Game News Pillars of Eternity II to be published by Versus Evil

[Infinitron]

I think the long and short of it may be that Obsidian have built up their own in-house marketing team, so they no longer need many of Paradox's services.

 

[Ismaul]

it may be that Obsidian have built up their own in-house marketing team

What is this partnership about?
This is similar to other publishing partnerships in the gaming industry: Versus Evil is taking the lead on marketing and distribution of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Damn Infini. Really low effort.

Are you purposefully being wrong so your status as an Obsidian shill isn't confirmed?

 

[Flou]

I think the long and short of it may be that Obsidian have built up their own in-house marketing team, so they no longer need many of Paradox's services.

While they've built it in the last year or so, I think they still need help from publishers when it comes to marketing. They just don't have all the tools/resources to do all of it on their own. At least not yet. Versus Evil apparently offers something else to the table when it comes to marketing.
Paradox's marketing is pretty much something they can do on their own though. While Paradox's Twich channel might have more viewers that Obsidian's own channel, I'd rather watch Aarik and/or Mikey playing their games than have Paradox's PR people playing the game.

 

[Turok]

Who the hell watch Twich? i only watch videos on porntube

 

[TigerKnee]

Who?

 

[J_C]

Who the hell watch Twich? i only watch videos on porntube

I'm sure nobody is watching twitch. That's why it become one of the most used video services in the world.

 

[Raziel]

Given what a casualized DLC milker Paradox has become lately, I'm glad it's not them.

Good thing Paradox's acquisition of White Wolf won't matter when Bloodlines 2 is eventually released.

 

[felipepepe]

I just have no idea wtf is going on at Obsidian anymore

 

[Rev]

I just have no idea wtf is going on at Obsidian anymore

Me neither, but I think we can all be grateful that PoE2 is not gonna get the special Paradox treatment, with expansions splitted in two parts to milk more money, portrait DLCs, other overpriced DLCs and some other nice pro-consumers policies like upping the price of the game just before a Steam sale and things like that.

 

[Mojomancer]

I just have no idea wtf is going on at Obsidian anymore

Me neither, but I think we can all be grateful that PoE2 is not gonna get the special Paradox treatment, with expansions splitted in two parts to milk more money, portrait DLCs, other overpriced DLCs and some other nice pro-consumers policies like upping the price of the game just before a Steam sale and things like that.

There's no way to know for sure until the game is out but I'm just hoping these bad habits didn't rub off on Obsidian.

 

[Flou]

I just have no idea wtf is going on at Obsidian anymore

What is there to get? Versus Evil will help with distribution and marketing. While they can handle North American market and digital markets on their own, they need help to distribute the game in Europe, Asia and Australia. If they don't partner up with someone their European customers would have to pay taxes on top of what they pledged to the game. I'd rather not get hit by 24% taxes on top of what I pledged on Fig + possible custom fees.

Even though they've built their marketing team, I doubt they still have the resources, contacts and tools to handle all of the marketing on their own. They can do some of it for sure, but they are not quite there to handle all of it on their own. It really doesn't take much from Versus Evil & Obsidian to do it better than Paradox did.

 

[felipepepe]

Versus Evil has a disappointing record, with failures like Banner Saga 2 and Afro Samurai 2 - which got a 21 Metacritic score and a bare bones Wikipedia article. They focus on digital-only indie titles, not on doing retail and shipping boxes across several countries. And if PoE2 is going digital-only, why Obsidian needs Versus Evil? Connections? In loco staff?

Just before this they published Pathfinder Adventures via another small, digital-only publisher - Asmodee Digital. And that game sits on Steam with 11,000 owners. Doesn't look like it sold a lot on the Google or App store either.

Not to mention this comes right after that massive media blitz of... nothing... all paid by Paradox.

Now it looks more like Obsidian wants to self-publish, still doesn't have the expertise but don't want to give huge %s to Paradox, so they use smaller publishers as aid. And that media blitz was Paradox flexing its muscles, showing just how much of a better waifu they are (or apologizing for Tyrany's release).

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Now it looks more like Obsidian wants to self-publish, still doesn't have the expertise but don't want to give huge %s to Paradox, so they use smaller publishers as aid. And that media blitz was Paradox flexing its muscles, showing just how much of a better waifu they are (or apologizing for Tyrany's release).

>how much of a better waifu they are
>waifu
It is evident that being in Japan has affected you (not sure if positively or negatively)

 

[felipepepe]

It's an advanced Japanese business technique: instead of using filthy gaijin tools like SWOT or Porter's analysis, you draw a cute girl for each player in the market and test visual novel scenarios. :3

So, what should Obsidian-chan do?

Spoiler

She's too good for Evil-kun, she should get back with Paradox-san or set out on her own.

 

[Flou]

Versus Evil has a disappointing record, with failures like Banner Saga 2 and Afro Samurai 2 - which got a 21 Metacritic score and a bare bones Wikipedia article. They focus on digital-only indie titles, not on doing retail and shipping boxes across several countries. And if PoE2 is going digital-only, why Obsidian needs Versus Evil? Connections? In loco staff?

Just before this they published Pathfinder Adventures via another small, digital-only publisher - Asmodee Digital. And that game sits on Steam with 11,000 owners. Doesn't look like it sold a lot on the Google or App store either.

Not to mention this comes right after that massive media blitz of... nothing... all paid by Paradox.

Now it looks more like Obsidian wants to self-publish, still doesn't have the expertise but don't want to give huge %s to Paradox, so they use smaller publishers as aid. And that media blitz was Paradox flexing its muscles, showing just how much of a better waifu they are (or apologizing for Tyrany's release).

It's not digital-only. The fact that they have physical copies available for Fig backers says so. Even if they don't actually put it out to actual physical stores doesn't change the fact they decided that they would need help with the distribution when it comes to all those Fig backers. They need some local partners to send those damn packages to pledgers or else their customers will have to pay taxes and customs fees in EU at least. It would seem Versus Evil has those connections, you can hardly blame Obsidian for not having partners across the globe.

Was Banner Saga 2 a failure though? It did review well, I think Stoic and/or Versus Evil highly underestimated how much of the work Kickstarter campaign did on the 1st game. Not to mention it took them way way too long to release the sequel. Didn't they originally promise to release them at much faster pace?
Pillars of Eternity 2 is easier to market though since it is on Fig and Obsidian is a much bigger player than Stoic. I don't think Stoic has much of a marketing department either. Obsidian has community managers, brand managers and marketing people. Obviously they won't go into exact details as what Versus Evil is going to bring into the table with their marketing know how. Most likely just the fact they have connections to run advertisement campaign in non-English countries as well. Some of the Central European countries are a big market for the game and you might want to localize your advertisement for some of the countries especially since they are translating the game into multiple languages as well.

Flexing muscles? All they did was they flew in few journalists and paid their hotels for few nights. That doesn't take much thinking, nor funds. Paradox bought ad time on those site for both Tyranny and Stellaris so it's not just that they wanted to show Obsidian what they can do.

Pathfinder Adventures is a niche game though and hardly a game your average Obsidian fan would really want to play, it's just that different from your normal Obsidian game. Hard to imagine that game selling like hotcakes on PC. Asmodee Digital might be a small player in PC gaming, but they are "a leader in digital board game entertainment". For that game Asmodee might have been the perfect fit. Can't find the source, but I think that they even paid the development of the PC version.
As for the sales on mobile, you can see those from the Fig listings. I think the revenue from that was around 650k earlier this year.
The game is still getting updates, so it wasn't complete disaster.

 

[Kev Inkline]

So nice Swedes who played meekly by the book got cucked by shameless, greedy, and ungrateful foreigners? Who'dve thought?

 

[Quantomas]

The other thing is you see increasingly diminishing initial sales for games that style themselves as part of a trilogy, or are likely to get midgame expansions.

Players have huge backlogs these days. That's the reason why I simply decided it is better to wait until the Banner Saga is complete, especially after reviewers said it didn't feel like it ended properly. That was the same reason why I didn't get Tyranny, I decided to skip it because of PoE's midgame expansion The White March.

Doubtful the reasons Obsidian and Paradox have pointed to present really the full picture of the lower than expected sales.

 

[Alienman]

No boxed release, why do they even need a publisher then? And a small one with no good publisher record. Seems odd.

 

[LESS T_T]

Not surprising but it's interesting to see that a publisher being secondary in a press release: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pres...eadfire_Closed_Backer_Beta_Launches_Today.php

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Closed Backer Beta Launches Today!

IRVINE, CA – November 15th, 2017 – Obsidian Entertainment, developers behind Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and many award winning role-playing games, along with publisher, Versus Evil, announce the launch of the closed beta for their upcoming, record breaking, crowdfunded title, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

Compare to this press release about PoE 1: DE out in the same day: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pres...ition_Available_Today_on_PC_Mac_and_Linux.php

Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition Available Today on PC, Mac, and Linux

STOCKHOLM, Sweden and IRVINE, Calif. — Nov. 15, 2017 — Paradox Interactive, a publisher of games that define genres, and Obsidian Entertainment, developers of classic games like Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: The Stick of Truth, today announced that Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. Definitive Edition, the comprehensive version of Obsidian’s award-winning, best-selling cRPG, Pillars of Eternity, includes the original game alongside both of its released expansions, all premium extras, and an all-new bundle of content, called the “Deadfire Pack,” inspired by Obsidian’s upcoming Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. The new version is available via digital distributors today for a suggested retail price of $39.99.