Game News Feargus Urquhart Interview

[Stinger]

125 people

 

[l3loodAngel]

125 people

lol. If with that many people they cant produce a decent title they never will. Sad, but based on performance this company should go bust...

 

[commie]

125 people

lol. If with that many people they cant produce a decent title they never will. Sad, but based on performance this company should go bust...

Location: Retardia

 

[Cynic]

Um, it was built on their own engine therefore no licensing issues. The game had minimal dialogue animation (characters have their backs turned to the camera) so not much money is spent on being 'Cinematic'. Generally minimal dialogue= not as much money spent on Voice Acting.

The game wasn't in development for as long as AP and didn't have the numerous reiterations. There were clear cost cutting measures taken in the game and its scope was generally limited compared to any other game they've made.

As for the sales. Here's my source which cites several credible sources so it's hardly on the same level of bullshitz as your "dragun age too sold ovar 2 millon moran dis iz factz Roofles!"

Awaiting Volourn's counter truthz!

 

[J_C]

125 people

lol. If with that many people they cant produce a decent title they never will. Sad, but based on performance this company should go bust...

You make us 2010 newfags look bad.

Um, it was built on their own engine therefore no licensing issues. The game had minimal dialogue animation (characters have their backs turned to the camera) so not much money is spent on being 'Cinematic'. Generally minimal dialogue= not as much money spent on Voice Acting.

The game wasn't in development for as long as AP and didn't have the numerous reiterations. There were clear cost cutting measures taken in the game and its scope was generally limited compared to any other game they've made.

As for the sales. Here's my source which cites several credible sources so it's hardly on the same level of bullshitz as your "dragun age too sold ovar 2 millon moran dis iz factz Roofles!"

Awaiting Volourn's counter truthz!

Volourn will say: ROOFLES, that is bullshitz, Square Enix just makes shit up. They surely lie in the annual fiscal report. TROLOLOL! Now when Bioware says that they sold 2 million from DA2. That is the truthz.

 

[Roguey]

Guys, those 820k/2.18m numbers are shipped/sold-in, not sold to customers/sold-through, just like DA2's 2m. There's even that one guy at that NeoGAF place who's claiming that HR's actual numbers are less than half that, but who knows, he may just be a confident liar.

It is true that DS3's breakeven point would be much lower than DX:HR's. It's four years of development with a full team of about 180 people plus massive marketing campaign (with awesome cg trailer and everything) versus a little over two years with a team of about 70 with a noticeably smaller marketing push (with bizarre live action co-op commercial). Though Volourn's also right in saying it isn't low-budget. It's mid-budget, an A-title as opposed to triple.

They got a flat fee for FO:NV (and, I think, KoTOR2 as well - maybe even NWN2), so the fact that FO:NV and NWN2 were commercial hits means fuckall.

Avellone confirmed they do get royalties from NWN2 here. Though I suspect this was possible mostly because this was before publishers started making royalties/bonuses dependent on metacritic scores.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Obsidian seem to have learnt a lot from that on the business end. By going for 'safe licences', and trying to make interesting versions of action-mainstream games, rather than hardcore crpgs, they've kept the publishers onside so far. That means MUCH more than whether the game is profitable - it is publisher backing that pays for them to keep developing, NOT the profitability of their last game.

They also seem to have learned you must have multiple projects going at all times.


As for $1M per month burn rate, I didn't realize they were so big. Anyone know how many people work there?

Yeah, the multiple projects thing is part of what I meant when I said they'd learnt from Troika's fall in the business end - no matter whether each game makes a profit, you need to make sure that there is absolutely never ever a gap where you have no funding arrangements with a publisher. That way if the publisher cans a project, you're just firing a lot of ancillary teams, rather than losing the whole damn company.

Troika really got burned that way. Fuck, given the way that VtM:B has kept on selling through to the present day, any publisher should be glad to have that in their catalogue and it's a disgrace that Troika isn't getting the cash from those long-tail sales. 3 games, all profitable, then bankrupt because no publisher wants to contract with you.

Sadly - and this is not how I want the gaming business to go - it really does make a lot of sense to make sure that you have 2 'easy sell' action titles in development at any one time, just to keep the publisher contracts coming, while trying to squeeze the odd smaller game and expansion pack under the radar every now and then.

 

[Mangoose]

"I just realized last night that Feargy founded Black Isle Studios..."

Not exactly. He was a big Interplay boss when BIS was created. he had a hand in doing so; but he didn't 'create' it per se. Interplay did which he was an employee of.

He did found it - or at least the founding was attributed to only him by name - if you believe Wikipedia. "Black Isle" comes from the Scottish geographical Black Isle, and Feargus is from Scotland.

Either way, he was the head honcho of the division. Obviously with direction from above. But it seems like he did a great job saving Black Isle - turning it into Obsidian - when Interplay shut it down. Something I didn't realize til the other day.

 

[Volourn]

"But it seems like he did a great job saving Black Isle - turning it into Obsidian"

While I won't argue that he helped make BIS, he did not save it. Obsidian is not BIS. BIS was a failed DIVISION of a a company. Obsidian is a, so far, successful company that FU and others created. btw, FU was part of the reason why BIS failed. Too fixated on slam dunks and dead/dying engines.


@DS3: Even if the link is correct and the game has shipped./sold 860k copies, it's stiull a failure in the grand scheme of things. If you want to be seen as a AAA developer which Obsidian most assuredly does, 860k copies ain't gonna cut it. JE sold 1.5-2mil copies back in 2005 and is considered's BIO's 'low end sales child' and they haven't bothered with a sequel b/c they expect it to sell NWN/BG/KOTOR numbers.

860k copies cannot cut it for a company who had a game sell 5mil+ either. DS3 is a failure critically, commercially, and every other way.

It's funny moronic people want to brag about how DA2 'failed' yet it beat DS3 in every way. Easily. R00fles!

 

[IronicNeurotic]

"But it seems like he did a great job saving Black Isle - turning it into Obsidian"

While I won't argue that he helped make BIS, he did not save it. Obsidian is not BIS. BIS was a failed DIVISION of a a company. Obsidian is a, so far, successful company that FU and others created. btw, FU was part of the reason why BIS failed. Too fixated on slam dunks and dead/dying engines.

Never facepalmed harder in my life.

Thanks Volourn!

 

[Roguey]

"JE sold 1.5-2mil copies back in 2005 and is considered's BIO's 'low end sales child' and they haven't bothered with a sequel b/c they expect it to sell NWN/BG/KOTOR numbers."

I'm not sure how many years it spent in development, but JE had nearly twice the team size as DS3 Vols.

 

[J_C]

It's funny moronic people want to brag about how DA2 'failed' yet it beat DS3 in every way. Easily. R00fles!

Never mind that DA2 probably cost much more than DS3.

But I agree, DA2 beat DS3 in every way. DA2 is the proud winner of the shittiest RPG contest.

 

[Volourn]

"Never mind that DA2 probably cost much more than DS3."

DA2 took less than two years to make on an already made engine and had no licensing issues since it's a BIO/EA IP.

So.. define 'much' more, please.

 

[Stinger]

Had a larger marketing budget and more VAing/larger cinematic budget.

 

[Volourn]

Define LARGER.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Define MORON. Roofles!

 

[Volourn]

Beautiful Clown Painting

 

[Roguey]

"DA2 took less than two years to make on an already made engine and had no licensing issues since it's a BIO/EA IP."

It also had a team of over 150 people and DS3 also had a mostly-made engine (Sega funded Aliens from late 2006 to early 2009, a little over two years of work) and no licensing issues since it's a Square Enix IP. Though it's already clear DA2 did make enough money to go forward with a sequel so anyone thinking otherwise is in massive denial . I'm sure the massive amount of item DLC helped.

 

[Cynic]

ITT: Volourn gets cluster fucked.

 

[Joe Krow]

You have a publishing and distribution network lined up before you have a game concept.

The driving force of the design is sales statistics.

You have to suck enough dick to make a 1mm a month overhead.


Independant Contractor=/= Independant Developer

 

[Volourn]

"It also had a team of over 150 people and DS3 also had a mostly-made engine (Sega funded Aliens from late 2006 to early 2009, a little over two years of work) and no licensing issues since it's a Square Enix IP."

You obviously don't know how licensing works then. Believe me, Obsidian felt the cost of licensing the DS IP even though SS owned it.

Bottom line is while DA2 costn more than DS3 it also made a hell of a lot more as well. ie. It diodn't bomb.

860k < 2mil


Or did you forget that?

R00fles!

 

[Roguey]

"You obviously don't know how licensing works then. Believe me, Obsidian felt the cost of licensing the DS IP even though SS owned it."

Surely you're aware of by now that publishers pay developers to make games in staggered milestone payments (in addition to handling all qa/marketing/distribution costs) and the money from game sales goes to getting back their investment, preferably with extra. So if they were charging Obsidian a licensing fee (in addition to paying them to making it...) that would only lower the cost on their end. You're arguing against yourself.

 

[Volourn]

No.