Interview Feargus Urquhart talks about Obsidian's plans, says next Kickstarter delayed to early fall

[DeepOcean]

Darth Fergie: Hey EA, I have all those kickstarter guys willing to give money out of desperation, they want single player RPGs on this day and age, can you believe on that? Tell you what, we dry those suckers out of their money, what can they do? Wait for any AAA studio to make a RPG? They will die old before of that. I will make a game that works on tablets as well, Bioware do the big AAA thing and you get a tablet game for free from us. How about that? I'm reading the RPG codex dispair right now with our tanks cash in, believe on me, those suckers are so desperate they will shower you with free money.

EA emperor: Humm, Darth Fergie, that sounds like a reasonable plan. Did you revealed your Sith identity to them yet?

Darth Fergie: No, they think I'm one with the kickstarter rebellion, great lord EA, I'm following the plan, only when it's time to sell their souls to Origin, that is when I will reveal my true identity.

EA emperor: Good, good...

 

[Xor]

Now a Star Trek RPG, done right by Obsidian or some other company? I'd sell a kidney to play that.

A KOTOR2-esque deconstruction of the Star Trek universe where the Federation is revealed to be just as totalitarian and expansionist as the various evil empires they regularly fight, Star Fleet are shown to be a bunch of self-righteous dicks, and humanity's philosophy of self-improvement is shown to be completely hypocritical? Yes, please.

 

[Decado]

I would prefer a more vanilla approach to ST, or perhaps a Federation conspiracy angle. I mean, I wouldn't mind a subverted ST game eventually, but for fuck's sake we haven't really gotten a non-subversive ST RPG yet.

 

[Morality Games]

Wish Obsidian would reveal what their next Kickstarter is already.

 

[Tigranes]

Why would they, months before the actual KS?

 

[Infinitron]

Why would they, months before the actual KS?

Well, it's not too early to start searching for registered trademarks! Roguey

 

[circ]

Obsidian never did anything right and never will.

 

[Infinitron]

wtf, is circ trying to be Excidium #2 (or Skyway #3)?

It's p. unoriginal.

 

[Tigranes]

Obsidian is pretty easy to laugh at, anyway, they're about as lucky as Xu Jing.

 

[Monty]

Wish Obsidian would reveal what their next Kickstarter is already.

Perhaps a Dungeonland sequel.

 

[Morality Games]

Obsidian never did anything right and never will.

"Ultimately what we really want to do is be a studio that is making those big role-playing games. We want to make the Fallout: New Vegas's, we want to make the Skyrims, we want to make the KOTORs,

So they're not content with making games like Project Eternity. I guess we knew that but this is the first instance of them blatantly admitting it that I'm aware of.

"Star Wars is one of those games that makes me just throw the reasons, throw my right brain or left brain - I don't know which one it is - and say, 'Oh this is totally stupid to do, but, whatever!' It would be that game, and I hope some day we get to make another Star Wars game.

This...is not heartening to read.

I sort of agree. Big "role-playing games" don't really seem worth the effort or the risk when you can (safely and profitably) make much better games. That being said, I'm sure Obsidian would love to have the kind of success where they could make games of that size and graphical quality and at least break even.

 

[Infinitron]

when you can (safely and profitably) make much better games

You used the word "when" there. I think what you meant is "if".

How many oldschool RPGs could 140 Obsidian employees work on? How many could the market take before there was a glut?

 

[dukeofwhales]

Well it's not like there's a heap of competition in the 'old school RPG' genre. I'm sure it could handle Obsidian releasing one a year (plus an expansion for each game), assuming there's enough of a market in the first place any more. One major and one expansion release every year would definitely keep them busy.

Not saying that's the way they'd want to go, just that they could go that way if PoE proves profitable (and assuming people will keep buying these games after the first one).

 

[Raapys]

And with every iteration Obsidian will be trying to appeal to a slightly bigger audience and the cycle begins anew.

 

[dukeofwhales]

I think Telltale games is a reasonable case study of a company which doesn't compromise on design decisions but continues to attract a larger audience with each iteration of their click-to-progress-the-story 'adventure' games. That's who I'd be looking to emulate if I was looking to base my company around building one type of game and marketing it to a niche group.

 

[Athelas]

The Telltale games are the very definition of mass market streamlining, with the removal of those pesky adventure game elements.

 

[dukeofwhales]

Did they [Telltale] ever actually have the adventure game elements in the first place though? They seem to have always targeted a story-heavy gameplay style.

My point was more that they keep a set style and pick up fans over time meaning each release sells more, rather than going full mainstream to get more sales. Admittedly I don't know exactly how you'd go more mainstream than Telltale and stay within the point and click genre.

 

[Athelas]

I was replying to:

I think Telltale games is a reasonable case study of a company which doesn't compromise on design decisions

because there was never anything to compromise on, since their first big success with the Walking Dead their games were already stripped down as can be, with no meaningful gameplay or C&C to speak of. So not a very good analogy to how Obsidian would potentially carve out an RPG niche.

 

[Morality Games]

when you can (safely and profitably) make much better games

You used the word "when" there. I think what you meant is "if".

How many oldschool RPGs could 140 Obsidian employees work on? How many could the market take before there was a glut?

"If" would be right, but more on the "when" side of the qualifier than the "probably not."

The Pillars of Eternity game play teaser and the reception has gotten enough views to make me confident that the media coverage has gotten them a lot of exposure to meet optimistic sale projections. The Paradox deal should get them more, and it's also possible to piggyback Dragon Age: Inquisition's hype. Diablo 3 and its derivatives have acquainted mass audiences with isometric camera angles and Bioware has reacquainted them to party driven mechanics. Overall, Obsidian has played it smartly and the prognosis is favorable.

I don't know about the second one, because the KickStarter method opens the door to a lot of one-shots. There's nowhere near as much compulsion to invest and depend on a single IP like the Forgotten Realms.

I suppose the answer is, "as many as there are settings that people want to role-play in."

 

[Shannow]

How many oldschool RPGs could 140 Obsidian employees work on? How many could the market take before there was a glut?

What? I was repeatedly told that Obsidian = Black Isle (= Troika) because it's mainly Avellone, Urqhardt, Sawyer, Cain and some gifted new bloods who constantly produce quality stuff that surpasses the old classics. So you must obviously be mistaken, good sir.

On a more serious note: I don't care about Obsidian and still don't understand why anybody else does. Nobody forces the studio to be so big.

And really serious: An ice cream man sells really good ice cream. He constantly changes the flavours. How long until you're fed up? How many games do you play per year? How many would you play if more really good ones were available? (Not that I'd expect Obsidian to make really good ones. Still waiting to see if He Man-RPG turns out more than decent, or even that.)

 

[Curious_Tongue]

How many games do you play per year?

Not many.

How many would you play if more really good ones were available?

A lot more.

 

[dukeofwhales]

An ice cream man sells really good ice cream. He constantly changes the flavours. How long until you're fed up?

Depends if the new flavours are any good or not. If the new flavour is 'F2P Tank MMO' then probably not very long. Though if they keep mint choc chip and choc hazlenut alongside the new flavours I'll stick around and just keep buying the delicious ones.

But seriously, I probably beat 10ish games a year, plus ongoing games such as TF2 and Civ. I'd be happy if more of them were good RPGs, and less popamole with some other redeeming feature.

 

[Infinitron]

"If" would be right, but more on the "when" side of the qualifier than the "probably not."

The Pillars of Eternity game play teaser and the reception has gotten enough views to make me confident that the media coverage has gotten them a lot of exposure to meet optimistic sale projections. The Paradox deal should get them more, and it's also possible to piggyback Dragon Age: Inquisition's hype. Diablo 3 and its derivatives have acquainted mass audiences with isometric camera angles and Bioware has reacquainted them to party driven mechanics. Overall, Obsidian has played it smartly and the prognosis is favorable.

I don't know about the second one, because the KickStarter method opens the door to a lot of one-shots. There's nowhere near as much compulsion to invest and depend on a single IP like the Forgotten Realms.

I suppose the answer is, "as many as there are settings that people want to role-play in."

You suppose. Fact is, that's an unknown factor and a risk, and you don't take risks with the livelihoods of 140 people. The "Kickstarterization" of Obsidian, if it occurs, will be a measured, gradual process.

Besides which, even here on the Codex there are people who want Obsidian to continue to make Fallout New Vegases.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Did they [Telltale] ever actually have the adventure game elements in the first place though? They seem to have always targeted a story-heavy gameplay style.

the bone and sam and max games were traditional point and click games that were mediocre at best as evidenced by the fact that you don't even know about them.

My point was more that they keep a set style and pick up fans over time meaning each release sells more, rather than going full mainstream to get more sales. Admittedly I don't know exactly how you'd go more mainstream than Telltale and stay within the point and click genre.

your point is bullshit. as athelas pointed out telltale are the very embodiment of steamlining for mass appeal. i can even hazard a guess that you will find evidence of streamlining for more appeal in their own brand of interactive qte movies if you compare walking dead season 1 to wolf among us and season 2, but i'd have to play that shit to know for sure.

 

[Hassat Hunter]

Sure, they can take the Telltale root, maybe they can make a dumbed down version of Space Siege... can't have complex stuff like choices, skill trees or inventories. Gotta keep it extremely simple, and hope press who doesn't know better think you're awful story is good... which they somehow do. How I wonder, since the story in TWD Season 1 was absolutely, well, shit. And didn't have any gameplay to back it up.
While a completely combatless RPG would be interesting, they need a lot more depth than what the adventure genre gave us so far.

As for "I can live without Obsidian", do you truly wish that we only get BioWare RPG's? Really? Might aswell give us RPGCodex and start (Gay)RomanceCodex.