So they'd rather make barbie dream RPG than Star Trek RPG AND they'd rather make a south park RPG without getting paid than to make BG III for "only" 5-10 million?
Please point out the paragraphs where they mention doing a barbie dream RPG and rather not getting paid after south park than doing BG3. Because it seems to me that you are talking out of your ass.
Sounds like you don't read any of this stuff just to make dumb comments.
"One of those publishers was Disney, who enlisted Obsidian to design a video game prequel to
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Oops snow white and seven dwarves, whatever. Think that may actually be more humiliating than barbie RPG, since at least with barbie you are just marketing to little kids not trying to present it like something half serious like dwarves or south park RPG.
"We've talked to the Bethesda guys more than once about doing games," Urquhart said. "They called me once about
Star Trek, and I was probably being a little bit too much, too arrogant of a developer... This would've been like 2007—way before the movies—and it was like,
Star Trek wasn't in a good place. I don't know what I said, but I now know it probably sounded arrogant."
So, he didn't want to do star trek. For the BG III thing read the next thread down, the star trek fumble is a bit weird but the BG III thing is hard to forgive. I find it hard to believe they could not have gotten it funded for less, or completed a decent game for less.
"Obsidian wasn't getting paid at this point, but the prospect of a
South Park RPG was hard to resist, so Urquhart agreed to keep plugging away at it. They built a prototype set in a house from the show. You played as a generic kid, and you could change your race or clothes by hitting the trigger buttons. If you walked into the living room, you could find Randy Marsh in his underwear, playing
Guitar Hero. If you went to the kitchen, you could pick up a spatula, which would then transform into an axe that you could use to smash things."
Seems like a wise use of your time to make a prototype game for free, for a product that seems really unlikely to be a success and is unlike anything you are known for, especially from black isle days which is your gimmick. I guess maybe they had hit rock bottom by then. Too bad they didn't spend time to make prototype of a real RPG of their own IP instead. I guess these software companies fly by night but it seems like a crazy way to work. They always seem to be starting from scratch on every game with no focus at all and no library development - they use a different engine every time and how is south park RPG stuff going to be used for something else?
And dear god, why is that "hard to resist" and not "an ungodly abomination"? Why? I like SP but there's just no demand for this, is there?
We're too good to make BG III for less than 25 million! We're too good for star trek, too! Whoops, now we have no funding at all, maybe if we work for free a while to get a demo together we can get this other fallback gig. Guess we have no choice now. Not to mention the lousy deal with F:NV that probably meant they made no profit at all just paid the rent and salaries for the time of development (hopefully). Doesn't seem like good business but who knows.
This is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever read about a veteran game development studio.
