Company News Feargus Urquhart talks about the decline of AAA and the future of Obsidian at KRI 2013

[Angthoron]

So what exactly is Obsidian going to code? The camera?

 

[majestik12]

So what exactly is Obsidian going to code? The camera?

Cooldowns, obviously.

 

[Angthoron]

So what exactly is Obsidian going to code? The camera?

Cooldowns, obviously.

Or maybe Josh Sawyer will just END THE FUN for the RU MMO players.

 

[Infinitron]

I think you guys aren't paying enough attention to the bit about Obsidian becoming a developer of "parts of games".

If they aren't careful they could end up like Timegate in Aliens: Colonial Marines.

 

[Angthoron]

Well, we still don't know what parts they'd be working on.

However, yeah, that's a danger.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Their main thing shifted from console trash to PC RPGs.

Who's gonna fund them? When was the last time we saw the kind of cRPG we want funded by a major publisher? They're still in the same shitty spot as before, only now they don't have as many ways of staying alive.

 

[Infinitron]

Their main thing shifted from console trash to PC RPGs.

Who's gonna fund them? When was the last time we saw the kind of cRPG we want funded by a major publisher? They're still in the same shitty spot as before, only now they don't have as many ways of staying alive.

I don't think this transition is going to be instantaneous.

If Project Eternity is a reasonable success, selling as well as Baldur's Gate did, Obsidian will suddenly be flush with cash. That will give them options.

 

[Tzaero]

Maybe we'll see a few expansions for Eternity.

Because of inXile they cannot do something torment-like, so their choices of what to pitch next as a kickstarter seems limited.
I reckon they could draw the numbers if they do a Space Opera.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Well, Obsidian has Project Eternity and they are going to do more similar Kickstarter funded games in the future. I suppose this is all that really matters (for me as a customer).

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe we'll see a few expansions for Eternity.

Because of inXile they cannot do something torment-like, so their choices of what to pitch next as a kickstarter seems limited.
I reckon they could draw the numbers if they do a Space Opera.

Yeah, that would make sense. PE = game for disappointed Dragon Age fans. Now to cater to the Mass Effect fans. It would be very transparent though.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Because of inXile they cannot do something torment-like, so their choices of what to pitch next as a kickstarter seems limited.

So CRPG means fantasy, post apoc and existential? There's nothing else Obsidian can pitch?

For example, how about a crime themed RPG where your attributes are criminal traits? Cunning = wisdom, intimidation = strength, street smarts = intelligence etc...

 

[General Maxson]

I do hope they cash in on PE and make more PC only crpgs. Especially sci-fi ones.

 

[Tzaero]

Because of inXile they cannot do something torment-like, so their choices of what to pitch next as a kickstarter seems limited.

So CRPG means fantasy, post apoc and existential? There's nothing else Obsidian can pitch?

For example, how about a crime themed RPG where your attributes are criminal traits? Cunning = wisdom, intimidation = strength, street smarts = intelligence etc...

For fantasy, they'll have to do something thats not like torment, or eternity and doing a second succesive fantasy kickstarter seems stale..
Theres no point in doing a post apoc unless they can do one significantly different from wasteland and fallout.
A crime RPG is interesting, but it'll be harder to hype and sell?

On a related note, a cyberpunk or a cold war espionage rpg could be something inXile could pitch.
It'll be expected that they propose radical proposals while Obi will take the safe bets.

 

[SirArvedeth]

I'm afraid PE won't become cash cow as Baldure's Gate. Ommiting the fact, that piracy is in it's best, there is still one aspect - what players expect of it and what will PE become eventually. If I'm not mistaken there was exteremely high hype on DA:O before it's release, and kinda significant let down after that. Not saying Dragon Age was bad, I enjoyed it, however the game wasn't quite what it was expected to be.

Again, maybe it's only because of Bioware/EA being the producers in case of DA...

 

[Johannes]

Also, the pressure to "dumb down for tablets" is far far more minimal considering the low budget costs of tablet games.

What about gameplay? Have tablets evolved to where they can give you the same reactivity as a mouse?

Well I'd assume they wouldn't be trying to make action/FPS rpgs for tablets, and more stuff in the vein of Project Eternity where you just need to click on stuff which... yeah, tablets can do that just fine.

If it's gonna be anything like the IE games, I'd say keyboard and mouse requiredf or the proper experience.

Just because someone can release a BGEE on tablets doesn't mean it wouldn't suck. Of course I haven't tried, if someone has BGEE tablet experience and loves the interface, feel free to correct me.

 

[janjetina]

Their main thing shifted from console trash to PC RPGs.

Who's gonna fund them? When was the last time we saw the kind of cRPG we want funded by a major publisher? They're still in the same shitty spot as before, only now they don't have as many ways of staying alive.

Obsidian playing the 'AAA' consoletard market was a case of biting more than they can chew, and a huge strategic failure. Change in strategy and downsizing are necessary. Maintaining a payroll of a few hundred employees is simply infeasible for them. It's a wonder they lasted this long with that strategy.

As a customer, I don't care about Obsidian 'staying alive'. I care about them producing games I'd like to play, and in that regard, Obsidian's track record has been pretty miserable (one decent game every three years) due to their 'AAA' consoletard market focus.

What this shift in strategy hopefully means that Obsidian's creative energy will be focused on the PC market. In that case we can expect mid-size (seven figure budget) single player PC RPGs to be their flagship, brand defining products, unless they fully commit to subcontracting. Seems like a good thing to me.

 

[Rake]

Their main thing shifted from console trash to PC RPGs.

Who's gonna fund them? When was the last time we saw the kind of cRPG we want funded by a major publisher? They're still in the same shitty spot as before, only now they don't have as many ways of staying alive.

Obsidian already works on a next gen project. Fergus just said that it's becoming harder and harder for most studios, especially indepentent ones, to secure funding for AAA games, and predicted that even games of 15-20M will be rare in a few years. Remember, he talked about the industry moving in AC territory, with 1000 person teams. There is no way in hell Obsidian secure the funds for such a project. So the will change focus on PC only (kickstarter), tablets and F2P. They will still pitch sequels to other games with existing engines and reusing assets, but thats it.
Also, kickstarted games are their own. If they are hits, their finansial situation will stabilize, and with the steady income from sales they will not living project to project and layoff people every time a deal gets canceled.

 

[Roguey]

J-Saw is a huge fan of Battleheart, clearly this is going to be the inspiration for Obsidian's first tablet RPG (also Project Eternity).

 

[mondblut]

What's to celebrate?

Their main thing shifted from console trash to MMO trash.

Corrected.

 

[aliquidparadigm]

Yeah, that would make sense. PE = game for disappointed Dragon Age fans. Now to cater to the Mass Effect fans. It would be very transparent though.

If it makes them money and doesn't suck, we can all forgive the obviousness of it. If it were somewhere between ME/ME2 and Mars: War Logs, we could do worse.

 

[Indranys]

Yeah, that would make sense. PE = game for disappointed Dragon Age fans. Now to cater to the Mass Effect fans. It would be very transparent though.

Let it be.
Let The Sawyer ends their emotionally engaging "fun" once and for all.
This is a fair sacrifice to save the future of humanity.

Also I'll kill for cool space opera in the same vein as Legend of Galactic Heroes or The early Gundam series.
My weaboo alter ego welcomes it.

 

[IDtenT]

Moving away from consoles can only be good for obsidian. It's painfully obvious that portable devices are the wave of the future, consoles are a stale shit dead end.

I don't know. New generation should invigorate the industry.

 

[Rivmusique]

J-Saw is a huge fan of Battleheart, clearly this is going to be the inspiration for Obsidian's first tablet RPG (also Project Eternity).

Cooldowns

Also, looks like a single player (really easy) WoW boss.

 

[Fat Dragon]

This is actually starting to become a common thing for small-to-mid size dev studios now. Tim Schafer's Double Fine has already started doing something like this and seems to be doing well. Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank series) recently left Sony to start making their own cheaper-to-produce games where they own the ip and are currently branching out to iOS with their Outernauts game. Not to mention InXile, Brian Fargo has pretty much given mainstream gaming the finger.

As Feargus said, AAA game development prices are growing more absurd by the day while publishers continue to open/buy their own studios to develop their games, meaning less times when a publisher will outsource a game to an independent studio. Going this route seems like the only option Obsidian has if they want to survive as a privately-owned company. Otherwise they'll have to sell to a publisher or just go out of business.

Hope this plan works out for the best for Obsidian. If they can produce several moderately successful niche RPGs for pc and build up their own ip with them, maybe we'll finally get the true Black Isle back.

 

[Gerrard]

So what exactly is Obsidian going to code? The camera?

Cooldowns, obviously.