Company News Obsidian Almost Got To Make Baldur's Gate 3

[Anthony Davis]

Though it turns out not nearly as crazy as Blizzard: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/13/blizzard-has-4-700-employees-across-11-cities/
This says Bioware's worldwide total is 849 and I'm not sure how far back in 2012 it was updated. I imagine it may have counted Victory and Mythic at one point as well.

Yeah, ~750 for game development, the rest is all support. There are thousands of "blues" employed by Blizzard just for WoW. I don't think they get paid much.

WoW makes crazy money. Or Cray Cray Money as the kids say. It needs to, Diablo 3 took ELEVEN years to make, at least. That's so crazy I can't believe it, even when I type it out.

On a related note, this is why I know eventually Blizzard will have to "contract" and shrink.

WoW, and the WoW money, won't last forever.

I don't think Blizzard has the ability to make a game in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable budget. Believe it or not, that is an actual skill that game developers have to work on. It is wonderful to have the luxury to say, "it will be done when it's done." But that's what it is, a luxury.

Once the golden goose dies, if they don't have a new golden goose by then, they will start to eat through their saved up war chest of funds. Releasing a poor selling game will actually hurt them at that point.

This is not a criticism of Blizzard necessarily, this is a normal business cycle. Grow, contract, grow, contract.

I guess it has already started a bit too:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...yees_in_organizational_shift.php#.UNOkfndqx8E

I want to be clear about this. I don't think Blizzard is doing anything wrong (like they care what I think anyway). They HAVE the golden goose. Developing games with the attitude of, "it's done when it's done." is ideal when you have that freedom and luxury.

Hopefully, their next golden goose will allow them to continue to develop games the way they are used to developing them. Personally, as a gamer, I wish they were faster but that's because I'd like to play more than 1 or 2 more games from Blizzard before I die of old age *oh snap*.

EDIT: I mean everyone here would want their favorite RPG developer to have that freedom, or in the case of the honored dead, to have HAD that freedom.

*pours one out for Troika*

 

[tuluse]

Anthony Davis can you speculate how Valve stayed in business between 1998 and 2004?

Did counter strike really sell that many copies?

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony Davis can you speculate how Valve stayed in business between 1998 and 2004?

Did counter strike really sell that many copies?

STEAM

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony Davis can you speculate how Valve stayed in business between 1998 and 2004?

Did counter strike really sell that many copies?

STEAM

I read that before I saw the dates. Steam was released in 2003. Steam is the most golden goose of golden gooses.

Half-Life and all that goes with it (CS etc) sold a LOT of copies.

Plus Gabe Newell is a smart, smart man. Probably the most business savy guy working in the industry.
He made a LOT of money at Microsoft.
Valve had good investors.
They kept their burn rate low, to this day Valve still only has around... 200 employees I think?

EDIT: 293 employees. Again though, Steam alone could probably support 10x that number.

 

[tuluse]

Notice the years I chose. Steam didn't exist as a market until 2004.
Thanks for the input.

Kind of crazy they can manage Steam with such a small company. I guess it helps when you have no real tech support.

 

[Infinitron]

Who dat?

Oh, just some guy.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Who dat?

Oh, just some guy.

LOL, CLEEEEVEEEE! The man's a legend.

I was running through my Blizzard mental database and I didn't recognize him.

 

[crawlkill]

Ban crawlkill.

my shame for grasping industry conditions and hoping for the longevity of the genre is many!!!

 

[tuluse]

Ban crawlkill.

my shame for grasping industry conditions and hoping for the longevity of the genre is many!!!

What about your shame for being an idiot?

 

[Broseph]

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Meh, I wonder how close they really were to making the game, securing the deal etc.
You could say I almost got laid last night if it weren't for those pesky police officers.
But really, I didn't even get my belt undone at that point, and had only tied her down.

 

[Menckenstein]

Anthony Davis would you like an invite to CDS, the prestigious steam group of the Codex's cognitive elite?

 

[quasimodo]

Ban crawlkill.

my shame for grasping industry conditions and hoping for the longevity of the genre is many!!!

I never liked that form of longevity that involved reanimating corpses.

 

[Broseph]

*pours one out for Troika*

 

[Zakhad]

I saw Dragon Age behind closed doors at E3 in 2003! That means they were working on it BEFORE 2003, probably for quite some time. The game was released in 2009, which means they spent more than 6 years working on it.

Who would have thought I could ever hear something that would make DA more disappointing?

Better to ask what obsidian lackey zahkad is the alt of.

I'm an alt of Dreax, obviously. Learn to Magic Candle 2.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

For me the two first Baldur's Gate didn't have any soul. I can understand that some people loved them but I did not. At first glance the proposition was made at the time when Obsidian issued games full of bugs. Baldur's Gate's blandness + bugs, well... I can't say that I regret anything. At least Project Eternity, while still being high fantasy (which I came to loathe) still holds a clean slate and issues hope for a deeper and more intricate storyline and universe.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I was never into the BG series as a whole, so I never really got excited about the games, which is why I'm lukewarm either way about this one that got away.

 

[GarfunkeL]

This thread. Reading comprehension, critical failure.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Who me?

 

[Moribund]

Oh, it's subjective now is it? Well I think we can objectively say that a game that pulls on Homeland and 24 as its main inspirations is going to be kinda crap no matter how much effort you put into it.

I never got to the end of AP but I looked up the ending on youtubes. I wish I had now because it gave me a laugh. Watch it then watch the ending of bloodlines right after for full brutal effect. Check and Mate as Jack would say.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDzp7fNQk4I[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8GxCs3rgSA[/media]

The engine, as I said before is more hi tech for AP than BL so why's it look so much better, too?

My point is not to bash on Obsidian employees really, just the direction of the studio seems to be completely batshit crazy/delusional.

I'm sure he's not the only industry "leader" who can't even think up a project except to capitalize on something else or copy it, and it's pretty obvious he sees ME as the ones to emulate. Let's do ME except ON EARTH! And since ME is 24 done IN SPACE. It's kinda like doing 24 but just all regular, which is a bit boring and stupid and derivative. It's derivative of some dumb tv shows and of another really dumb game it tries hard to emulate, that's just as bad as it gets.

There's so much cool stuff in spy world and really that's what we got, copies of what are basically melodrama shows that could have been about any subject. There was something about not wanting any character to be someone who could be in kill bill. Hey hello, it's a game, that should be a starting point for how unusual someone is to be in a game, it's like making a rule that your boring setting choice has to be even more boring than the real world is! And I forgot the badness, after not seeing it a while but it just really falls on its face. And I don't think it would be possible to make a game that didn't, in those constraints.

But feargus really seems to think that would do MUCH better than a 12 million dollar BG III would do! Oh wait, it didn't? Well surely this southpark thing will be just the ticket

I guess I usually wonder at the dumb decisions of studios but seeing into the feargus brain has scarred me for life.

 

[Mother Russia]

Volourn Anthony was talking about TOR you retard, not KOTOR.

Anthony Davis Steam is a cash cow for sure, but nothing compared to WoW. Yet. In the long run Steam ofcourse has more potential...unless if someone comes along and does it better. (hey, before you laugh please recall myspace vs facebook; yahoo vs google, etc etc)

Question: Have you played Legends of Grimrock? It was made by 4 people in around 1.5 years (or mayyyybe 2) They recouped ALL their money in 1 week then started making a profit. There was no publisher, game was download only, and there was no paid marketing.

How much do you think it cost to make? How much revenue do you think it made? Please just give us your best estimate! The Grimrock team was so appreciative they released their game editor for FREE to whoever had bought (or even pirated) their game!

So basically, what I am saying, more-large number of employees and big $$$ are obviously not always better. Someone with a real PASSION and KNOWLEDGE and ofcourse initial funding can make themselves rich. Obsidian has a ton of potential, and project eternity is shaping up to be great, but they do not have a good track record as of yet IMO. With PE they however now seem to be finally doing the kind of game they want...though again they are making a mistake by offering the same old classes (why include priest??? Grimrock didn't have priests and it worked great for them)

 

[Infinitron]

Steam is a cash cow for sure, but nothing compared to WoW.

"Nothing?" I wouldn't be so sure about that.

It was made by 4 people in around 1.5 years (or mayyyybe 2)

Actually, I recall reading that Grimrock took many years to make. It had several false starts, I think.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

When did Legend of Grimrock come out then, a few months ago right?

 

[Volourn]

"Anthony was talking about TOR you retard, not KOTOR."

WTf are you whining about fucktard? Yout alkin' abotut he 8 bhillion dollar shit? I already knew he was talking about KOTOR OL. idiot.

 

[Mother Russia]

"Anthony was talking about TOR you retard, not KOTOR."

WTf are you whining about fucktard? Yout alkin' abotut he 8 bhillion dollar shit? I already knew he was talking about KOTOR OL. idiot.

You stupid motherfucker, Anthony was talking about The Old Republic costing around $300 million. Being stupid, YOU thought he was talking about Knights of the Old Republic.

THEY ARE DIFFERENT GAMES MORAN!