Interview Feargus Urquhart and Fredrik Wester on the Pillars of Eternity distribution deal

[set]

I don't see the issue. Paradox is pretty hands-off and they publish many low/mid budget, non-AAA games. They know their audiences are niche and don't play creative control games.

 

[2house2fly]

One thing I really like about Paradox beside their CK2 and EU4 is their trailers. Their CK2 sins trailers and the Jazzy boats trailers were pretty good.

Also since Paradox is making an RPG game, maybe they asked for Obsidian's expertise at making RPGs or something.

Delicious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdzrpbB2fw8

"It's a metaphor," explained Quintin Smith, ex-Rock Paper Shotgun writer and author of the trailers. "In an ironic play on our perceptions, the King is a manifestation of all of us, while his servants represent the ruling elite. That their positions are reversed is a reflection of these modern times. The trailers are actually themed around the seven deadly sins, for reasons too scholarly to go into here, but we start with wroth. That's the old English word for wrath. That's the kind of thing we know, here at Paradox. We're very high-functioning."

There’s a distant sound that can be heard throughout your time watching the Seven Deadly Sins CK2 trailers. It is the sound of Quintin Smith phoning this trailer in. I’m talking long distance, reversed charges, not-giving-a-fuck.

 

[Smejki]

I backed the game because I wanted (1) a 90s era cRPG updated for today and (2) to see a highly visible game succeed while avoiding the publisher model. The game was pitched to backers with these two points in mind. Whether or not they "need" this is irrelevant. A publisher should not be a part of the equation.

and that's why Paradox in the role of a mere distributor with marketing and QA responsibility.

 

[Minttunator]

So what where the bugs in South Park again? Or is this guy talking out of his ass just to be edgy? I never encountered any bugs during my playthrough. It didn't even crash that I can recall. Unusual for a modern game - let alone an Obsidian game.

I agree, I think it's just the RPS SJW retards trying to badmouth the game because it's politically incorrect and has rape jokes or whatever. South Park is a solid game stability wise - especially by modern standards.

 

[Forest Dweller]

So first the interviewer has to ask numerous questions about (alleged) bugs in South Park, and then he says this:

RPS: After so many missteps over the years with bugs, do you feel like you owe fans any sort of apology? Do you feel responsible, or perhaps like you’ve damaged your players’ trust?

Are you fucking kidding me? What an asshole. Criticism masquerading as an interview when this was supposed to be about the Paradox deal. Fuck this guy.

 

[Name]

So first the interviewer has to ask numerous questions about (alleged) bugs in South Park, and then he says this:

RPS: After so many missteps over the years with bugs, do you feel like you owe fans any sort of apology? Do you feel responsible, or perhaps like you’ve damaged your players’ trust?

Are you fucking kidding me? What an asshole. Criticism masquerading as an interview when this was supposed to be about the Paradox deal. Fuck this guy.

Lots of people really hate Obsidian, because of bugs.
Lots of people really hate RPGCodex too. Also that's why RPGCodex loves Obsidian.

 

[Excidium]

Who is this RPG Codex you talk about?

 

[BrickManslab]

So first the interviewer has to ask numerous questions about (alleged) bugs in South Park, and then he says this:

RPS: After so many missteps over the years with bugs, do you feel like you owe fans any sort of apology? Do you feel responsible, or perhaps like you’ve damaged your players’ trust?

Are you fucking kidding me? What an asshole. Criticism masquerading as an interview when this was supposed to be about the Paradox deal. Fuck this guy.

It's like, fuck, isn't this an interview about a game that got 362% of its kickstarter pitch?

 

[suejak]

You guys sure turn into a buncha pussies when it comes to Obsidian huh

 

[Monty]

I backed the game because I wanted (1) a 90s era cRPG updated for today and (2) to see a highly visible game succeed while avoiding the publisher model. The game was pitched to backers with these two points in mind. Whether or not they "need" this is irrelevant. A publisher should not be a part of the equation.

and that's why Paradox in the role of a mere distributor with marketing and QA responsibility.

No, what's effectively happened is Obsidian has sold a stake in the game to Paradox. Because kickstarter funded most of the game Obsidian is in a stronger negotiating position than previously though, so keep their IP and supposedly have full creative control (although Paradox can voice 'opinions').

I'm not bothered really as it does increase the budget for the game, but let's not pretend this is 'outsourcing' or anything like that. There is no difference between Paradox buying a stake in the game with $500k in cash or $500k worth of QA/marketing/backer rewards. This stuff in the thread about 'did you expect Avellone to box the dvds himself' or whatever is BS as a subcontractor was always going to handle this, now they'll just be paid by Paradox not directly by Obsidian.

They had to dress this up carefully though, given their kicktarter pitch about not using publishers and Urquhart's previous comments:

“We were actually contacted by some publishers over the last few months that wanted to use us to do a Kickstarter,” Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart revealed in a Q&A on the Project Eternity Kickstarter page. “I said to them ‘So, you want us to do a Kickstarter for, using our name, we then get the Kickstarter money to make the game, you then publish the game, but we then don’t get to keep the brand we make and we only get a portion of the profits.’ They said, ‘Yes’.”

All that's changed is that Obsidian keep their IP, which is a pretty big deal so kickstarter has been very beneficial in that sense imo. But if they now said 'we've sold a portion of the game to a publisher, so can increase the budget a bit' there would probably be an outcry from some quarters. So they dress it up as 'financial upside' for Paradox in return for 'services' like marketing, QA and backer rewards. Doesn't change what it is.

 

[Infinitron]

Monty You speak as if "selling a stake in the game" (what does that even mean? it's just a vague alarming-sounding phrase) is its own reward, instead of being a means to an end. Why can't it be that AND "outsourcing"?

Anyway, why should I give a fuck who has a "stake" in the game? I want a good oldschool RPG, I don't care what they decide to do behind the scenes to make it happen. Seems like when people don't like what Sawyer is doing, they play armchair designer. And when they don't like what Feargus is doing, they play armchair CEO.

 

[suejak]

Yeah, it's all fine and good as far as I'm concerned. I'm just butthurt over the shitstorm Double Fine caused by simply being honest. The only difference here is one foreign publisher and a lot less honesty.

 

[Monty]

Monty You speak as if "selling a stake in the game" (what does that even mean? it's just a vague alarming-sounding phrase) is its own reward, instead of being a means to an end. Why can't it be that AND "outsourcing"?

Anyway, why should I give a fuck who has a "stake" in the game? I want a good oldschool RPG, I don't care what they decide to do behind the scenes to make it happen. Seems like when people don't like what Sawyer is doing, they play armchair designer. And when they don't like what Feargus is doing, they play armchair CEO.

"selling a stake in a game' is an equity arrangement, as Paradox have taken on some financial risk in return for a percentage of the profits. Just like other publisher contracts. This is different to paying some subcontractor a fee to ship some boxes for you.

I don't really give a fuck either, as I pointed out above. I also just want a better game and now the budget is a bit bigger. Kickstarter has effectively allowed them to keep their IP which is very beneficial imo. But I'm just enjoying the spin on this after his previous comments about those nasty old publishers wanting a.... er.... portion of the profits from a kickstarter game.

 

[Infinitron]

Here's a video of that partnership announcement:

 

[Turjan]

"If we don't think Pillars of Eternity is up to standard, we're going to tell these guys. And we're opinionated people, we're going to come back with tons of opinions. We have a QA team of eighteen people who're going to play the game for weeks and weeks and give their feedback."

Yeah.

Aside from the obvious marketing double-speak, I don't really care. I expected something like that, and I would consider Paradox as one of the best choices around for a small developer who wants to stay halfway independent. Although, for a different take on this, look at Mount & Blade and how that went. But that's something for the lawyers to sort out.

 

[commie]

Good thing we don't believe kickstarter lies...right? The anti-publisher POWA TO DA PEOPLE generates pledges like crazy, but in the end they will do whatever is best for the game.

And rightly so....were it up to the pledging 'fans', Wasteland 2 would be a third person cover shooter/romance simulator.

 

[abnaxus]

Strange. I read that as King Amalur. Probably because of Obsidian.

 

[Applypoison]

Interesting piece of news. Holding my breath here - I like Paradox's MO, but many publishers seem to be interested in RPGs these days...and unfortunately, for many of those, "RPG" usually boils down to "cinematic fantasy/sci-fi experience with superficial character progression". Usually, publisher QA can't seem to differentiate RPG gameplay from... whatever other genre they've been publishing. As such, talk like this...

"If we don't think Pillars of Eternity is up to standard, we're going to tell these guys. And we're opinionated people, we're going to come back with tons of opinions. We have a QA team of eighteen people who're going to play the game for weeks and weeks and give their feedback."

... while inspiring, doesn't really mean much. As primarily 4x/strategy game marketers, Paradox cannot realistically be expected to help make the game better.

All in all this is still a good thing for PoE & future sales though... the morale of the story is that we should all hate on RPS instead

 

[Mortmal]

Thats a really good thing they found a publisher , i hope no one was that naive to believe the small amount money they gathered was enough to pay their staff for a few years.I prefer to see that than ending up with a budget dragon age, or something as prestigious as south park.Lot of people put them on a pedestal but half of their game are , lets be blunt , really shitty.Its not a bad thing someone will control a bit whats going on and paradox, whatever its flaws and sea of dlcs, cater to oldschool kind of gamers at least. Compare EU4 or cK2 to civ 5 ...No paradox is the lesser evil when it comes to publishers.

This will be steam only no doubt so if people expecting DRM free version of the game i dont see that happening ever or at best a crippled version with no support for future expansions.

 

[Goegoff]

 

[Delbaeth]

So now the question is: Will Pillars of Eternity follow the path of Magna Mundi and East vs West?

Spoiler

 

[Nope]

So first the interviewer has to ask numerous questions about (alleged) bugs in South Park, and then he says this:

RPS: After so many missteps over the years with bugs, do you feel like you owe fans any sort of apology? Do you feel responsible, or perhaps like you’ve damaged your players’ trust?

Are you fucking kidding me? What an asshole. Criticism masquerading as an interview when this was supposed to be about the Paradox deal. Fuck this guy.

It's surprising that RPS can still get people to talk with them at all when they keep sending out people like Grayson. He's been acting similarly to both CDR and Blizzard in past interviews over his personal views on sexism.

 

[Don Peste]

Valla mierda, para que coño los apoye en kickstarter...

Pero que cojones????

 

[BlackAdderBG]

So now the question is: Will Pillars of Eternity follow the path of Magna Mundi and East vs West?

Spoiler

Or March of the Eagles

 

[Bilgefar]

"selling a stake in a game' is an equity arrangement, as Paradox have taken on some financial risk in return for a percentage of the profits. Just like other publisher contracts. This is different to paying some subcontractor a fee to ship some boxes for you.

I don't really give a fuck either, as I pointed out above. I also just want a better game and now the budget is a bit bigger. Kickstarter has effectively allowed them to keep their IP which is very beneficial imo. But I'm just enjoying the spin on this after his previous comments about those nasty old publishers wanting a.... er.... portion of the profits from a kickstarter game.

I suppose this is fair, but I feel like the "we only get a portion of the profits" part of his quote strongly implies that the lion's share of the profits go to the publisher. The opposite is true here.

Anyways, this seems like a smart move, and even if it technically isn't 100% consistent with their kickstarter promises, I don't really see any big downsides.