Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Jaesun]

When someone ports F:NV into the Fallout 2 engine it will be the 2nd best Fallout game.

 

[Latelistener]

Maybe someday Zenithesda will finally make a good 3D engine, and someone will port New Vegas on it.
This is probably the last hope Fallout fans may have, since Zenithesda will be raping the franchise for the next 15+ years, and no one can do anything about it.
I have no hopes to see another good game with the Fallout logo on it in my lifetime.

 

[2house2fly]

When someone ports F:NV into the Fallout 2 engine it will be the 2nd best Fallout game.

Sounds like it'd be a downgrade

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

When someone ports F:NV into the Fallout 2 engine it will be the 2nd best Fallout game.

Wouldn't it make more sense to port it to a more modern isometric game engine, like say, as a mod of Pillars of Eternity? FO2's engine isn't very stable and wasn't designed for modern systems. Also, a lot more could be done as far as graphics and so on.

That being said, porting FO and FO2 into mods for POE would also be cool. Think of the potential of what could be done with this modern engine.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

That being said, porting FO and FO2 into mods for POE would also be cool.

Sure, right after someone figures out how to change anything other than texture colors in poe. Any minute now.

 

[Fairfax]

Some info from SEC filings for PoE2 investments:

Business difficulties at DRIL or Obsidian could delay or prevent the development of Pillars of Eternity II.

In the event DRIL or Obsidian experience difficulties in their businesses, Pillars of Eternity II may not be developed on schedule or to scope, or may otherwise fail to deliver or help maintain a potentially commercially successful game. Over the fourteen years since its founding, Obsidian has had four projects in the process of development cancelled prior to their release. These projects were cancelled due to various reasons, including in one case the inability to secure completion funding; in another case concern by the publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed; in another case concern that the product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections; and in another case the publisher’s decision that the product would not fit within its portfolio. Two of these cancellations resulted in Obsidian failing to cover its costs, while the other two cancellations did not. In connection with the two most recent of these cancellations, Obsidian responded in part by reducing its headcount, in December 2016 and in March 2012. Business difficulties at DRIL or Obsidian or delays in game development at Obsidian could harm our business and undercut the availability of dividends for the holders of the Fig Game Shares associated with Pillars of Eternity II.

Since they're only including games that made it past pre-production, they're talking about Stormlands, Armored Warfare, Aliens: Crucible and another game, which I assume is Dwarves.

My guesses:
Armored Warfare -> "inability to secure completion funding"
Stormlands -> "concern by publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed" / "product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections"
Aliens -> "product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections" / "concern by publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed"
Dwarves -> "publisher’s decision that the product would not fit within its portfolio."

Also, they had layoffs after Aliens got cancelled as well, which they failed to mention there.

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

Some info from SEC filings for PoE2 investments:

Business difficulties at DRIL or Obsidian could delay or prevent the development of Pillars of Eternity II.

In the event DRIL or Obsidian experience difficulties in their businesses, Pillars of Eternity II may not be developed on schedule or to scope, or may otherwise fail to deliver or help maintain a potentially commercially successful game. Over the fourteen years since its founding, Obsidian has had four projects in the process of development cancelled prior to their release. These projects were cancelled due to various reasons, including in one case the inability to secure completion funding; in another case concern by the publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed; in another case concern that the product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections; and in another case the publisher’s decision that the product would not fit within its portfolio. Two of these cancellations resulted in Obsidian failing to cover its costs, while the other two cancellations did not. In connection with the two most recent of these cancellations, Obsidian responded in part by reducing its headcount, in December 2016 and in March 2012. Business difficulties at DRIL or Obsidian or delays in game development at Obsidian could harm our business and undercut the availability of dividends for the holders of the Fig Game Shares associated with Pillars of Eternity II.

Since they're only including games that made it past pre-production, they're talking about Stormlands, Armored Warfare, Aliens: Crucible and another game, which I assume is Dwarves.

My guesses:
Armored Warfare -> "inability to secure completion funding"
Stormlands -> "concern by publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed" / "product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections"
Aliens -> "product budget was going to grow to a level that was not justifiable in light of sales projections" / "concern by publisher over marketability arising after the pre-production phase was completed"
Dwarves -> "publisher’s decision that the product would not fit within its portfolio."

Also, they had layoffs after Aliens got cancelled as well, which they failed to mention there.

Armored Warfare is a Russian MMO that only needed Obsidian's help temporarily, and that was done, and now its back to the Russian company's hands to carry on with. That wasn't a cancelled project or a failure.

Stormlands later became Tyranny and was released by Paradox, so it was not a permanent cancellation or a failure. Apparently, there are 3 DLCs incoming for it so sales must have been at least okay.

The other games might just similarly be shelved and maybe something will come of them one day. Who knows? *shrug* Every game developer that has been around as long as Obsidian has inevitably runs into setbacks of one kind or another. That's normal and nothing to be alarmed about. Also, Deadfire is crowdfunded so it isn't subject to being cancelled by a publisher, since the funding isn't coming from one. POE1 has some over a million copies and is continuing to sell well, so Obsidian should be able to cover the cost of Deadfire's development with their own funds if they run into unforeseen hiccups and the Fig funds end up falling short of what is needed.

 

[Fairfax]

More from the filings:

Among the seven Obsidian games that have been published and released since 2012, five games generated sales receipts to DRIL/Obsidian that exceeded Obsidian’s development costs, and two games generated sales receipts to DRIL/Obsidian that were less than Obsidian’s development costs. DRIL and Obsidian believe that one of these two games that have not covered their development costs will cover those costs within approximately the next 18 months. Pillars of Eternity, launched in March 2015, had as of December 31, 2016 sold approximately 954,000 units and generated approximately $16,500,000 in revenue for DRIL/Obsidian. The foregoing sales information is not a complete representation of the financial performance of the games cited, because it does not include all the expenses that would affect whether a game is profitable.

I'd guess Tyranny is the one they expect to recover costs in the next 18 months, and the other one is probably Armored Warfare.

Obsidian has developed games with development budgets across a wide range of sizes, from budgets of approximately $1.5 to $55 million.

$55 million = Alpha Protocol? I don't think FNV or AW had long enough cycles to cost that much.

Obsidian currently has four games in development: Pillars of Eternity II; Tyranny DLC; Pathfinder: Adventures; and an unannounced title with a major publisher.

Tyranny DLC confirmed.

DRIL currently estimates that the expected delivery date of will be no later than March 31, 2018, as may be extended by DRIL for up to six months, and as may thereafter be extended only by mutual agreement of DRIL and Fig.

 

[Infinitron]

Fairfax Did they email you this?

 

[Fairfax]

Fairfax Did they email you this?

No. Thought I linked it? Anyway, here's the full document: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1658966/000121390017002557/f1apos5_figpublishing.htm

 

[agris]

Fairfax is wise in the ways of regulatory paperwork mining.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

A nice big expansion of the quality of something like Mask of the Betrayer or the Witcher 3 expansions put out by CDProjekt will cause more Tyranny sales, I'm sure of it

 

[Infinitron]

It's bizarre how these documents make "DRIL", a name nobody has ever heard of, sound like the the only important thing and Obsidian a mere "affiliate".

 

[LESS T_T]

Dark Rock Industries Limited. I saw that name in Pillars of Eternity trademark information. It's owned by Feargus.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, I think I saw that too.

Anyway Fairfax, did you ever find these documents for Wasteland 3? If you do, post them in the inXile thread or wherever.

 

[Fairfax]

It's bizarre how these documents make "DRIL", a name nobody has ever heard of, sound like the the only important thing and Obsidian a mere "affiliate".

DRIL is "Dark Rock Industries Limited". Apparently it's a company Obsidian created to manage the PoE IP:

Dark Rock Industries Limited is a privately held California corporation formed in 2014 (“DRIL”) and the owner of the intellectual property rights associated with Pillars of Eternity II. Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., a privately held California corporation, is a video game development studio based in Irvine, California (“Obsidian”) and an affiliate of DRIL. DRIL is the licensor of Pillars of Eternity II. Obsidian will develop Pillars of Eternity II on behalf of DRIL for delivery to Fig under the Pillars of Eternity II License Agreement.

Obsidian originally owned the intellectual property rights associated with Pillars of Eternity, including the technology used to develop Pillars of Eternity (collectively, the “Pillars IP”). In January 2015 transferred the Pillars IP to DRIL. DRIL has the same owners, with the same percentage ownership interests, as Obsidian, and Feargus Urquhart is the CEO of both companies. DRIL, as intellectual property owner, has previously relied on Obsidian to develop Pillars of Eternity: The White March Parts I and II. It is DRIL’s intention to continue to use Obsidian to develop Pillars IP products.

Yeah, I think I saw that too.

Anyway Fairfax, did you ever find these documents for Wasteland 3? If you do, post them in the inXile thread or wherever.

I did, I even posted the investor materials and analyzed some things.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1658966/000121390017002522/f253g2031717_figpublishing.htm

EDIT:

1. WL3 Offering Memorandum.pdf
2. Ex A - Form of Fig WL3 LLC Operating Agreement.pdf
3. Ex B - WL3 License Agreement (execution copy).pdf
4. Ex C - WL3 Subscription Agreement.pdf

 

[Chris Avelltwo]

Fairfax is wise in the ways of regulatory paperwork mining.

He isn't called Fairfax for nothing.

 

[Roguey]

sold approximately 954,000 units

A million or bust!

 

[Seaking4]

$55 million = Alpha Protocol? I don't think FNV or AW had long enough cycles to cost that much.

If marketing counts in the development budget then I could see how F:NV could cost that much. Sawyer implied that he worked on a game once where the publisher spent more money on marketing than they did on the development and he must have been talking about F:NV.

 

[Abu Antar]

I thought they had Pathfinder, Tyranny DLC, Pillars of Eternity II and two unannounced projects.

Does this mean that the Cain/Boyarsky game is the one with a big publisher behind it?

 

[Fairfax]

$55 million = Alpha Protocol? I don't think FNV or AW had long enough cycles to cost that much.

If marketing counts in the development budget then I could see how F:NV could cost that much. Sawyer implied that he worked on a game once where the publisher spent more money on marketing than they did on the development and he must have been talking about F:NV.

It says "development budgets", though. FNV only had 18 months and ~50-60 people. $55 million seems way too high.

I thought they had Pathfinder, Tyranny DLC, Pillars of Eternity II and two unannounced projects.

Does this mean that the Cain/Boyarsky game is the one with a big publisher behind it?

Has to be, didn't Feargus say they already had a partner for it?

 

[Abu Antar]

$55 million = Alpha Protocol? I don't think FNV or AW had long enough cycles to cost that much.

If marketing counts in the development budget then I could see how F:NV could cost that much. Sawyer implied that he worked on a game once where the publisher spent more money on marketing than they did on the development and he must have been talking about F:NV.

It says "development budgets", though. FNV only had 18 months and ~50-60 people. $55 million seems way too high.

I thought they had Pathfinder, Tyranny DLC, Pillars of Eternity II and two unannounced projects.

Does this mean that the Cain/Boyarsky game is the one with a big publisher behind it?

Has to be, didn't Feargus say they already had a partner for it?

Yes, I remember reading about it. I wonder if it could be the next Fallout game. I can't think of much else if it isn't a completely new IP.

 

[Infinitron]

It's a new IP.

 

[Roguey]

Bethesda and Bioware have been pratfalling this console generation, that console action RPG better be staying as far away as it can from trying to be cinematic.

 

[Kem0sabe]

You either go full out in terms of production value or you don't.

Console market reacts extremely well to highly polished and visually stunning action rpgs, games like horizon or Witcher 3 sell millions and the word of mouth and hype machine practically builds itself into a frenzy by release date.

If obsidian half asses they will be eaten up, like mass effect Andromeda.

I really hope their AAA game is a smaller, very focused game, with killer aesthetics, because if it isn't, it will probably fail.