Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Fry]

Back to trying to figure out WTF Project Louisiana is.

 

[Roguey]

Back to trying to figure out WTF Project Louisiana is.

This doesn't need figuring, it's Pillars of Eternity 2.

The thing that needs figuring is what Cain and Boyarsky are working on.

Brian Heins has a big mouth, bless him. In this interview (at 22:45) he flat out says "Obsidian isn't working on a Vampire: The Masquerade game".

He didn't say "Obsidian isn't working on a White Wolf RPG" though.

 

[Fry]

Back to trying to figure out WTF Project Louisiana is.

This doesn't need figuring, it's Pillars of Eternity 2.

Makes sense since that's apparently what Brennecke is working on, but I assume no one from Obsidian has actually confirmed.

 

[Rev]

Back to trying to figure out WTF Project Louisiana is.

This doesn't need figuring, it's Pillars of Eternity 2.

Makes sense since that's apparently what Brennecke is working on, but I assume no one from Obsidian has actually confirmed.

Feargus said that they were working on PoE2 months ago and since then Sawyer, who was the one to hint about Project Louisiana and therefore is surely working on it, has been posting videos about Eora's languages, Palegina and other NPCs.
So yeah, Louisiana is definetely PoE2.

 

[DosBuster]

http://media.obsidian.net/eternity/media/misc/pe-jsawyer-looking-back.pdf

Josh Sawyer's Pillars of eternity post mortem slides

 

[Jaesun]

Brian Heins has a big mouth, bless him. In this interview (at 22:45) he flat out says "Obsidian isn't working on a Vampire: The Masquerade game".

My reason to continue to live just dropped by 190%... oh well.

 

[Ninjerk]

Brian Heins has a big mouth, bless him. In this interview (at 22:45) he flat out says "Obsidian isn't working on a Vampire: The Masquerade game".

My reason to continue to live just dropped by 190%... oh well.

What about

Brian Heins has a big mouth

 

[AwesomeButton]

If it's not a new Bloodlines, it can only be "Arcanum 2: The Jazz Era"

 

[Jaesun]

They don't own the Arcanum rights...

 

[AwesomeButton]

They don't own the Arcanum rights...

"Why are you guys so negative?"

 

[Roguey]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

 

[Infinitron]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

It could give Activision a chance to try again with their "Sierra" indie initiative that crashed and burned with the King's Quest reboot. They should have seen that RPG reboots are more successful than adventure game reboots.

 

[HoboForEternity]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

It could give Activision a chance to try again with their "Sierra" indie initiative that crashed and burned with the King's Quest reboot. They should have seen that RPG reboots are more successful than adventure game reboots.

but KQ's reboot flopped because they dumbed down the game too much, it alienates the old fans, and it is still not dumb enough for the nu-telltale audiences right?

 

[Excidium II]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

Didn't Activision approach Paradox about a new bloodlines game? If they're the ones trying to start stuff they might be more willing to negotiate.

 

[Telengard]

but KQ's reboot flopped because they dumbed down the game too much, it alienates the old fans, and it is still not dumb enough for the nu-telltale audiences right?

Adventures are an even trickier beast than that, though what you said is true enough.

Adventure games are more mainstream than rpgs, yet less popular*. That may seem like an oddity, but it actually happens more than a bit in the world. And then, while Adventure game fans are highly loyal, even so the big names like the Sierra titles went away a long time ago. Casting resurrection on the Sierra corpses is some serious necromancy. Going back to the 80s and 90s is not like resurrecting a 00s Baldur's Gate, or even Homeworld. We're more talking resurrecting Gold Box games. That's a much older audience. Lots of people in that age bracket have moved on from computer games, like completely, and are now playing golf instead. So, as with the attempt to resurrect Gold Box, there just isn't the name recognition that there used to be**. Sure, it can be done, but without the name recognition factor, it's a lot harder to pull off.

Adventure games are also fairly simple in their core design structure, and thus are much easier and less costly to make than rpgs. And since the genre is both more mainstream and easier to make, adventure game never actually went away. Even during the Dark Times, there were almost always three established companies regularly putting out adventure games, while rpgs had 0 established companies and 1 Vogel. And since adventure fans still had games to play, the old adventure title rebirths didn't have the same sense of desperation that surrounded the rpg resurrection attempts.

And that comes around to King's Quest. It just wasn't really a niche that needed to be filled. Sure, there are a number of fans still around that would appreciate another edition in the same vein. But it's not like it was a large and untapped market. So, even if they had gone full-on old-school King's Quest, it would have just been one more indie adventure game in an already somewhat crowded indie adventure market.

* Admit it: when you were a kid, explaining to your mom's friends that you play adventures would have been a whole lot easier than explaining that you were a devil-worshiping psychopath murderer played rpgs. (Or maybe you're not old enough to get that reference.)
** Late Lucasarts adventure games are and would still be a different story. Monkey Island and such.

 

[tuluse]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

Given how dead Arcanum is, I doubt it would be hard to get a license for a single game. If that game was successful however...

 

[AwesomeButton]

That may seem like an oddity

Actually not that much of an oddity - a developer can add a lot of elements meant purely for gamification of a non-game (XP, currency, levels, collectibles, etc.) under the guise of making "an RPG", and gamification brings in the drones. Whereas an adventure game has only the story and the puzzles, which will be under harder scrutiny than in a pseudo-RPG.

 

[LizardWizard]

They could always purchase a license to make an Arcanum game from Activision, if Activison were interested in doing so. I imagine such a deal would be so heavily in Kotick's favor as to not be worth it, unless they were really passionate about making an Arcanum sequel.

Given how dead Arcanum is, I doubt it would be hard to get a license for a single game. If that game was successful however...

Activision would rather sit on dead IP than sell it for couch change. Unless the IP rights expire soon or they go full THQ (which won't happen) garage sale it just wouldn't be possible.

 

[Roguey]

Activision would rather sit on dead IP than sell it for couch change. Unless the IP rights expire soon or they go full THQ (which won't happen) garage sale it just wouldn't be possible.

We're not talking about buying the IP, just getting a license to make one Arcanum game.

Bethesda initially bought a license to make three Fallout games from Interplay, then Herve agreed to sell the whole thing out of financial desperation.

 

[LizardWizard]

Activision would rather sit on dead IP than sell it for couch change. Unless the IP rights expire soon or they go full THQ (which won't happen) garage sale it just wouldn't be possible.

We're not talking about buying the IP, just getting a license to make one Arcanum game.

Bethesda initially bought a license to make three Fallout games from Interplay, then Herve agreed to sell the whole thing out of financial desperation.

License would be equally unlikely unless Kotick is some secret RPG grognard as the profit wouldn't even cover their lawyer fees.

Activision has too many money trains to give a shit at this point.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Many players wished for more light, funny, or silly elements.

 

[SniperHF]

Given how dead Arcanum is, I doubt it would be hard to get a license for a single game. If that game was successful however...

I've always suspected that a publisher sitting on a "dead" property would instantly change their opinion on said property once someone approached them over it. That developer just created demand after all.

These kinda corporations go into protection mode rather quickly after all.

 

[Duraframe300]

Obsidians Chris Taylor has apparently tried for years to get the license.

 

[Roguey]

Obsidians Chris Taylor has apparently tried for years to get the license.

Are you sure you're naming the right Chris? As far as I know, Taylor is/was helping out with the Eternity cardgame but doesn't actually work there.

 

[Lomer2]

Obsidians Chris Taylor has apparently tried for years to get the license.

Are you sure you're naming the right Chris? As far as I know, Taylor is/was helping out with the Eternity cardgame but doesn't actually work there.

Maybe he means Chris Jones who worked on Arcanum and is one of Obsidian's founders.