Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Fenix]

Guess we don't know whether Microsoft also bought Dark Rock Industries (owner of Pillars IP)?

I guess MS bought them cheap, because they bought them now - when they are clearly not in the best financial shape.

 

[Vault Dweller]

You can’t have creative freedom if you don’t have any money. The freedom they’re sacrificing here is the freedom to go bankrupt.

This.

Moreover, if your dream, your idea, is to make big budget RPGs, then you will have way more creative freedom working with Microsoft than you ever will making low budget RPGs, by virtue of actually being able to making something close to your idea.

First, name ANY studio bought by a huge EA-like publisher that ended up making better games. How about Bioware? Went from BG1&2 to full retard. Blizzard? Went from Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcaft to Diablo: Immortan Joe and Warcraft 3: Reforged We're Out Of Ideas. Second, Pillars 1 & 2 were all about creative freedom, no publishers, and 8 mil budget for Pillars 1. Sames goes for Wasteland 2, new Torment, and BT4. These studios were able to make new, 'creative freedom' games, no?

 

[glass blackbird]

Meh. Listen. This is the truth. I've really felt that since they left Kickstart and went shady as aaaaaalll hell Fig, and since Avellone left, obsidian has been dead to me as a company.

Chris' revelations of mismanagement don't come as a surprise, sadly. And part of me does not doubt that Tim Cain and Leon Boyarski are kinda regretting going back to work for the same guy that drove them out to begin with.

To me, nothing of real value was lost. The only possible gains are as follows: Microsoft pushes Fergus out and Tim Cain and Leon Boyarski start producing real RPGs. Then again, shit alwaya finda a way to float to the top.

Yeah, I joked about it earlier but it's really true: both these companies were on the verge of collapse. Even if you love Obsidian (or, god help you, Inxile), there was literally no hope of anything, good or bad, coming from them again. There's simply no money left. When EA bought Bioware it was the end of a promising company that was still doing good work--same as when they bought Origin and all the other companies they killed. Here it's like... either MS gives them money and they make something cool, or they don't. And then we're no worse off than we would have been without this happening.

 

[Sigourn]

First, name ANY studio bought by a huge EA-like publisher that ended up making better games.

Having creative freedom =/= making good games. Which is why a lot of indie games are shit: not everyone has the talent to go with the creative freedom.

 

[Fenix]

This.

Moreover, if your dream, your idea, is to make big budget RPGs, then you will have way more creative freedom working with Microsoft than you ever will making low budget RPGs, by virtue of actually being able to making something close to your idea.

Dude, here is random comment from youtube

So obsidian went independent because of big company pressures and to do what they’re interested in we the fans funded their passion and they garnered respect and success followed just to go full circle to sell their company to a big company nay even bigger like Microsoft. Congrats you are indeed business savvy.

Truly the quest for creative freedom takes unexpected forms...

 

[Fenix]

And then they won't have the freedom to make little money, for Microsoft, 1 million copies is small potatoes, they want sales on the double digits, guess what kind of games reach that number?

 

[SpaceWizardz]

Shadowrun RPG.

please and thank you

What other IPs does Microsoft own?

Perfect Dark spinoff ala Alpha Protocol?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Unless you think that the games inXile and Obsidian have made are exactly the games the owners wanted to make, you have to recognize that something was constraining their freedom of action. It may simply have been their own fears and doubts. But I would say other things were at play, too. I'm not sure they'll make exactly the games they want now, either -- but maybe it'll be closer. (Or maybe not. Who knows?)

So let's roll back to Pillars. Obsidian raises 4 mil to make an RPG of their choice, plus another 4 mil they poured into it. If 8 mil and all the creative freedom in the world isn't enough to make a game they really wanted to make, I don't see what possible difference Microsoft acquisition can make other than lining up the owners' pockets.

 

[himmy]

What are the possibilities of this era?

Shadowrun RPG.

Easier transfer of personnel between Obsidian and inXile (think George Ziets).

What other IPs does Microsoft own?

Age of Mythology RPG: Literally just Pillars of Eternity, but with gods people actually care about.

 

[Don Peste]

Infinite possibilities

 

[Fairfax]

What other IPs does Microsoft own?

RPG IPs? Shadowrun, Fable, Sudeki, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey. I think that's about it.

 

[RepHope]

What the fuck is Microsoft trying to pull with this? What value added are they hoping for? This is just idiotic from a business standpoint, even if they are doing this only to try to make windows store appealing.

Fargo must be laughing all the way to the bank. The greatest trick he ever pulled.

Their thought process is this:

“We want people to subscribe to Game Pass, but all we’ve got is fucking HaloGearsForza. Who is on the market that’s cheap and decent enough to make games in different genres for Game Pass?”.

Now with Obsidian and InXile they’ve got RPG studios, something they’ve lacked since EA bought Bioware, and Lionhead got shut down. Both of those studios were on the brink of death so I really doubt they were that expensive to purchase.

 

[glass blackbird]

What are the possibilities of this era?

Shadowrun RPG.

Easier transfer of personnel between Obsidian and inXile (think George Ziets).

What other IPs does Microsoft own?

FABLE

alternatively, get ready for Viva Pinata RPG

 

[BEvers]

Another reason to suspect that the inXile acquisition was a short notice decision: MCA is currently working on WL3 and is evidently a massive gossip monger, yet he had no idea this was happening.

 

[Delterius]

Together with Microsoft, Obsidian and InXile shall out punk the poles and deliver unto this world the greatest Shadowrun game ever dreamed of in the collective minds of the most dejected souls.

 

[RepHope]

What are the possibilities of this era?

Shadowrun RPG.

Easier transfer of personnel between Obsidian and inXile (think George Ziets).

What other IPs does Microsoft own?

FABLE

alternatively, get ready for Viva Pinata RPG

Playground is making Fable, they built a second studio just for that apparently. They hired some guys from Naughty Dog, CDPR, Bioware, and Rocksteady to help make it iirc.

Man I wish someone would make a Crimson Skies RPG, I fucking loved that game.

 

[Don Peste]

Sudeki belongs to Climax Studios.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Unless you think that the games inXile and Obsidian have made are exactly the games the owners wanted to make, you have to recognize that something was constraining their freedom of action. It may simply have been their own fears and doubts. But I would say other things were at play, too. I'm not sure they'll make exactly the games they want now, either -- but maybe it'll be closer. (Or maybe not. Who knows?)

So let's roll back to Pillars. Obsidian raises 4 mil to make an RPG of their choice, plus another 4 mil they poured into it. If 8 mil and all the creative freedom in the world isn't enough to make a game they really wanted to make, I don't see what possible difference Microsoft acquisition can make other than lining up the owners' pockets.

How about take a look at their publisher situation. InXile went through Deep Sliver, Techland and Versus Evil, Obsidian through Paradox and Versus Evil, and each of them did a remarkably shitty job.

Well guess what, now they will have actual fucking professionals to deal with stuff like marketing and localization, instead of relying on two people from Techland to try and come up with efficient marketing plan in exchange for a crate of kielbasa.

As first party studios they can also tap into Microsoft's pool of of engineers and tech experts to help beat games into shape, and this is fucking Microsoft we're talking about - they have the kind of experts Feargus couldn't have afforded in a billion years.

Most importantly, they should also - finally - stop hemorrhaging their best talent to bigger players, since they now have an even bigger player backing them up.

The list goes on. It would be silly to pretend they're not giving up a lot by whoring themselves out, but you're being just as silly to pretend they gain nothing.

 

[Tigranes]

Yep. And i cant imagine the deal being financially horrible for MS. It would have been an amount that MS can happily risk for what they are getting.

 

[Infinitron]

(inXile didn't work with Versus Evil - it was Deep Silver, Techland, and back to Deep Silver)

 

[glass blackbird]

Anyway, for those curious there is a wikipedia list of all the stuff Microsoft owns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchises_and_properties

 

[Delterius]

well, they are with evil now am i right

 

[BEvers]

InXile went through Versus Evil

For what, Choplifter? But they are working on a Battle Royale game for gumi. And Mage's Tale was paid for by Oculus.

 

[conan_edw]

It's not like Obsidian were doing great on their own for the last few years. If they get the resources to make something to compete with Bethesda then that's great. We already have couple of indie RPG developers which we would trust to produce quality work. What's really confusing is what's the deal with Tim and Leonard game now

 

[Cael]

Anyway, for those curious there is a wikipedia list of all the stuff Microsoft owns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios#Owned_franchises_and_properties

Gerbil Physics... Is that the kind of physics SJWs subscribe to?