Support NeoGAF

Nirolak · Sep 10, 2017

I thought I would split this off to its own thread since it has two interesting implications:
1.) They're one of the only publishers going out of their way to sign mid-sized or larger independent studios, which is something they had seemingly been cutting back on.
2.) It sounds like they are even approaching studios they previously canceled games with, even as recently as this generation.

Eurogamer said:
As for Obsidian and Microsoft, whatever bridges were burned now sound repaired, and Urquhart maintains contact. He even says - in response to a question about how hard it is for independent developers to find work today, in an age where publishers do so much more internally - "Microsoft is looking..." which bodes very well.

Currently, however, Obsidian's hands are full, the 175-person studio occupied across four and a half projects: the Tyranny expansion, Pillars of Eternity 2, a small Pathfinder card game, a small idea the studio is "spinning up" and a considerable something else. And I'll tell you a bit more about that next week as well.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...n-raid-obsidians-cancelled-xbox-one-exclusive

Maintenance · Sep 10, 2017

Steverulez · Sep 10, 2017

I hope they have some exciting stuff coming but are there even many of these sorts of independent studios around that aren't already busy to work with?

Heckler456 · Sep 10, 2017

Am I reading that right? Are we getting news on whatever big thing they're working on next week?

Nightengale · Sep 10, 2017

Maintenance said:
Goddamnit.

PUBG dev buyout incoming.

Hire =/= buy

LordOfLore · Sep 10, 2017

Heckler456 said:
Am I reading that right? Are we getting news on whatever big thing they're working on next week?

Yes, but it won't be a full reveal. That's for 2018.

Interficium · Sep 10, 2017

sounds like a plan that would have worked better last generation when mid-sized studios still existed.

Zukkoyaki · Sep 10, 2017

Seeking mid-sized devs around 50 people like Armature and Undead Labs to fill their line-up is the direction many of us figured they were/have been going in.

Interficium said:
sounds like a plan that would have worked better last generation when mid-sized studios still existed.

The indie revolution and digital distribution have resulted in quite a few developers of like 20-50 finding their footing this generation.

FelipeMGM · Sep 10, 2017

Maintenance said:
Goddamnit.

PUBG dev buyout incoming.

Hiring, not buying it

Primus · Sep 10, 2017

Heckler456 said:
Am I reading that right? Are we getting news on whatever big thing they're working on next week?

Probably not a lot, but maybe we'll actually get a genre for the first time.

Bits N Pieces · Sep 10, 2017

Looking forward to seeing what they have to show. Wonder how far out these projects are?

Finaj · Sep 10, 2017

Well, I certainly hope so. Microsoft's behavior in the last year made me think that is scaling down (to the point that MS exiting the video games industry seemed plausible for a moment there).

I hope they do better and inspire actual competition.

Raide · Sep 10, 2017

Bluehole sounds like the first one they will hire/buy.

TheHolyTurnip · Sep 10, 2017

Scalebound 2 incoming

Nightengale · Sep 10, 2017

Raide said:
Bluehole sounds like the first one they will hire/buy.

Bluehole sounds like a company that has no need to work as mercenaries for bigger publishers due to:
- they being a publisher themselves
- now in possession of two valuable and profitable IP (Tera/PUBG)
- can self-fund their own games.

Nirolak · Sep 10, 2017

Maintenance said:
Goddamnit.

PUBG dev buyout incoming.

Raide said:
Bluehole sounds like the first one they will hire/buy.

I imagine they're thinking less along the lines of $5 billion buyouts, and more along the lines of signing studios like Playground, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Gobo, Avalanche, Sumo, IO Interactive, and that kind of thing.

Dinda · Sep 10, 2017

Can't wait for Obsidian to start making shooters.....

BlackBuzzard · Sep 10, 2017

Raide said:
Bluehole sounds like the first one they will hire/buy.

They declined Tencent doubt ms could do better.

Nightengale · Sep 10, 2017

Nirolak said:
I imagine they're thinking less along the lines of $5 billion buyouts, and more along the lines of signing studios like Playground, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Gobo, Avalanche, Sumo, and that kind of thing.

Nothing has changed really about this, despite what you thought.

If we trace back Xbox lineup of announcements, working with mid-to-large indie devs on both new external projects and existing franchise spin-offs has always been their staple approach. Even with lesser announcements now, this is still true for MS 1P.

Neptonic · Sep 10, 2017

IT'S A TRAP
GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN

Nirolak · Sep 10, 2017

Nightengale said:
Nothing has changed really about this, despite what you thought.

If we trace back Xbox lineup of announcements, working with mid-to-large indie devs on both new external projects and existing franchise spin-offs has always been their staple approach. Even with lesser announcements now, this is still true for MS 1P.

I feel they had stopped picking up new independent studios and only continuing with the ones they had as they cut back.

Sumo, Playground, and Undead Labs are old relationships, and Armature is a bit smaller than mid-sized.

Meanwhile Insomniac, Platinum, Obsidian, Crytek, and Remedy had all been dropped.

Jaded Alyx · Sep 10, 2017

Finally, Scalebound 2

KingBroly · Sep 10, 2017

An Obsidian-made Fable game would be pretty sweet, tbh.

Nightengale · Sep 10, 2017

Nirolak said:
I feel they had stopped picking up new independent studios and only continuing with the ones they had as they cut back.

Sumo, Playground, and Undead Labs are old relationships, and Armature is a bit smaller than mid-sized.

Meanwhile Insomniac, Crytek, Obsidian, and Remedy had all been dropped.

Partnerships isn't just about individual games, it's also about supporting existing projects.

Splash Damage for Gears 4/Ultimate. Adobo on Recore. Ruffian/Sumo on Crackdown. And now Creative/Relic for HW2/AoE4.

In terms of quantity of mid-sized studios working on MS projects, the number of games are lower but MS has always continued hiring them for different projects.

Goalus · Sep 10, 2017

IMHO the cancellations were part of necessary cleanup duties Phil and Satya had to perform after Ballmer's sacking. The way the projects were set up probably didn't fit Microsoft's new strategy and therefore couldn't be carried on. I know Obsidian's game had been canceled even before when Ballmer was still CEO, but during that time MS was clearly lacking focus and vision - which ultimately led to Ballmer's departure and is therefore even further proving my point. It's just relieving to learn that they indeed plan on expanding their 1st-party efforts. Since these are 100% Phil's projects, I can see them succeed.

STEaMkb · Sep 10, 2017

NolbertoS · Sep 10, 2017

FelipeMGM said:
Hiring, not buying it

Knowing how MS is getting killed inthere 1st party studios output, wouldn't least surprise me if they buy out Obsidian so they can help them revive Scalebound and Fable franchises

Gen.Grievous · Sep 10, 2017

Sorry but Obsidian is already working on a FO title.

pls be true

Sponge · Sep 10, 2017

Maintenance said:
Goddamnit.

PUBG dev buyout incoming.

I'm sick of Microsoft buying out studios.

It never goes well.

Lichter · Sep 10, 2017

Well regarding their poor line-up I'm not surprised that their main focus now is to produce games.

Van Bur3n · Sep 10, 2017

And then Microsoft cancels their game.

SlipperyFishes · Sep 10, 2017

Dinda said:
Can't wait for Obsidian to start making shooters.....

You say this like Microsoft have a disproportionate number of shooters to other platforms. They really don't.

Sponge said:
I'm sick of Microsoft buying out studios.

It never goes well.

...Minecraft?

Nirolak · Sep 10, 2017

Nightengale said:
Partnerships isn't just about individual games, it's also about supporting existing projects.

Splash Damage for Gears 4/Ultimate. Adobo on Recore. Ruffian/Sumo on Crackdown. And now Creative/Relic for HW2/AoE4.

In terms of quantity of mid-sized studios working on MS projects, the number of games are lower but MS has always continued hiring them for different projects.

With the exception of the Sega studios (which are going tone much more stable than actual independent studios), that's pretty normal for anyone who doesn't have Ubisoftian sized teams. Microsoft mainly sticks out in treating the studios well enough to credit them.

Handing an entire project over is what tends to be rarer these days.

SomedayTheFire · Sep 10, 2017

Sponge said:
I'm sick of Microsoft buying out studios.

It never goes well.

There's nothing about "buying" anything here.

Pie and Beans · Sep 10, 2017

Who wouldn't trust their studios future with Microsoft's short termism?!

*a metre long receipt starts printing out of the machine*

Cranster · Sep 10, 2017

Sponge said:
I'm sick of Microsoft buying out studios.

It never goes well.

Yeah, Bungie went to shit when Microsoft bought them out! s/

Zukkoyaki · Sep 10, 2017

Pie and Beans said:
Who wouldn't trust their studios future with Microsoft's short termism?!

*a metre long receipt starts printing out of the machine*

Honestly, pretty much any decent size independent studio looking for funding. It's often either that or shutting down. I'm not a dev but from what I've heard from people and read regarding dev-publisher relations, you don't turn down publishing deals unless a better offer is out there.

Juan · Sep 10, 2017

What does it mean when "hiring" a studio? Is this like they (Microsoft) have a project in mind and are looking for devs to bring this idea to life into a video game, or are they looking for studios with ideas but no budget yet to create games they (the studios) wanted to make?

Forsaken82 · Sep 10, 2017

Sponge said:
I'm sick of Microsoft buying out studios.

It never goes well.

If you ignore Rare, Mojang, Bungie (5 Halo games and eventually allowed to go about their own business, sounds pretty awesome for a studio that at that point was not considered independent), and Black Tusk/The Coalition (they may not even be around any more if they went ahead with that espionage shooter concept), than sure... it never goes well..

And I know youll bring up "What has rare done" they are still very much a live and about to launch their most anticipated title since PD0

FelipeMGM · Sep 10, 2017

NolbertoS said:
Knowing how MS is getting killed inthere 1st party studios output, wouldn't least surprise me if they buy out Obsidian so they can help them revive Scalebound and Fable franchises

Maybe. Obsidian has hinted in the past that wouldnt be too averse of being bought

but thats not what this piece is indicating

Zukkoyaki · Sep 10, 2017

FelipeMGM said:
Maybe. Obsidian has hinted in the past that wouldnt be too averse of being bought

If Obsidian were smaller, I think they would have been snatched up by now. But operating a near 200-man studio in the bay area is crazy expensive and risky; particularly one that doesn't have a great track record of financial success.

Goalus · Sep 10, 2017

Forsaken82 said:
If you ignore Rare, Mojang, Bungie (5 Halo games and eventually allowed to go about their own business, sounds pretty awesome for a studio that at that point was not considered independent), and Black Tusk/The Coalition (they may not even be around any more if they went ahead with that espionage shooter concept), than sure... it never goes well..

And I know youll bring up "What has rare done" they are still very much a live and about to launch their most anticipated title since PD0

You forgot Bizarre - which were great under MS and went bankrupt under Activision afterwards. Surely Microsoft is to blame here... hahahaha

kadotsu · Sep 10, 2017

Is this really a change when we already have Crackdown 3 being developed by Sumo, Recore by Amature, Quantum Break by Remedy, Rise by Crytek etc?

oti · Sep 10, 2017

Exciting!

RPGamer92 · Sep 10, 2017

Please don't all be GaaS games. Give single-player some love.

Bits N Pieces · Sep 10, 2017

I wonder if this relates to Phil's comment a while back about signing some new projects?

Trago · Sep 10, 2017

Hmm, so devs like Gearbox, Insomniac, Platinum, Crytek, etc.

Sounds exciting! Fund those games MS.

Xumbrega · Sep 10, 2017

Perfect Dark by IO Interactive

please

peppers · Sep 10, 2017

This thread proves that MS/Xbox can do no right in the eyes of some.

This is literally a sign of things to come (that Phil Spencer quote saying they just greenlit an exclusive around E3 should be true then). Hopefully this year's situation doesn't happen ever again.

Crankshaft · Sep 10, 2017

KingBroly said:
An Obsidian-made Fable game would be pretty sweet, tbh.

I can't picture that happening but that would be a game I would definitely buy.

Support NeoGAF

Obsidian: Microsoft looking to extern-publish [mid-to-large size] independent studios

Mrgrgr

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Mrgrgr

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Mrgrgr

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Mrgrgr

Member

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Similar threads