gog.com, Paradox, etc, but that's got to pale in comparison to the typical cut a combination of publisher and brick and mortar chains would take. Furthermore, Obsidian can make even more money with the announced expansion pack in a few months, since they already have all the technology/systems/design and lore in place, so cranking out some more content within the existing frameworks should be much cheaper and faster.

So what I am thinking is that in the immediate future, Obsidian could be sitting on a rather decently sized pile of money, perhaps more than they have ever had, even during the Black Isle days, considering that Fallout 1 and 2 and PS:T never sold that well. They will also have a lot of goodwill for any future Kickstarter efforts, which is like additional money in the bank. Finally, they will have accumulated a bunch of proprietary technology, such as their customized Unity engine. All of this combined could signal a reincarnation of the old Black Isle Studios (in spirit and function if not in name) as Obsidian changes modes from a severely underfunded service studio for Bethesda and Bioware to a modern day cRPG powerhouse, working on several different games/franchises at once and catering to the more sophisticated PC crowd.

They already have a large portion of the talent from Black Isle days: Avellone, Cain, Sawyer, Feargus, etc, and perhaps with this infusion of money, they could bring some of the other pieces back, like hiring Leonard Boyarski back from Blizzard (where he has got to be bored with the stuff they do nowadays) and Jason Anderson wherever he is. There are also lots of other game developers out there who could probably do much greater things at Obsidian than at whatever company they are at right now, guys like Ziets.

It will be interesting to see what direction they will go from here because Obsidian has never been in this position before. They were always constrained by either their overlord companies and backer wishes OR by lack of money (in Alpha Protocol's case), but now, for the first time since Black Isle/Troika days, they might have both the creative freedom and the finances to really do whatever they want. Things should get quite interesting.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
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37,241
Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Obsidian needs to only work on 2 RPG projects:

A Vampire the Masquerade™ game (as soon as all the White Wolf mess is cleared up).
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Obsidian needs to only work on 2 RPG projects:

A Vampire the Masquerade™ game (as soon as all the White Wolf mess is cleared up).
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)
This!!
 

Decado

Old time handsome face wrecker
Patron
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
2,544
Location
San Diego
Codex 2014
Obsidian needs to only work on 2 RPG projects:

A Vampire the Masquerade™ game (as soon as all the White Wolf mess is cleared up).
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

Goddamn right. It is time for some sci fi.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
Black Isle Studios Rebirth
Herv%C3%A9-Caen.jpg
 

Nikaido

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
521
Location
9th Hell
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

A Sci-Fi game is always a possibility but I don't think they'll ever make a serious (South Park trash doesn't count) turn based game. Obsidian isn't like Larian, they'll go for whatever they think will have the largest sales in their own niche, and it seems developers still think TB can't do as well as RTwP.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,031
I would go for Arcanum. Or something post-apo. Or something with desert and dunes ...
 

Viata

Arcane
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
9,885
Location
Water Play Catarinense
Obsidian needs to only work on 2 RPG projects:

A Vampire the Masquerade™ game (as soon as all the White Wolf mess is cleared up).
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

This!
I hope the Vampire the Masquerade one is FPS. Bloodlines is pretty much my favorite game.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
I think it is possible now. Pillars has shown that a proper RPG can be Kickstarted and can get the attention of major gaming websites (IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, Escapist, PC Gamer etc).

They may not even need Kickstarter for Pillars 2. inXile have got some talented folks working on Torment, people like Kevin Saunders and George Ziets, but most of them are still at Obsidian. If Pillars is financially successful I'd like to see Obsidian bring back people like Tony Evans and Nathaniel Chapman. I think Chapman is at Blizzard so he's probably not coming back.

Obsidian also still have people like Jeff Husges, Matt MacLean and Scott Everts. I wonder what they are working on? They weren't on the Pillars team. Scott is an Interplay / Black Isle vet, and the other two showed their talents with New Vegas.

I'd love to see Obsidian have a release every 2 years, alternating between modern AAA titles (Vampire, Fallout, South Park etc) and isometric classic RPGs (Pillars, MotB etc).
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
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Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Pillars IS a modern AAA title by RPG standards. I don't envision Obsidian working on a $30mil Skyrim-clone anytime soon.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,110
I don't envision Obsidian working on a $30mil Skyrim-clone anytime soon.

You never know. I remember an interview with Feargus where he mentioned them thinking about doing a Skyrim-like FPS RPG but in installments/episodes to manage the high cost of making it. Considering that I liked New Vegas quite a bit, I would love it if they tried a FPS RPG at some point with their own engine (i.e. their own modification of a third party engine such as Unreal/CryEngine/Unity) instead of Bethesda's shit. But of course they should be careful about it because that would be somewhat risky. A good approach might be having your stable safe games (say sequels to PoE for example), and then having other riskier projects somewhat supported by the former.

I would personally like to see Obsidian split up their people a bit now. Maybe lure Boyarski and Anderson back and team them up with Cain for one project (Arcanum 2 or a Vampire game for example), have Sawyer tackle an FPS project with his systems approach and NV experience, release Avellone on some text monstrosity, and so on.
 

1eyedking

Erudite
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
3,591
Location
Argentina
No.

Black Isle Studios is dead and will never return. Its former developers are either retired or so washed-up and bland that all they can hope for is a quick nostalgia cash grab.

Pillars of Eternity is an abomination, both in Beta and Gold forms.
 

Doktor Best

Arcane
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
2,849
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

A Sci-Fi game is always a possibility but I don't think they'll ever make a serious (South Park trash doesn't count) turn based game. Obsidian isn't like Larian, they'll go for whatever they think will have the largest sales in their own niche, and it seems developers still think TB can't do as well as RTwP.
Divinity might have changed that.
 

Nikaido

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
521
Location
9th Hell
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

A Sci-Fi game is always a possibility but I don't think they'll ever make a serious (South Park trash doesn't count) turn based game. Obsidian isn't like Larian, they'll go for whatever they think will have the largest sales in their own niche, and it seems developers still think TB can't do as well as RTwP.
Divinity might have changed that.

PoE seems to be already doing better since day one. Why would they think differently because of Divinity?
 

Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
A TURN-BASED sci-fi game (using the Eternity engine)

A Sci-Fi game is always a possibility but I don't think they'll ever make a serious (South Park trash doesn't count) turn based game. Obsidian isn't like Larian, they'll go for whatever they think will have the largest sales in their own niche, and it seems developers still think TB can't do as well as RTwP.

I personally think its only a matter of time with POE's success. If enough money is actually around to safely make one Feargus loses more and more ground to oppose MCA/Sawyer/Tim.

I mean each one of them wants to make a turn-based game. Its not like the desire isn't around.
 

Jarakka

Learned
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Messages
59
I mean it is a step in the right direction. When I was lurking on Codex around 2011 everyone was being a miserable cunt because there were absolutely -nothing- new to talk about. No RTWP, no blobbers, no TB, nothing that had been made in the past decade and nothing that could be made in the coming one. Hell, I stumbled upon Codex because I were looking for mods for my nth BG2 run.

So compared to that it's been alright in the sense that there's been at least some new games that cater at my general direction. I mean for fuck's sake, imagine what we all would've been talking about for the past four or ten years if there hadn't been no KS. Might as well quit computer games altogether and start jerking off in the evenings.

So every time I see a comments like these:

I don't envision Obsidian working on a $30mil Skyrim-clone anytime soon.

You never know.

No.

Black Isle Studios is dead and will never return. Its former developers are either retired or so washed-up and bland that all they can hope for is a quick nostalgia cash grab.

Pillars of Eternity is an abomination, both in Beta and Gold forms.

All I can say is I hope this lasts and we have a Renesaince of crpgs after all these years.

I must savour them. Because who knows, maybe in 5 years CRPGs as we know have been rendered obsolete by hologrammic virtual life dating and awesomesauce simulators. You absolutely never know.

So bring on the money and bring on the success that follow, for at least it will fuel the hate of Codexia and sustain it for yet another decade.

For nothing is worse than nothing.
 

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