Game News Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky's new game at Obsidian is being published by Take-Two Interactive

[StrongBelwas]

Yeah, with Tyranny we got an excellent idea of what Obsidian is capable of without Sawyer messing things up.

 

[Blaine]

Yeah, with Tyranny we got an excellent idea of what Obsidian is capable of without Sawyer messing things up.

Hopefully, he pulls another Van Buren soon:

Black Isle Studios will be losing one of its best and brightest on November 21 when J.E. Sawyer will leave the studio. Sawyer had been a driving force behind the Icewind Dale series and had recently taken over as lead designer of Van Buren, Black Isle's code name for Fallout 3. Sawyer announced the departure on the Black Isle forums, saying "I apologize to those who may be disappointed by my decision and congratulate those who rejoice at it." As to the reasons for his leaving, Sawyer gave this answer to GameSpot: "I am reluctant to publicly give those reasons, but I would like to say that it is not for personal or medical reasons."

Sawyer's departure came as a shock to those following Fallout 3's development. An avid poster on the BIS forums, he had put up an enthusiastic message gushing about the game's nonplayer character AI just 15 hours before his resignation announcement. Shortly after he took over as lead, Sawyer pledged his devotion to the project in another message, saying "If I abandon my team, I don't know if I'd be able to respect myself." He went on to say that he had wanted to work on the third installment in the sci-fi role-playing series since 1999--the year after Fallout 2 was released--and said he'd persevere despite receiving negative feedback. "If I didn't think the trade-off was worth it, I wouldn't still be around," said Sawyer.

Now that the trade-off is no longer worth it, rumors are running rampant about the future of Fallout 3. (Namely, does it have one?) Although the game has not even been officially announced, it became one of Black Isle's most hotly anticipated PC titles after the studio shelved Jefferson, its next Forgotten Realms game. As of press time, Black Isle had not assigned a new lead designer to the game, its third so far this year. Sawyer, though, was quick to back his soon-to-be-former coworkers, saying the reason he left was "not because I have any lack of faith in the people on my team at Black Isle."

So what's next for Sawyer? Although there was some speculation that he would join other former Black Isle workers at Obsidian Entertainment, the designer told GameSpot he's taking some time off from the RPG industry. "I've been trying to work on hardcore PC RPGs for the past three years, and it just hasn't been panning out," he said. "I need to try something else for the next few years before I dive back in."

So what is that next "something?" Sawyer demurred with one of the strangest responses on record: "Imagine a basketball player and a shoe salesman getting together to go on the road with [a] vaudeville show, and you should have a good idea of the 'what' factor involved." Sawyer may have lost his job, but at least he hasn't lost his sense of humor.

He's a literal hack. I have no idea how he got to be in charge over there or why some Codexers STILL worship him. Perhaps he walked in on one of the senior developers at the time molesting a child while collecting the office trash? Who knows?

 

[Infinitron]

Josh Sawyer is the Design Director of the entire studio now so he's involved with everything, not going anywhere and you're an out-of-touch goober

 

[Roguey]

He's a literal hack. I have no idea how he got to be in charge over there or why some Codexers STILL worship him. Perhaps he walked in on one of the senior developers at the time molesting a child while collecting the office trash? Who knows?

I don't hate you JE, but you just seem like a tricky dicky.

I would have to be the smoothest operator in the world to dupe multiple teams/companies into making me a lead designer in spite of apparent incompetence.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, anyway I guess some people have forgotten they were mad about geometric shapes, but we do have two long years ahead of us.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Last chance, Obsidian. No pressure.

 

[Kron]

Obsidian and its devs are way past their expiration date guys, let it go...

The child developer is grown old.
The dream is gone.

 

[Sentinel]

Obsidian and its devs are way past their expiration date guys, let it go...

The child developer is grown old.
The dream is gone.

and I have become comfortably numb

 

[Blaine]

Josh Sawyer is the Design Director of the entire studio now so he's involved with everything, not going anywhere and you're an out-of-touch goober

Being out of touch with decline and hack developers (or worse, developers who've lost their touch) is a fine place to be, a concept that will probably forever elude you. This isn't surprising, since your role as a preternaturally devoted news-bot requires you to be in the know. You serve as a nice buffer so that I don't have to. I've always appreciated your services and relative impartiality, although I'm continually mystified by your indiscriminate tastes in terms of personally supporting just about anything that rolls down the pipeline, even when it's quite obviously decline.

After Pillars of Eternity hit v1.0—sporting absolutely all of the issues that I'd predicted based on Sawyer's ramblings and musings, and some that I wouldn't even have been able to guess—I wrote off Obsidian the same way I wrote off inXile. No, I haven't autistically checked newsfeeds all day long, nor followed the relevant threads for months and years at a stretch, but certain things do ping my radar from time to time.

Keeping up with all of this nonsense is your avocation, and hopefully you'll bot me some good cRPG-related news in the near or distant future. This current news item will be received by most with heavy reservations and guarded half-hope, because 2012-2017 taught everyone (well, almost everyone) some important lessons about curbing their enthusiasm.

 

[Black]

Remember: no hope.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Every single game Tim's been involved with was good, so no worries here.

 

[Roguey]

Every single game Tim's been involved with was good, so no worries here.

Even the gay MMO?

 

[Black]

Every single game Tim's been involved with was good, so no worries here.

Wildstar?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

This is not about faith in Sawyer or Obsidian (although I like both, but to be fair I waited eighteen months to play Pillars so I don’t know what the earlier versions were like). It’s about faith in Tim and Leonard, who haven’t been at Obsidian for very long, and certainly had nothing to do with Pillars. Also, it sounds like the publisher is pushing Obsidian to let T&L do their own thing—you didn’t see any Feargus in that announcement video.

I don’t know what their track record was like after the Troika band broke up and they went to work for more mainstream developers separately, but when these guys worked together they made Fallout, Arcanum, ToEE and VtM: Bloodlines. If you can’t trust them to make a good RPG, who the hell can you trust?

 

[Roguey]

It’s about faith in Tim and Leonard, who haven’t been at Obsidian for very long, and certainly had nothing to do with Pillars.

Tim was a programmer on Pillars and provided feedback with regard to its systems.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

It’s about faith in Tim and Leonard, who haven’t been at Obsidian for very long, and certainly had nothing to do with Pillars.

Tim was a programmer on Pillars and provided feedback with regard to its systems.

I stand corrected, although it doesn’t sound like he had a major role. I guess only Leonard is that new. Maybe he’s the brains behind the dynamic duo. But again, they’ve made some of the greatest games of all time together, even if some of them were buggy as hell. Not once have Tim and Leonard made something lousy while working together. Maybe this is their chance to blow it, but I suspect it will be good.

 

[Zombra]

You goobers are guaranteed to dislike whatever they make because you're useless contrarians.

Finally, a contrarian opinion on the Codex about how everyone else here is contrarian. Real original, kid.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

While I have fears, I really want this to be good. Want to hear more info as well.

 

[Kev Inkline]

 

[Fairfax]

He's a literal hack. I have no idea how he got to be in charge over there or why some Codexers STILL worship him. Perhaps he walked in on one of the senior developers at the time molesting a child while collecting the office trash? Who knows?

I don't hate you JE, but you just seem like a tricky dicky.

I would have to be the smoothest operator in the world to dupe multiple teams/companies into making me a lead designer in spite of apparent incompetence.

Well, he's not wrong. He didn't dupe multiple teams/companies, only Feargus.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

He's a literal hack. I have no idea how he got to be in charge over there or why some Codexers STILL worship him. Perhaps he walked in on one of the senior developers at the time molesting a child while collecting the office trash? Who knows?

I don't hate you JE, but you just seem like a tricky dicky.

I would have to be the smoothest operator in the world to dupe multiple teams/companies into making me a lead designer in spite of apparent incompetence.

Well, he's not wrong. He didn't dupe multiple teams/companies, only Feargus.

I don’t understand all the Sawyer hate. I mean, I wouldn’t want to hang out with the guy (EVER), but even if you hate Pillars, New Vegas was his baby. 50/50 ain’t bad. And I’d call it more like 75/25.

Also, I’ll say this for Josh: maybe he screws up from time to time, but at least he’s still taking the lead on big projects. When was the last time the sainted MCA took the lead on something? Josh does the damn work, Chris has been coasting for years.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

As always, my policy with "crpgs"

No TB. No Buy.


Being the sissy cuck that Obsidian has been about Turn Based systems, I doubt this publisher funded decline will have anything to do with TB.

Infinitron can you confirm whether this new project will be a Twitcher clone or an abominable transgendered RTWP ?

 

[Fairfax]

He's a literal hack. I have no idea how he got to be in charge over there or why some Codexers STILL worship him. Perhaps he walked in on one of the senior developers at the time molesting a child while collecting the office trash? Who knows?

I don't hate you JE, but you just seem like a tricky dicky.

I would have to be the smoothest operator in the world to dupe multiple teams/companies into making me a lead designer in spite of apparent incompetence.

Well, he's not wrong. He didn't dupe multiple teams/companies, only Feargus.

I don’t understand all the Sawyer hate. I mean, I wouldn’t want to hang out with the guy (EVER), but even if you hate Pillars, New Vegas was his baby. 50/50 ain’t bad. And I’d call it more like 75/25.

Also, I’ll say this for Josh: maybe he screws up from time to time, but at least he’s still taking the lead on big projects. When was the last time the sainted MCA took the lead on something? Josh does the damn work, Chris has been coasting for years.

Whatever one thinks of him, what I said is still true. The only person he had to convince to give him leading roles all these years was Feargus.

As for the "hate", it's fairly straightforward. It comes down to what one thinks of his work, especially PoE, which is the project where he had the most freedom, influence and time make the game as he wanted.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Whatever one thinks of him, what I said is still true. The only person he had to convince to give him leading roles all these years was Feargus.

As for the "hate", it's fairly straightforward. It comes down to what one thinks of his work, especially PoE, which is the project where he had the most freedom, influence and time make the game as he wanted.

Feargus may be the CEO, but I doubt he owns a controlling interest. For such a high level position he probably had to get some
of the other partners on board.

PoE just wasn’t that bad, especially after all the patching. It had a definite whiff of mediocrity, but I don’t know how much of that was Sawyer and how much was trying to fulfill the all the nostalgia induced Kickstarter promises. Maybe I give him too much credit though. I’d certainly rather punch myself in the face than play IWD2.

 

[Jaesun]

It won't be turn-based. Monkeys will suddenly fly out of my ass before that happens.

I'm expecting something more along the lines of Bloodlines (action RPG).

But we shall see.........