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

[Duraframe300]

What's to celebrate?

No.

More.

Popamole.

Wellllllllllll...

Not going with the AAA arms-race doesn't exactly mean no popamole projects.

 

[Semper]

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

they're still pitching for projects like new vegas - developing sequels or spin offs with a fully developed pipeline. feargus just wants to keep the (around) 100 employees so there has to be other income. working for other studios is the most logic step because this way he could easily switch teams where needed, while 2 small core teams pre-produce their smaller projects.

 

[Lockkaliber]

I remain unconvinced that this is actually going to result in what you guys think is going to happen. Let's hope for the best, though co-developing russian second rate MMO's feels very off.

 

[Volrath]

I give Obsidian 6 more months. Max.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

a lot of people dismissing the allods team because they're russian itt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nival_(company)

their list of games is actually pretty solid

 

[Wizfall]

I don't know about games development but looking at InXile and others "middle size" developers a workforce of more or less 100 people doesn't seem middle size.
15 to 50 is middle size IMHO.
I wonder how many people worked on Skyrim/Fallout 3/ME.

 

[laclongquan]

Nival is THE russian name known around here, chap.

 

[Minttunator]

a lot of people dismissing the allods team because they're russian itt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nival_(company)

their list of games is actually pretty solid

Pretty solid, yeah - but my problem with regards to this announcement, specifically, is that their MMO, Allods Online, is a prime example of a promising game being ruined by a P2W cash shop and thus far, there's little cause to think their new MMO will be different in that regard. I'm probably more sensitive to P2W than most people, though, so this might not be a problem for the majority of the audience.

 

[Duraframe300]

I give Obsidian 6 more months. Max.

It will be more than that. South Park and their unnanounced project would need to be cancelled before this would happen.

 

[tuluse]

I don't know about games development but looking at InXile and others "middle size" developers a workforce of more or less 100 people doesn't seem middle size.
15 to 50 is middle size IMHO.
I wonder how many people worked on Skyrim/Fallout 3/ME.

Obsidian as a whole company is around 100 people, but they have 2-3 projects at a time. I think Skyrim's team size was closer to 200, and this ignores that Zenimax has all the business side while that's included in Obsidian's count.

 

[Duraframe300]

a lot of people dismissing the allods team because they're russian itt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nival_(company)

their list of games is actually pretty solid

They are not the Allods team. I had the opportunity to shortly chat with a Nival employee in the RPS comments. He holds the Allods Team in high regard though.

Yup, I work at Nival.
Allods Team at Mail.ru is a bunch of great and talented people, so I hope Skyforge will do well. It is very ambitious project though.

 

[Semper]

btw is there something known about their next gen project? i doubt that the mmo counts as that.

 

[Duraframe300]

btw is there something known about their next gen project? i doubt that the mmo count as that.

Nope. Well, a little. It's around (should be) the size of the South Park team (50-60+) and I'm more and more sure it's using Cryengine (Was mentioned multiple times now and with Feargus describing it as "great to work with", well....). Also the Art Director ordered Blueprints for it.

 

[grdja]

Hey Allods Online wasn't all bad. Sure the gameplay was generic bad WOW clone, and F2P model was most brutal I've ever seen, but world-building was almost actually nice and original.

Kinda silly. Interplay died because it tried to bite in console market, after so many years Obsidian, so close to grasping freedom (kickstarter) is going down same drain.

 

[Rake]

I don't know about games development but looking at InXile and others "middle size" developers a workforce of more or less 100 people doesn't seem middle size.
15 to 50 is middle size IMHO.
I wonder how many people worked on Skyrim/Fallout 3/ME.

The problem is that Obsidian is a AAA company without AAA funding. Definently not middle size like inXile, who can only work in 1,5 "small games"( team of 15-30). Obsidian works on 2-3 semi AAA at the same time.

The core Bethesda team is around 120 people, and they hire and lay off as needed. Prety close to Obsidian. The diffirence is that Obsidian works on multiple projects at once and Bethesda focus on one project at a time because they can afford it.

 

[Xor]

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.

They already made that game, it was called Alpha Protocol.

 

[Semper]

Interplay died because it tried to bite in console market, after so many years Obsidian, so close to grasping freedom (kickstarter) is going down same drain.

actually obsidian tries to withdraw from console/multiplatform aaa-market and switches focus on pc and tablets. with around 100 employees you simply can't reach a state where your business is kept alive through kickstarter. they always said that they want to use this chance to establish their own ip to hopefully create a steady income, which will then help to produce sequels/spin offs.

 

[grdja]

Looking at all sorts of little uberhard or trunbased, or isometric games for PSP and stuff, there is a non casual portable market there.

 

[Hamster]

Ugh, Mail.Ru reminds me of

Allods Online

They made Rage of Mages and Blitzkrieg and ended up with this.

 

[IDtenT]

My browser tab reads "Company News - Fear..."

Sounds about right.

 

[grdja]

Ugh, Mail.Ru reminds me of

Allods Online

They made Rage of Mages and Blitzkrieg and ended up with this.

Dude, its silly but its nice. I said it already, world and creature design is actually only nice thing about Alllods Online. Once again, most brutal F2P model I have ever seen.

 

[Zeriel]

No surprise there! Mafia are the original masters of monetization.

 

[oldmanpaco]

When is South Park coming out?

 

[mindx2]

I don't know about games development but looking at InXile and others "middle size" developers a workforce of more or less 100 people doesn't seem middle size.
15 to 50 is middle size IMHO.
I wonder how many people worked on Skyrim/Fallout 3/ME.

The problem is that Obsidian is a AAA company without AAA funding. Definently not middle size like inXile, who can only work in 1,5 "small games"( team of 15-30). Obsidian works on 2-3 semi AAA at the same time.

The core Bethesda team is around 120 people, and they hire and lay off as needed. Prety close to Obsidian. The diffirence is that Obsidian works on multiple projects at once and Bethesda focus on one project at a time because they can afford it.

I don't see Obsidian surviving at that size on Kickstarter projects alone. Yet, they want to maintain their AAA size without trying to produce their own complete AAA popamole? Obsidian layoffs are coming.... I do feel bad for them

 

[Infinitron]

I don't know about games development but looking at InXile and others "middle size" developers a workforce of more or less 100 people doesn't seem middle size.
15 to 50 is middle size IMHO.
I wonder how many people worked on Skyrim/Fallout 3/ME.

The problem is that Obsidian is a AAA company without AAA funding. Definently not middle size like inXile, who can only work in 1,5 "small games"( team of 15-30). Obsidian works on 2-3 semi AAA at the same time.

The core Bethesda team is around 120 people, and they hire and lay off as needed. Prety close to Obsidian. The diffirence is that Obsidian works on multiple projects at once and Bethesda focus on one project at a time because they can afford it.

I don't see Obsidian surviving at that size on Kickstarter projects alone. Yet, they want to maintain their AAA size without trying to produce their own complete AAA popamole? Obsidian layoffs are coming.... I do feel bad for them

Who said anything about Kickstarter projects alone?

"Parts of games", people.