Brian Fargo to retire after Wasteland 3

[ga♥]

Not surprising, really. If Feargus manages to sell Obsidian, he'll be the next.

I hope Fargo writes a tell-all memoir about the Interplay days, should be one of the most interesting books about the industry. Fortunately, Herve probably wouldn't have the money to sue him for whatever he writes, so he doesn't even have to mince words.

He's still a bit young to retire though:

(I love how smart Google is about this)

He said in the IGN interview that he wouldn't mind being bought (this doesn't mean he would retire).
Obsidian is pretty big though, I think it wouldn't be too easy to "digest".

 

[pippin]

What's Obsidian's link with Paradox? They just publish the stuff?

 

[ga♥]

What's Obsidian's link with Paradox? They just publish the stuff?

Yeah? Maybe infinitron knows better though.

Paradox recently bought White Wolf too.

 

[Infinitron]

If you're trying to say that Paradox has a close relationship with Obsidian that might eventually end in them buying Obsidian, then I doubt it. Feargus is looking into self-publishing PoE2.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Feargus is looking into self-publishing PoE2.

Yeah, yeah, sure, we never heard that before. Like being a prostitute is looking into finding a husband.

 

[Fairfax]

What's Obsidian's link with Paradox? They just publish the stuff?

Paradox is the only publisher which has worked with Obsidian more than once.

Not surprising, really. If Feargus manages to sell Obsidian, he'll be the next.

I hope Fargo writes a tell-all memoir about the Interplay days, should be one of the most interesting books about the industry. Fortunately, Herve probably wouldn't have the money to sue him for whatever he writes, so he doesn't even have to mince words.

He's still a bit young to retire though:

(I love how smart Google is about this)

He finally got Obsidian their own IP (maybe 2, if the Cain/Boywarky IP belongs to them) and the studio is bigger than BIS, so there isn't much left for him to achieve in the foreseeable future. An acquisition would bring them stability, which is something he can't get as a large, independent RPG studio.

At some point the stress gets to you, and he's not nearly as wealthy as Fargo, so he doesn't have a comfortable retirement available at all times. Letting someone else take over so he can live like the BioWare docs (specially Zeschuk) must sound very appealing.

 

[pippin]

inb4 EA kills Bioware and buys Obsidian

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's not without reason that he transferred PoE property to another company (black rock something company). He'll be selling Obshitian soon enough.

 

[Mustawd]

Isn't it still years till Wasteland 3 will ship? Isn't it a tad too early to announce this now or something?

Nah. It's a good time to start the transitioning process, and I imagine he'll want to get less and less involved as time goes on. This way he gets to slowly fade away and let the new CEO or whatever take over some of the more public interactions.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

This way he gets to slowly fade away and let the new CEO or whatever take over some of the more public interactions the blame for not being able to finance W3's production.

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

I love these threads, what started as a scammer getting out of business before getting laid led to 100% conclusive evidence over totally unrelated subjects.

How of the genius didn't predict this 6 hours ago is a mystery though.

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

it's too early to say who will succeed him as boss of the company.

 

[Aenra]

Veni, vidi, milki.

Well done Fargo, well done...

 

[Iznaliu]

Veni, vidi, milkci.

It would be "milki" if you go with Classical Latin pronounciation, where c is always pronounced like k

 

[Iznaliu]

It's not without reason that he transferred PoE property to another company (black rock something company). He'll be selling Obshitian soon enough.

I think this is a contingency plan in case Obsidian gets Interplayed (which is unlikely as the chipmunk is more competent than Fargo)

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

If WL3 will be a success maybe someone big would buy the studio to get the IP

Or maybe buy the IP even if it isn't a success, and then merge it with Fallout. If InXile goes bankrupt as expected, then the Wasteland I.P. can be acquired for peanuts. It also seems like Bethesda would want to own the Wasteland trademark so they can lock it down and then have a near perfect monopoly on the post-apocalyptic genre. The landscape in the Fallout games is called "Wasteland" and this has pissed off Brian Fargo because it infringes on his Wasteland trademark, but at the same time he doesn't have the money for legal expenses it would take to sue Bethesda over it, so he has had no choice but to take it up the butt all these years. Still, the existence of the Wasteland trademark is a potential liability for Bethesda, so they would want to buy the IP even just for that trademark, if nothing else.

If Bethesda doesn't buy it, then some other big company might, and then do what Fargo didn't have the money to do, and sue Bethesda for "damages". Fallout has made them hundreds of millions of dollars, so it would be a very lucrative target for whoever might own the Wasteland trademark. Gobbling up intellectual properties just as a pretext to sue other companies for "damages" is a very real thing called Patent/Copyright Trolling. That is something that could potentially happen here.

 

[Ismaul]

He said in the IGN interview that he wouldn't mind being bought

Yeah, and I'm guessing the creation of DRIL to hold the IPs is no coincidence. Sell Obsidian, keep the IPs, that's the DRIL.

It'll happen in the coming years I bet. Hell if you want to go all conspiracy, the execution of the first steps to reach this goal might be a reason why one of the owners left.

 

[Aenra]

Veni, vidi, milkci.

It would be "milki" if you go with Classical Latin pronounciation, where c is always pronounced like k

I stand corrected; edited accordingly

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Damn it Brian. I wanted Meantime.

 

[iZerw]

yeah but all the people who made your favorite games will start to retire

and then they will start to die

and then there will be none

Let them die already. Your old heroes can't do a shit for a decade or more. Spector, MCA, Romero, Boyarskiy, Cain, Garriot are impotent fucks now. Sad but true.

 

[Doma]

yeah but all the people who made your favorite games will start to retire

and then they will start to die

and then there will be none

Let them die already. Your old heroes can't do a shit for a decade or more. .., Boyarskiy, Cain, ... are impotent fucks now. Sad but true.

Now hold on just one damn minute kid! You take that back right now!

 

[Roguey]

Remember just six months ago when Fargo wanted his next thing to be something new.

https://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/453153/Brian+Fargo+is+swinging+for+the+fences+with+Torment/

When we asked whether any older franchises may get revisited in the future, Fargo was hesitant. "I'm more interested in doing something new also. I think having a mixture of existing titles with new ideas is good for us and interesting. We're kind of finally starting to get to a point where we can start entertaining that, but you have to get your library built, you have to get the momentum, get the trust that you know what you're doing and have followers that buy what you do, and they're willing to take a chance, because if they've had a couple of great experiences with our roleplaying games it's a lot easier to get them to buy a new title or a new concept that they've never heard of before. So we're building our way towards that."

So much for getting the momentum and the trust that they know what they're doing, and having followers that buy what they do. Now his new thing is nothing.

 

[an Administrator]

Inb4 Wasteland 3 becomes another Grimoire

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Iznaliu]

So much for getting the momentum and the trust that they know what they're doing, and having followers that buy what they do. Now his new thing is nothing.

Well it is technically 'something new'