Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Infinitron]

This thing also kinda contradicts the whole sales pitch of PoE, which promised "old-school gaming" and you can't get any farther than that than Skyrim. It's also fundamentally contradictory because he wants to use a new game as a model for an "old-school" one. Shooting himself in the foot?

Well, if they do make a first person open world action-RPG set in Eora, I suspect it wouldn't be called "Pillars of Eternity 3". It'd be like a spinoff series.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, is that what he means by "Obsidian's Skyrim"? Literally creating a first person open world action game?

 

[Sannom]

We don't know what it means, it's as simple as that. Because Feargus is Feargus and Feargus talks fast and sometimes without thinking.

 

[Infinitron]

Ah, we've talked about all this before, but I'll repeat myself.

So, is that what he means by "Obsidian's Skyrim"? Literally creating a first person open world action game?

Observation: Fallout: New Vegas, an open world action RPG, was Obsidian's most successful game by far. Hugely popular, a true phenomenon, people are still talking about it today.

But they didn't earn a cent on it. All that success and they nearly went bankrupt two years later.

That's basically Obsidian's long-term goal. To get another chance to make a game like that, but keep the money this time.

 

[Lacrymas]

Kinda makes sense, but not really. How do they know it wasn't just Fallout's name, and inertia from Bethesda, that caused the popularity, instead of anything else, really? PoE was surprisingly popular, as much as this genre can be (although D:OS was even more popular, but I don't know why, probably marketing), but I wouldn't count on it doing as well when it's made into an open world first person action game. It might, but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket. That might explain "Obsidian's Skyrim" though and that Skyrim "changed everything", i.e. he thinks that just by virtue of it being an open world first person action game that it will sell well, BECAUSE Skyrim "changed everything".

 

[Ash]

Observation: Fallout: New Vegas, an open world action RPG, was Obsidian's most successful game by far. Hugely popular, a true phenomenon, people are still talking about it today.

But they didn't earn a cent on it. All that success and they nearly went bankrupt two years later.

 

[Sentinel]

I think he meant that they don't want to do PoE2 and then drop PoE. They want to turn Pillars of Eternity into an "Elder Scrolls" sort of thing, where you have multiple games set in different parts of the world, where you interact with each of the races's home regions. He wants PoE to eventually be the "Skyrim" of cRPGs. Without the negative connotations of course.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The important thing is that Obsidian owns the IP of the franchise and gets the money.

 

[Fairfax]

But they didn't earn a cent on it. All that success and they nearly went bankrupt two years later.

Leaving the bonus thing aside, it wasn't that bad of a deal. They paid Obsidian upfront for the game's development, which is rare. Publishers usually pay a part of the budget after each milestone, and sometimes they withhold payment to pressure the developer into a worse deal (Feargus has mentioned that as well). Bethesda's attempted hostile acquisition of Human Head is a good example.
Obsidian almost went bankrupt because they didn't get a deal like that with Microsoft. Part of it was also Feargus' fault, but that's another discussion.

 

[Hyperion]

Kinda makes sense, but not really. How do they know it wasn't just Fallout's name, and inertia from Bethesda, that caused the popularity, instead of anything else, really? PoE was surprisingly popular, as much as this genre can be (although D:OS was even more popular, but I don't know why, probably marketing), but I wouldn't count on it doing as well when it's made into an open world first person action game. It might, but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket. That might explain "Obsidian's Skyrim" though and that Skyrim "changed everything", i.e. he thinks that just by virtue of it being an open world first person action game that it will sell well, BECAUSE Skyrim "changed everything".

D:OS came out first. It sparked the CRPG revival. Huge advantage. Tongue in cheek, stylized look actually does far better than the grimdark theme Obsidian chose for Pillars. The serious tone of PoE is certainly better for an RPG, but a lot of people just want to have fun with a game, and the lighthearted, sugary taste of D:OS is better for sales. You can even look here on the Codex and see a lot of complaints that PoE was too serious.

As for Fallout, a large number of sales will always be due to name. Keep in mind New Vegas was the sequel to Fallout 3, and being well received was a huge redemption for the series. Skyrim did well because of the name, then because of the internet circlejerk that formed, became a phenomenon of its own, and later the standard for walking sims. I wouldn't say that just the state of a game being a first person, open-world action game will make it become a huge hit, but those are the current marketing buzzwords that generate hype for sure.

 

[Roguey]

Avellone believes Fenstermaker has left Obsidian.



C/D?????

 

[Sannom]

No sign of this on his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I guess we would have to ask him directly.

 

[Infinitron]

Hard to believe Chris would make that up, but he was yakking it up with Feargus on Twitter just a week ago.

 

[Roguey]

Might as well tag Fenstermaker's Folly as well.

 

[Infinitron]

He's also still in the "Developers" group on the Obsidian forums, so if this is true it must have happened just now: https://forums.obsidian.net/user/21988-eric-fenstermaker/

 

[Neanderthal]

Name like that dude should be workin for Microsoft anyway.

 

[Bubbles]

I bet he's been snatched up by Bethesda.

 

[Sentinel]

Avellone believes Fenstermaker has left Obsidian.



C/D?????

Spoiler

What's next? Megan Starks becomes lead narrative designer at Obsidian?

 

[Neanderthal]

What's next? Megan Starks becomes lead narrative designer at Obsidian?

Now I know why I wake at night my body drenched in the cold sweat of terror. There are dooms out there, in the dark between the stars, before which mankind can only shudder, hide and hope not to be noticed.

 

[Rahdulan]

Careful there Chris, you might get accused of leaking confidential information. Wouldn't want to lose that Tier 1 status.

 

[Ninjerk]

What's next? Megan Starks becomes lead narrative designer at Obsidian?

Now I know why I wake at night my body drenched in the cold sweat of terror. There are dooms out there, in the dark between the stars, before which mankind can only shudder, hide and hope not to be noticed.

They know the terror, too:

Spoiler

 

[Fairfax]

He's also still in the "Developers" group on the Obsidian forums, so if this is true it must have happened just now: https://forums.obsidian.net/user/21988-eric-fenstermaker/

It wasn't just now, Chris told me almost 2 weeks ago.
When I asked for the interview, he said he'd heard about it and suggested asking Fenstermaker for an interview while he was too busy with System Shock.

I just assumed it was off the record and thought I'd wait for it to become public.

 

[Ninjerk]

He's also still in the "Developers" group on the Obsidian forums, so if this is true it must have happened just now: https://forums.obsidian.net/user/21988-eric-fenstermaker/

It wasn't just now, Chris told me almost 2 weeks ago.
When I asked for the interview, he said he'd heard about it and suggested asking Fenstermaker for an interview while he was too busy with System Shock.

I just assumed it was off the record and thought I'd wait for it to become public.

Trying to get us blacklisted again, eh?

 

[Fairfax]

He's also still in the "Developers" group on the Obsidian forums, so if this is true it must have happened just now: https://forums.obsidian.net/user/21988-eric-fenstermaker/

It wasn't just now, Chris told me almost 2 weeks ago.
When I asked for the interview, he said he'd heard about it and suggested asking Fenstermaker for an interview while he was too busy with System Shock.

I just assumed it was off the record and thought I'd wait for it to become public.

Trying to get us blacklisted again, eh?

Well, he's revealed it now, I didn't leak anything.

I don't think Chris would've said anything if it was something with drama involved, so I'd guess Fenstermaker wasn't fired, just moving on.

 

[Excidium II]

lol obsidian gone