Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Fairfax]

Obsidian "lost" the Alpha Protocol IP, but they shit the bed in the first two years of development. At that point, if Obsidian had the IP, SEGA would've either ended their contract or demanded the IP in order to take the risk and keep funding it. At the end of the day, Obsidian got lucky. They kept people on the payroll for another 2 years and got the chance to release a cult classic. Other publisher probably would've cancelled the game or worse, like giving them the Human Head treatment.

I don't understand "owning the IP" thing when you have no funds to make the effin game.

It's important. If you own the IP, even if you need a publisher to fund the game, it means you can negotiate higher royalties, etc. The brand has value and that gives you leverage.

You lose that leverage when you don't have money and asks publishers to take all the risk for you. Even worse when you have a reputation for buggy games and the publisher doesn't know if they're paying for a DS3 or a FNV.

 

[Jenkem]

All these stories about Obsidian's past is designed to make us believe Obshitian is still good... when the fact is they released tyranny which is meh, then a bog-standard card game, then the tyranny dlc which is bad.. the gaming press is saying that the new south park is better than the first one by Obsidiot.. the writing is on the wall, quite frankly.

very worried about deadfire now given their track record of late

no wonder Avellone left

 

[Sentinel]

gaming press is saying that the new south park is better than the first one by Obsidiot

ah yes, the gaming press. The immaculate, independent and unbiased source of videogame criticism.

 

[aweigh]

obsidiot LOOOOL

tryhard grandmaster over here

 

[Quillon]

Another USGamer RPG podcast featuring Obs (36:05): http://www.usgamer.net/articles/axe-of-the-blood-god-looking-back-on-fallout-new-vegas-rpg-podcast

Haha, awesome new vegas vs fallout 4 talk: "The man with no name, he comes into town, a lot of people die, then he leaves, he goes, he's not gonna set up a farm" lol.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like there's more blitzing to do. But first, a palette cleanser.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

37 minute : "I'm replaying New Vegas again to see how it was like for the new game we are working on that's not Fallout".

 

[Quillon]

for the new game we are working on that's not Fallout".

Its Deadfire, cos of its NV-style factions, he's just being cautious not to mislead.

 

[Sentinel]

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky aren't working on Deadfire.
I think he was talking about those two. 99% chance I'm just retarded tho. I don't remember very well.

 

[Quillon]

Yeah and Josh isn't working on Cainarsky's game, he's saying "we" but following that statement he talks about Bobby Null's(lead designer for Deadfire) awe in how crazy faction choices could get, cos they were revisiting NV for Deadfire.

 

[Sentinel]

What's the timestamp on that?

 

[Quillon]

Well he's literally saying what thought I was interpreting from 37 to 38.

 

[Sentinel]

Well the way he says it "I'm back to playing New Vegas for a game that we're making that's not Fallout" kind of screams to me "it's an unannounced project". If he was talking about Deadfire, I feel like he'd just say Deadfire, since that's a project everyone knows about.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I think it's definitely about the unnanounced game. Feargus, as per his usual style, is firing words with a speed of a machine gun, then you can hear him pause and realize he can't reveal it yet, so he goes "I'm replaying F:NV for...a game we're working on that's not Fallout".

Plus why would he be be replaying F:NV to find some inspiration for Deadfire or whatever? Makes no sense. It's can't be about Deadfire.

 

[Quillon]

Yeah it can be Cainarsky's game. I thought it was a Sawyer quote, realized it's Feargus who's saying this:

"I'm replaying New Vegas again to see how it was like for the new game we are working on that's not Fallout".

 

[Urthor]

Did we rule out the World of Darkness for the Tim and Leon game? Iirc there was some speculation because Paradox signed a deal for the rights to that IP awhile back

 

[Infinitron]

Yes. It's a new Obsidian-owned IP.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Well it increasingly looks like it's a post-apo, and that Paradox is involved. Did White Wolf had a post-apo IP?

 

[Roguey]

"We put together a really cool AI system but it sucked up too much performance and it was eating frames from the game and we had to get performance up. We wound up making our guys stupider late in development because there wasn't a good way to go back and change it at that point. If we could have gone back in time we could have come up with a better overall system but it was too late to do that."

That's our Absurdian.

while also talking about...Tyranny's underwhelming expansion,

Ha ha, ouch. Expansion was just released and they already have to do a "Why was this expansion so disappointing????" interview.

It's sure starting to sound like The Secret Project™ is Alpha Protocol 2.

when I asked Sega it didn't sound like an AP sequel was part of any kind of plan.

 

[Doma]

Did we rule out the World of Darkness for the Tim and Leon game? Iirc there was some speculation because Paradox signed a deal for the rights to that IP awhile back

They did more than sign for the rights. They bought the entire thing. They own WoD now.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

 

[Quillon]

Anyway, as always they are taking my suggestions to heart

Every open world game should take notes from NV and all Obs employees should replay it in a yearly basis to remember how to make a good game.

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

Paradox' involment I imagine.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

All this media blitz seems to be paid for by Paradox, so I figure they also must be the publisher of the new IP.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

The part about the secret project being post-apocalyptic, actually. I've seen many people say this, I personally haven't seen any real indication of that.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Infinitron for which part do you require citations?

Part about the secret project being post-apocalyptic.

Pure speculation of course, but Tim said that it will be enjoyed by Fallout fans, and now Feargus is replaying F:NV for inspiration. I'd say that at least hints that it's a post-apo.