Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Drowed]

... the fact that most sequels sell half of what the original game sold unless it's offer radical changes. PoE2 offered ship combat but it was fairly minor and cosmetic. The rest was 'more of the same', which after PoE + 2 expansions was a very hard sell.

How do you explain D:OS2 success? Wasn't it also "more of the same"?

Co-op.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/687020-pillars-of-eternity/72017511

Q: was wondering if i could play [Pillars of Eternity] with a friend?
A: Divinity Original Sin is the game you want.

D:OS 1 also had co-op, so your argument is that the existence of a co-op makes a sequel sell more, although it's something present in both? If not, I didn't understand what you mean.

If "sequels always sell less" because they are "more of the same", and D:OS2 was literally more of the same (and it was, co-op included), either the premise is flawed or the nature of the co-op has something that modifies the effect of the premise.

 

[Fenix]

Maybe the point of this acquisition is for Xbox to get its own Horizon Zero Dawn?

Most likely its own Cyberpunk %numbers%.

 

[evdk]

MS should merge the studios.

 

[Black Angel]

Tell that to the guys behind Troika. I'm sure they'd all agree that releasing VtMB the same day as HL2 didn't affect their sales one bit

Bester's argument was about *RPGs* competing with *one another*, unless you consider HL2 as an RPG.

On the other hand...

Most people aren’t autists like us and they only have time to play so many games in a year. When those games are really long, they play even fewer games total.

This is a more plausible argument, in regards to V:tMB releasing at such bad, bad time when HL2's released.

 

[Fenix]

The Larian point of view, from the recent documentary:

David Walgrave: "We don't want to keep on making the same game over and over again. We need to grow, technologically and as a company. We want to become the best RPG maker that there is in the world, and you can't do that with 20 people."

Swen Vincke: "I realized this industry is consolidating. So we do have the reappearance of the indie studios, but as time goes by players will always want better and better and better. They're getting used to having better and better. But it takes a lot of effort to make these things. If we wanted to keep on making RPGs, it was clear to me that we needed to grow, and that we need to be able to be sustainable, and we needed to be innovative. So that requires quite some investment, it requires quite a lot of extra people."

The Consolidation Era of RPGs.

So in the end Big Coprs is the only winner of Kickstarter era which made a enviroment for appearing small indie studios and middle sized to get more success, and then Big Corps just reap all of them - consolidate them.
That's the eco-system that exist, you can't break out of it.

Interesting to say the least. It reminds me of that trend in Hollywood to make "bigger and better" movies each year to keep the masses coming. Even if it produces results, for how long?

Arguably, this trend already happened to all the mainstream game companies (EA, Activision, Ubisoft), I just never would have guessed CRPG-focused companies.

If they have brainz, when things will btcome stale, they just stat new "kickstarter" somehow, new "greenhouse for mushrooms" so they could reap them again.

 

[Luckmann]

This thread is so depressing,it just shows how much the codex have declined. People talk as if there is no other RPGs than popamole shit from creatively bankrupt american studios. The last good thing that came from Obsidian was NV 8 years ago,last good inxile games was....non existent. While in the same time good RPGs are coming out but being ignored by most of you edgy poser retards.

Are you trying to say this dumpster fire of a website...isnt a good place for discourse?

It's a great place for discourse, actually. His point was just that people are idiots and are getting acclimatized to trash, and he's right. I have no idea how you reached any conclusion regarding discourse based on that, you mouth-breathing garbage-eating sell-out popamole-enabling horseshit-shoveling transvestite.

 

[Jason Liang]

Were I Microsoft, I'd invest in VR porn instead of rpgs

That's including a subscrption model

 

[Harkin Hails]

Oh man, to be bundled up with inXile, that must've hurt.

Lionhead, Westwood, Ensemble.. Obsidian+inXile.. Pandemic

Anyway, looking forward to their ground-breaking mobile games.

Westwood belonged to EA, not microsoft.

Pandemic and Westwood were EA.
Somebody is getting their corporate overlords mixed up.

I am listing studios bought individually, instead of a packaged discount deal.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

... the fact that most sequels sell half of what the original game sold unless it's offer radical changes. PoE2 offered ship combat but it was fairly minor and cosmetic. The rest was 'more of the same', which after PoE + 2 expansions was a very hard sell.

How do you explain D:OS2 success? Wasn't it also "more of the same"?

Co-op.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/687020-pillars-of-eternity/72017511

Q: was wondering if i could play [Pillars of Eternity] with a friend?
A: Divinity Original Sin is the game you want.

People on reddit cannot understand how can Realms Beyond developers publish modding tools before multiplayer.
Also a lot of people are saying that the games looks cool but they wouldn't try it because it doesn't have multiplayer.
There seems to be a real expectation of multiplayer in party-based turn-based rpg games in the current year. Thanks, Larian!

 

[Allyriadil]

If you are not running Linux or BSD by now you are massively retarded.

Don't you know the SJW have come for your Linux and made it submit to their CoC?

Microsoft and Apple have been hiring plenty plenty of people through their "diversity program" At least if everything goes into the gutter we can fork it, that is why i like open source.
Just wait until Microsoft forces diversity on inXile and Obsidian

 

[Fenix]

Vault Dweller I realize that as an indie RPG developer you have a need to believe that the traditional RPG market isn't "oversaturated", but can't you consider the possibility that at the level of sales Obsidian is expecting maybe it is?

Dude, don't be autist really. Also bold autists lol.

 

[Aemar]

“I am not retiring anymore soon.”

I am too busy counting my monies!

El Fargo has just joined the Microsoft Cartel.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

I am listing studios bought individually, instead of a packaged discount deal.

Well.. wouldn't Pandemic be a package deal with Bioware? Since EA bought their holding company rather than the two individual developers?
Maybe I'm misremembering the details.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm excited by the news, mostly for InXile, who I feel made the most old-school RPGs of the Kickstarter Era devs. If they have a higher budget to improve their games, then we're going to see some really good CRPGs coming from them in the future. If they're working on Baldur's Gate 3, I'm very optimistic about it. They have a true desire to make old-school style CRPGs, so with a higher budget we'll see much better games. This is a good thing.

I'm not as high on Obsidian but New Vegas was excellent. PoE1 was pretty great at the time but Owlcat surpassed them as isometric CRPG devs IMO. But I'm looking forward to more RPGs from both studios. It can only be a good thing.

 

[MRY]

Being bought by Microsoft worse than Alexa as a robotrout.

 

[Gord]

So in the end Big Coprs is the only winner of Kickstarter era which made a enviroment for appearing small indie studios and middle sized to get more success, and then Big Corps just reap all of them - consolidate them.
That's the eco-system that exist, you can't break out of it.

No, for them nothing has changed. We have only learned that AA companies can't rely on Kickstarter (alone). That has been true for Obsidian, inXile and even Larian (and others).
Kickstarter is still a potentially good way to finance something for small indie studios, though.

 

[Grauken]

I'm excited by the news, mostly for InXile, who I feel made the most old-school RPGs of the Kickstarter Era devs. If they have a higher budget to improve their games, then we're going to see some really good CRPGs coming from them in the future. If they're working on Baldur's Gate 3, I'm very optimistic about it. They have a true desire to make old-school style CRPGs, so with a higher budget we'll see much better games. This is a good thing.

I'm not as high on Obsidian but New Vegas was excellent. PoE1 was pretty great at the time but Owlcat surpassed them as isometric CRPG devs IMO. But I'm looking forward to more RPGs from both studios. It can only be a good thing.

BT4's problems have nothing to do with budgets

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

BT4's problems have nothing to do with budgets

Sure it does. They had what, $300k US? That's one third of Kingmaker and BT4 is still a very good game. I enjoyed my 30 hours with it and plan on going back for more after my infatuation with Kingmaker subsides. I also greatly enjoyed Torment and played only a couple dozen hours of Wasteland 2 but noticed it was very old-school in design. A higher budget will mean more quality, more quality control and testing (better performance) and more features/content.

 

[Grauken]

God, do you even blobber?

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

God, do you even blobber?

Of course I do. Elminage Gothic and to a lesser extent Elminage Original are some of my favorite blobbers. BT4 was designed to try something new in the genre and evolve it a bit. It's not a perfect game but I like what they did. The dungeons are superb, the artstyle is beautiful (other than NPCs) and the puzzles are perfectly balanced. It might have some issues with combat difficulty (I didn't encounter the game being too easy, but others reported it) but overall for $300k it is a quality game. More money would simply mean a better game, that's usually how it works.

 

[2house2fly]

I seem to recall Brian Fargo mentioning that the game's budget ended up being a little higher than $300k

 

[Fenix]

I could also ask about market saturation on example of PFK which sells more them PoE2 lready, and has great steam statistic of players still playing the game, even better then many AAA-dirt releases.
How that happened that market was saturated for PoE2 kind of trash and then not that saturated again for PFK - given that it has ZERO advertasing, zero positive revios and press coverage in general?

I think someone just had sunstroke in the sunny lands of Palestina.

 

[Tigranes]

So in the end Big Coprs is the only winner of Kickstarter era which made a enviroment for appearing small indie studios and middle sized to get more success, and then Big Corps just reap all of them - consolidate them.
That's the eco-system that exist, you can't break out of it.

No, for them nothing has changed. We have only learned that AA companies can't rely on Kickstarter (alone). That has been true for Obsidian, inXile and even Larian (and others).
Kickstarter is still a potentially good way to finance something for small indie studios, though.

Yep. I mean, who actually thought that a middle-sized studio could just keep Kickstarting every single niche RPG? Or did you think that you raise say 5 million, make a 5-10m budget niche RPG, and sell enough to fund 10m or 15m for your next game?

That was never, ever, ever, ever going to happen. POE1 and DOS1/2 were not the expected sales margins; they were massive successes sales-wise. Larian hit the upper 5% of what their chances were; everybody else hit the other 95%.

Look at inXile. By the time their third Kickstarter came along, you knew this was unsustainable, and probably Brian Fargo knew as well. I'm sure games like BT4 and Deadfire could have sold a bit better had things gone different, but it was stupid and insane to ever think these games would sell a million copies each time. (I don't know if Obs/inxile upper management ever thought that, but maybe some of them did some of the time, given the budgets all these games came to have.)

Kickstarter was never the "big answer". It was only ever a temporary and partial answer. If you (or the devs) ever expected KS itself to get them to a new world of sustainable mid-sized niche RPG making, then you were never realistic to begin with.

(Obviously it's a bit different for developers the size of Whalenought or something, creating games of a much smaller budget. It's them who can truly hope to be sustainable with the help of, though not entirely dependent on, KS. In that sense KS is doing great by RPG lovers.)

 

[Gord]

BT4's problems have nothing to do with budgets

Well, controversy around some of the design decisions aside, budget sure did play a role there to some extend.
It shows e.g. in the premature release, the technical issues and some of the models, too.

Higher budget would not have turned it into an old-skool blobber, of course, so if that's what you are after, you would have been out of luck either way.

 

[Fenix]

Unless things change, classic piracy will become increasingly hard, especially with integrated DRM platforms like the Windows store, combined with increasingly acceptance and reliance on "always-online" software. Every game and every platform will eventually be some kind of online or multiplayer game, and in the end they'll stream the last missing parts of a game, encrypted, to your toaster, and the game will be unplayable without it.

It's part of why platforms like this are so dangerous. They've been conditioning people for over a decade now and made multiple attempts, and with connectivity being more and more of a non-issue, soon they won't give a fuck about chinese rice-farmers, desert towel-heads, hicks in rural Amerikkka, or criminal britbongs in the Australian outback, because they don't represent a relevant market share in the grand scheme of things Jewry.

It is so sad that almost nobody understand that...