Company News Obsidian reportedly about to be acquired by Microsoft

[Random]

T'was the eighteenth of Millenium Two
And thirsty was our Microsoft who
Watched EA sell Mass Effect
For lods emone, quite erect.
"A Bioware we shall have, too!"

But now they faced a troubling quandry!
Whom to purchase, whose dirty laundry
Would they pick, air, and wash clean?
Bookmen dispatched to check out and glean
A fine choice of dev, hoping no Ponzi.

First was BethSoft, large and pricey;
To pay their fee was looking a bit dicey.
They made two mainly, Fallout and Skyrim,
And Todd endeavored to make fans like him,
Buy more copies, and play them slightly.

The second was Blizzard, their domain online,
Profits quite high from stolen IPs they decline
With crappy mechanics suited for many players,
Popamole to the extreme, and plenty of naysayers.
How could one buy with only gold, a goldmine?

Thus thwarted from fast gains, the company rose
And searched and besought a place with some woes
They saw Oblivion (not the Scrolls entry),
And sent some lawyers with branch of olive-tree
To secure their interests, holdings and souls.

"Look world, now we have a developer
Of RPGs, soon massive and multiplayer
To beat ME and ESV:S and Fallout and WoW,
With big bucks dumped deep in their bowels,
They'll make us AAAs headed by Sawyer!"

"Microsoft's Bioware"

 

[Chris Avellone]

Perhaps Feargus pushed negotiated an exit for Chris Avellone to reduce the Microsoft "money pie" to be split between owners...?

No, it was the Pillars 1 royalties, actually – the timing was 2 weeks before they came in, and it was a calculated move.

Good business, questionable ethics.

If this puts Feargus on the out, it's a good thing.

Any purchase similar to this often has clauses for keeping the owners and key personnel in their roles as part of the contract for X years (it's part of the reason Ray and Greg stayed with BioWare after the EA purchase, for example).

Unfortunately, unless the purchasers know the company, that sometimes solidifies roles that are best flushed as quickly as possible.

It also assumes the company has told said key personnel that they are key to whatever deal they've done (ex: On Tyranny, I was key personnel and not told the importance, financially and contractually, to the project until after the contracting offer to keep working on it after being de-ownered was refused).

I don't believe the MS thing, mostly because there hasn't been a revelation of facts, and even if that panned out, this would only confirm those people's opinions on the deal - and I don't believe anything in the gaming industry until ink is put to paper, especially after Telltale's executives and the message they sent to employees the week the company went under.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Meh, The West has lost the fight on the incline front. Only Russia/Eastern Europe can save crpgs now.

 

[Mustawd]

Meh, The West has lost the fight on the incline front. Only Russia/Eastern Europe can save crpgs now.

Well, scientists have always said bugs would take over the world...

 

[Grauken]

Meh, The West has lost the fight on the incline front. Only Russia/Eastern Europe can save crpgs now.

So what you're saying is we're doomed

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Meh, The West has lost the fight on the incline front. Only Russia/Eastern Europe can save crpgs now.

So what you're saying is we're doomed

We're always doomed.

 

[Fenix]

fuck ya I've been waiting for a forza rpg

Who need RPGs with boobs like this...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

fuck ya I've been waiting for a forza rpg

Who need RPGs with boobs like this...

laclongquan definitely wants RPGs that have boobs like this.

 

[Neanderthal]

fuck ya I've been waiting for a forza rpg

I was wondering what this picture had to do with Forza but if you look at it for a really long time you'll notice there's actually a car in the frame. I think it's one of them Rorschach things.

 

[Grimlorn]

Perhaps Feargus pushed negotiated an exit for Chris Avellone to reduce the Microsoft "money pie" to be split between owners...?

No, it was the Pillars 1 royalties, actually – the timing was 2 weeks before they came in, and it was a calculated move.

Good business, questionable ethics.

If this puts Feargus on the out, it's a good thing.

Any purchase similar to this often has clauses for keeping the owners and key personnel in their roles as part of the contract for X years (it's part of the reason Ray and Greg stayed with BioWare after the EA purchase, for example).

Unfortunately, unless the purchasers know the company, that sometimes solidifies roles that are best flushed as quickly as possible.

It also assumes the company has told said key personnel that they are key to whatever deal they've done (ex: On Tyranny, I was key personnel and not told the importance, financially and contractually, to the project until after the contracting offer to keep working on it after being de-ownered was refused).

I don't believe the MS thing, mostly because there hasn't been a revelation of facts, and even if that panned out, this would only confirm those people's opinions on the deal - and I don't believe anything in the gaming industry until ink is put to paper, especially after Telltale's executives and the message they sent to employees the week the company went under.

Was Feargus responsible for Stormlands getting cancelled? Did he get into an argument with Microsoft and insult them in some way?

 

[Invictus]

In any case this reeks of desperation from Microsoft if it comes to pass; buying Ninja Theory and other mid tier studios makes sense to do content for the Xbox... but Obsidian doesn’t have much of a reputation on consoles and unless their Boyarsky and Outer Limits projects are fucking mind blowing I don’t see how this can be profitable to them
I really like Sawyer and hope he gets out of there since all of the talent other than Cain and Boyarski are simply gone, Obsidian is just a lifeless husk right now so who cares?

 

[Ismaul]

Was Feargus responsible for Stormlands getting cancelled? Did he get into an argument with Microsoft and insult them in some way?

Trying to find hope that if there's an acquisition, Feargus will be cast aside?

I wouldn't bet on it. It's all optics see. Taking over a company and "letting go" its top executives looks like, well, a takeover. It leads people and investors to think, hey, if that company was an asset, why did we not keep the guys at the top that made it so? Does not inspire confidence. I figure that at best, if it's actually Feargus that made the previous deal go bad, and he doesn't make up with M$, he might be forced to a reduced role in practice while waiting for a more opportune moment to be retired, say, after at least a game is made and released entirely under M$' supervision. "Ensuring the transition". We've got years of Feargus in front of us.

 

[Farewell into the night]

I don't like Obsidian. Maybe I am wrong about them, but they don't seem to be what they were in the past.

 

[Van-d-all]

Realistically I'd expect them to push out some watered down legacy brand game, like PoE3 on heavily refurbished PoE2 assets. Flop it miserably, partially by moronic MS management (eg. publish only on Windows Store) and get killed like virtually every worthwhile studio MS ever bought. So essentially, RIP.

I just hope Larian can get their shit together in the writing department and also stop dumbing down mechanics, since they're pretty much the only semi big RPG studio left.

Yes, yes, Owlcat, but let's see if they manage to stay afloat pushing those patches and actually investing the revenue in studio development.

 

[Grauken]

I'm gunna sing the doom song now doom de doom doom doom do de doooooooom dooom do doom deee doooooom do dom dooom doom

 

[Muty]

Now we can finally have that deep and engaging minecraft rpg that we always wanted.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Does Microsoft own any properties that could be turned into a decent AAA F:NV style ARPG?

 

[fastjack]

Does Microsoft own any properties that could be turned into a decent AAA F:NV style ARPG?

Shadowrun and Battletech, they own the FASA licenses and with the recent acquisition of Harebrained by Paradox (who might/should be seen as a rival publisher) I imagine MS aren't interested in extending the licensing agreement they have with Harebrained when it expires (2020 I think?). Best case imo would be buying Obsidian to develop one or more of these properties in house, after all they were relatively successful when licensed out to a small developer (even considering whatever extra Weisman brought to the endeavor).

 

[evdk]

fuck ya I've been waiting for a forza rpg

Who need RPGs with boobs like this...

"Boobs" is a stat in Forza RPG

 

[Tito Anic]

Gears of War RPG incoming!

 

[J_C]

Why would Microsoft make such a terrible investment? At the moment it is probably cheaper and more useful to buy Owlcat.

Nobody knows who Owlcat is.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I always feel saddened when big publishers are buying off smaller studios. It destroys any chances, no matter how minuscule, to develop good games by those studios. They are automatically becoming dead after their acquisition.

 

[Rivmusique]

Fable: New Oakvale

 

[Moink]

fuck ya I've been waiting for a forza rpg

I was wondering what this picture had to do with Forza but if you look at it for a really long time you'll notice there's actually a car in the frame. I think it's one of them Rorschach things.

You didn't notice the car first? What are you, a homo?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

From the thread Infinitron linked to in the newspost:

It could allow them to create the games they dream of though. Right now they seam to be forced into smaller AA titles. I still remember the days when they matched BioWare and Bethesda in quality(kotor2 and new Vegas). I’d like to see that from them again.

Reading about RPGs on other forums than Codex is a traumatizing experience.