Company News Pillars of Eternity II SEC filing confirms Tyranny DLC on the way

[commie]

Saunders once said that sales for expansions were pretty predictable and that you could expect only roughly 1 in 4 players to buy one.

Sounds about right. Even in the 90's you wouldn't get much more than that for most games. Simply put, from those that buy games, a percentage won't like it or finish and others will have had enough with what's on offer. Getting expansions for a relatively high price(as opposed to some 5 buck DLC these days) tends to be something that only dedicated people get.

 

[Anubioz]

Fallout 4 confirmed!

 

[Invictus]

I actually liked Tyranny and enjoyed the combat (especially the magic system) but felt the last act was a rush job, if we can get a proper to goodness expansion to deal with the last army we never got to face and Kyros to close down the storyline I would be well served

 

[aratuk]

Codex enthusiasm for an unannounced project by [favorite dev] will always have a greater upper bound than Codex enthusiasm for any specific thing [favorite dev] could announce.

As when your moustache uncle is inflated by the prospect of his favorite old band getting back together for a new album, then deflated by the product when he hears it, shaves his moustache.

There is still much to enjoy, although you can't relive the magic of your youth.

 

[Diggfinger]

and an unannounced title with a major publisher

Either that or Pathfinder: Adventures; which sounds crappy - so lets hope you're right

 

[flabbyjack]

There is an interesting dynamic (which has been discussed in the context of sequels by VD and others, esp. re: Banner Saga 2) involved there. On the one hand, players will almost always say they'd be happy with more of the same, they love the engine, etc., etc. Yet there seem to be major diminishing returns, and that seems to have gotten worse lately. Players played a lot of very similar Gold Box and Infinity Engine games, but now there seems more pressure for changing the framework after each title (more like what the Ultimas did, I guess). I generally think I'd be happy seeing the same engine refined and expanded (like HBS did with Shadowrun) rather than new engines, but that seems like a not great business strategy.

That's a shame really, if you keep the engine and maybe improve some of the tooling you could achieve major cost savings and deliver a sequel with similar sales as the first (Banner Saga 2 notwithstanding).

 

[undecaf]

and an unannounced title with a major publisher

This could be an attempt on that Obsidian's "skyrim" Feargus has been wanking off about for a while already.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Inb4 massive, across-the-board butthurt when the super secret project is revealed

 

[Prime Junta]

I find it interesting that they spun off a whole 'nuther holding company for the Pillars IPR. Looks like insurance to me. If Obsidz goes tits-up the IPRs will be auctioned off; with them in DRIL they're safe in case that happens.

Put another way, fuck me but they believe in it.

 

[l3loodAngel]

I find it interesting that they spun off a whole 'nuther holding company for the Pillars IPR. Looks like insurance to me. If Obsidz goes tits-up the IPRs will be auctioned off; with them in DRIL they're safe in case that happens.

Put another way, fuck me but they believe in it.

Very smart decision, especially for a self published company. The IPs can generate revenue stream even if the company goes belly up, since holding IPs doesn't require any upkeep. The tricky part is building the serious IP portfolio with brands like FO, Arcanum and etc.

 

[an Administrator]

Could the secret project be... Arcanum 2?

 

[oldmanpaco]

Secret projects always feel like circle jerks to me. Once you have your project funded, internally or through a publisher, just announce it. Keeping it a "secret" always feels like some middle school bullshit.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Could the secret project be... Arcanum 2?

Arcanum 2 on Pillars engine. That would be so sweet.

 

[Prime Junta]

Could the secret project be... Arcanum 2?

No. The IPRs haven't been sold, and it's very much not a "major publisher" kind of game.

If they do ever make an Arcanum sequel/reboot/spiritual successor/whatever, they will certainly do it on Fig.

 

[Pentagon]

If they do ever make an Arcanum sequel/reboot/spiritual successor/whatever, they will certainly do it on Fig.

I'm not really sure it needs one. What that game did well, it did very well and what it did poorly, it did very poorly. Better to just take the design ideas from it. The world was very interesting, but by the end you've explored all of Arcanum. The dieselpunk future cities looked cool in the ending slides, and maybe that could be fodder for a new game, but the developers could easily create a new dieselpunk-magic world without having to deal with the baggage of carrying on the Arcanum world and paying for use of a brand that quite frankly does not have any mainstream penetration.

 

[Prime Junta]

I agree. I'd much rather see interesting new IPs than warming over past ones. Or hey, even an IP taken from a book or books; the Witchers didn't do too badly.

Steampunk fantasy set in Bas-Lag anyone?

 

[Invictus]

I find it interesting that they spun off a whole 'nuther holding company for the Pillars IPR. Looks like insurance to me. If Obsidz goes tits-up the IPRs will be auctioned off; with them in DRIL they're safe in case that happens.

Put another way, fuck me but they believe in it.

Very smart decision, especially for a self published company. The IPs can generate revenue stream even if the company goes belly up, since holding IPs doesn't require any upkeep. The tricky part is building the serious IP portfolio with brands like FO, Arcanum and etc.

I always suspected you were stupid and retarded on all your comments rather than trying to troll on almost everything you post but this confirms it; the fact that you weakly maturbate to the Sears catalogue on your mom's basement and dont have a simple grasp on what an IP actually is worth is
If your IP is Fallout or Star Wars yeah they might be worth to pickup and spin into consolized shit like Fallout 4 but Obsidian has a nice niche IP in Pillars but is is small potatos for a publisher to actually be interested in purchasing said IP to sell a palty million copies at an average of $22 a pop
So how much would the IP be worth genius? For a niche game which is nothing behind the studio that develops it and even if it were it is not enough to justify the costs for acquiring it?
I know from your rants you barely have any grasp on anything work or even real world related and you pull most of your shitposting straight out of your ass so delight me with your responses we are all breathless for them

 

[GloomFrost]

I agree. I'd much rather see interesting new IPs than warming over past ones. Or hey, even an IP taken from a book or books; the Witchers didn't do too badly.

Steampunk fantasy set in Bas-Lag anyone?

Bas Lag setting, 2d isometric, writers are Avellone and Mitozda! Oh man!

 

[l3loodAngel]

I find it interesting that they spun off a whole 'nuther holding company for the Pillars IPR. Looks like insurance to me. If Obsidz goes tits-up the IPRs will be auctioned off; with them in DRIL they're safe in case that happens.

Put another way, fuck me but they believe in it.

Very smart decision, especially for a self published company. The IPs can generate revenue stream even if the company goes belly up, since holding IPs doesn't require any upkeep. The tricky part is building the serious IP portfolio with brands like FO, Arcanum and etc.

I always suspected you were stupid and retarded on all your comments rather than trying to troll on almost everything you post but this confirms it; the fact that you weakly maturbate to the Sears catalogue on your mom's basement and dont have a simple grasp on what an IP actually is worth is
If your IP is Fallout or Star Wars yeah they might be worth to pickup and spin into consolized shit like Fallout 4 but Obsidian has a nice niche IP in Pillars but is is small potatos for a publisher to actually be interested in purchasing said IP to sell a palty million copies at an average of $22 a pop
So how much would the IP be worth genius? For a niche game which is nothing behind the studio that develops it and even if it were it is not enough to justify the costs for acquiring it?
I know from your rants you barely have any grasp on anything work or even real world related and you pull most of your shitposting straight out of your ass so delight me with your responses we are all breathless for them

Remember FO? Well the shit started with giving free pizza and working after hours by single man named TC. How much was it worth? Well, USD 5 mn (when it was niche), when sold by a bankrupt company. Now? I am guessing somewhere north of hundred million dollars (without doing any market research, and comparing to similar sales). Star Wars franchise sold for USD 4 bn. Yes, I know it has a wide recognition, but on creative basis it is quite weak. I would be very suprised if few capable devs like Avellone couldn't come up with something better.

The franchise could be rented for some popamole developer if it has some appeal increasing its value exponentially if selling is not profitable or out of the question.

Another thing is that owning IPs in a separate entity, lets the company restart production in case of bankruptcy. If for example Obsi goes belly up, people can just leave to newly formed company and restart development using the known IPs.

I admire your courage stupid one. Being demolished so badly and them coming back for more and more. If only your IQ could rival your hate...

Edit. You are retarded if you think I will go on some Reuters program (pay thousands of dollars for accesss of private information if they even have such details), then collect info. and do the fucking research on how much a small franchise can be sold for absent payment. Do you think I am your personal investment banker?

Small market deals are notoriously hard to value as much of the value is derived from how much the buyer is willing pay and believes he will make money on the purchase (or will save on costs by not having to develop it's own franchise assuming the franchise being sold is good). Basically you are selling belief/thin-air or a promise of prosperity (pun intended).

However, a good and interesting franchise like: Marvel mutants, Star Wars, Starcraft or FO can go for hundreds of millions dollars. Now we can go to my original point that it's tricky to create such IP.

BTW. There are better things to masturbate on.

 

[mildTea]

I agree. I'd much rather see interesting new IPs than warming over past ones. Or hey, even an IP taken from a book or books; the Witchers didn't do too badly.

Steampunk fantasy set in Bas-Lag anyone?

Bas-Lag would be amazing. Miéville built that world really nicely. I still remember how fresh the setting felt when I first started reading Perdido Street Station. I wonder though how difficult it would be to get the rights from Miéville. From the interviews with him I have the impression that he could be a difficult person to work with.

I've also kept comparing the Numenara setting to the Bas-Lag when playing T:ToN, because it struck me how horribly the 10E9 years into to the future idea fails to create a working coherent setting. Miéville also created a Crobuzon as a hodgepodge of wildly different races and technologies/magic, but then he spent plenty of time on explaining how they work and coexist together. His lengthy prose actually served the purpose of describing and cross-linking the ideas. Walls of text in Numenara are only utilized to show: "Look how crazy this is!"

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Arcanum 2 pls. NOT a remake. A new story in the same universe.

 

[Ruzen]

I too could pay top dollar for Arcanum 2

 

[Abu Antar]

Could the secret project be... Arcanum 2?

I got the impression that it isn't Arcanum from comments that Boyarsky has made.

 

[Haba]

Could the secret project be... Arcanum 2?

Arcanum 2 on Pillars engine. That would be so sweet.

That is a very weird way to spell "shit".

 

[Pentagon]

Arcanum 2 pls. NOT a remake. A new story in the same universe.

A lot of the story of Arcanum is uncovering the story of the world, finding out what really happened to make the world as it is. My favorite part is exploring Vendigroth, since that's when the final piece in the "what's going on in this world" clicks. But by the end, you've solved that mystery, visited every major place, and talked to every significant person in Arcanum. When I beat it, I didn't feel like there was more I needed to know about the world, and that makes constructing a meaningful sequel challenging.