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Obsidian open to being bought by another company, talks independent dev pains
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Was thinking the same thing - ever since that all they been doing is just about surviving. I cant see an (amicable) future for them without some significant change.
ps3ud0 8)
I would actually play the shit out of that
Microsoft - god no. Multiplayer aspect forced in (ms does not seek to like sp games. Hell, look what they wanted to do with fable before cancelling it). Plus they seem to be good at forcing a dev to do one ip and running the dev to the ground.
Ubisoft - similar issues as with ms at least about wanting mp and microtransactions. Besides they are in real danger of being bought out by a company most seem to agree is horrible with games.
I personally would like Sony, CDPR, or Bethesda (I'm biased towards the last cause I really want another Obsidian fallout. Especially with the fallout 4 engine. I'd love to see something like 4's gameplay with a much more focus on real rpg).
Ubisoft - similar issues as with ms at least about wanting mp and microtransactions. Besides they are in real danger of being bought out by a company most seem to agree is horrible with games.
I personally would like Sony, CDPR, or Bethesda (I'm biased towards the last cause I really want another Obsidian fallout. Especially with the fallout 4 engine. I'd love to see something like 4's gameplay with a much more focus on real rpg).
Lets see... Of all possible publishers that could buy Obsidian, the only ones that would allow them keep their independence are:
Sega
Ubisoft (unless they get bought by Vivendi)
Paradox
Dunno about Nintendo and Bethesda. The former doesn't seem interested in releasing games like Obsidian does, plus they would keep their game on Nintendo consoles only and Bethesda... They have done well with ID, and certainly, they can use Obsidian for release a more refined experience to any Fallout or Elder Scrolls game they release. But I would Obsidian to also continue making new IPs. Pillars of Eternity was a superb game.
CDPR seems also a good choice, but dunno if they are willing to buy studios.
Sega
Ubisoft (unless they get bought by Vivendi)
Paradox
Dunno about Nintendo and Bethesda. The former doesn't seem interested in releasing games like Obsidian does, plus they would keep their game on Nintendo consoles only and Bethesda... They have done well with ID, and certainly, they can use Obsidian for release a more refined experience to any Fallout or Elder Scrolls game they release. But I would Obsidian to also continue making new IPs. Pillars of Eternity was a superb game.
CDPR seems also a good choice, but dunno if they are willing to buy studios.
Activision owns Vicarious. Telltale Games is that huge indeed.
Oh man CDPR and Obsidian together? They could make the greatest RPG ever! Now that is an inspired choice!
"Feargus notes how there's only about 10 independent developers of Obsidian's size (~100-200+ staff) left."
Which studios are those?
4A Games ~80
Obsidian 100-200
Ninja Theory 100
Platinum Games 100-200
Bohemia Interactive 100-200
Insomniac Games 200+
Avalanche Studios 200+
FromSoftware 200+
Rebellion Developments 200+
Techland 300+
With exclusive deals:
Remedy Entertainment 100-200
Quantic Dream 100-200
Big guns:
Respawn 100-200
Epic Games 200-300
Gearbox Software 200-300
Crytek 700+
Bungie 700+
This is basicly the mid-tear development currently, bar the big guns section.
Which studios are those?
4A Games ~80
Obsidian 100-200
Ninja Theory 100
Platinum Games 100-200
Bohemia Interactive 100-200
Insomniac Games 200+
Avalanche Studios 200+
FromSoftware 200+
Rebellion Developments 200+
Techland 300+
With exclusive deals:
Remedy Entertainment 100-200
Quantic Dream 100-200
Big guns:
Respawn 100-200
Epic Games 200-300
Gearbox Software 200-300
Crytek 700+
Bungie 700+
This is basicly the mid-tear development currently, bar the big guns section.
Succinct Verbosity
Member
Do Paradox not have the money to buy them? They have really strong growth potential and their market seems to be aligned with Obsidian.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
Zenimax buys them, gives them the fallout IP.
Or kills the studio like they sometimes do.
Herbspiceguy
Member
Obsidian doesn't seem like a very attractive buy does it?
There games don't scream mass market hit.
There games don't scream mass market hit.
dave is ok
aztek is ok
Valve (even though they don't develop anything anymore)
Crimsonsky
Member
One thing is for certain, this:
He also notes that Obsidian had made a lot of bad decisions with their internal development process in their historical projects. Obsidian would dive into a project without really planning out what to do and it would cause massive problems and delays, and ruin their relationship with their publishers. With few publishers available anymore, that becomes very problematic.
Can never happen again. You are dealing with millions of dollars here and no one, publisher or not, is going to like hearing that you dove head first without a plan. That's a nightmare scenario for the people in charge of the money and where it goes.
He also notes that Obsidian had made a lot of bad decisions with their internal development process in their historical projects. Obsidian would dive into a project without really planning out what to do and it would cause massive problems and delays, and ruin their relationship with their publishers. With few publishers available anymore, that becomes very problematic.
Can never happen again. You are dealing with millions of dollars here and no one, publisher or not, is going to like hearing that you dove head first without a plan. That's a nightmare scenario for the people in charge of the money and where it goes.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Sony needs an RPG studio. They have the money and definitely the resources to let Obsidian make a quality title.
LukasTaves
Member
Ms could buy them and fill the void Bioware left in their lineup (Not exactly pursuing clones of bioware games, just have a western rpg studio)
That would be ideal. With BGS supposedly wanting to put out a couple of new projects before even getting around to ES6 the Fallout IP will be dormant for a long time unless they farm it out to another developer.
Yep. MCA had an interview where he pretty much said Alpha Protocol's development went just like this. He came in midway and tried to salvage it. A shame, there was some huge potential there.
Obsidian had made a lot of bad deals, starting with them not getting KOTOR2's development extension in writing.
Sumio Mondo
Member
So they're basically the American equivalent to Platinum Games...somebody save these studios, please.
adversarial
Member
They've released some of my favorite games ever, hope everything works out for them. I'm buying the shit out of Tyranny.
Man, I'd love to see their take on a superhero RPG.
Obsidian is probably looking at BioWare as an example of what they'd like if bought by a publisher. BioWare almost went under with Mass Effect 1. Now they have 3 original IPs with multiple healthy studios and mostly well-reviewed work environments. They have an internal engine for which they get support from other internal studios. That must all sound like a dream for Obisidian, and you sacrifice what in return? Some creative freedom and a chance that if your games sell poorly you'll be shuttered; a situation which is doubly in play for Obsidian's current situation.
An interesting part of this interview is that he implies Alpha Protocol should have been cancelled, and cancelled early. I'm glad it wasn't because there are some redeeming qualities to the game but the fact that they had no idea what they wanted to make comes across clearly in the experience.
cartographer
Member
Not really, though it depends on who the potential company is. Most of the names mentioned in this thread don't make sense and I'm not sure there's many that do.
It's a large studio (expensive) in Orange County (expensive) with not a lot of (if any) significantly marketable IP or internal technology.
For the companies with enough money and desire to fund such a studio, there either isn't a need or it would be easier to just hire the talent you wanted and place them in an internal studio (or open a new internal studio if you really wanted to).
If one of their IPs takes off then things could change. But they will likely be at this point for a while. Thank the heavens for their Armored Warfare work since it seems like that's giving them a lot of life.
No thanks to Obsidian being stuck on Fallout. What a waste of their talents.
Also lol at the Nintendo suggestions. What would Nintendo gain by purchasing a developer that mostly makes PC-centric games? Same with SIE.
You forgot Telltale. FromSoftware is not independent. They're owned by Kadokawa. Also Epic is owned 48% by Tencent.
Also lol at the Nintendo suggestions. What would Nintendo gain by purchasing a developer that mostly makes PC-centric games? Same with SIE.
You forgot Telltale. FromSoftware is not independent. They're owned by Kadokawa. Also Epic is owned 48% by Tencent.
Aces&Eights
Member
This is the crux of any small to medium sized business failing. Business 101 teaches you to always go into a large, costly project as prepared as you can be and with backup measures in place. It sounds like they just skipped pre-production and told everyone to start coding. What manager/Lead doesn't have their team prepared for a long, expensive endeavor?
I wish them the best. My first Obsidian experience was with Fallout New Vegas and I thought it was fantastic.
I know we've had our differences with Dragon Age: Inquisition, but by following the BioWare route, they'd be sacrificing everything that made RPG enthusiasts hold their games in such high regard. Going from Baldur's Gate 2 to Dragon Age: Inquisition isn't the kind of change I'm looking for in Obsidian.
Paradox is probably the best fit for them. Basically, a publisher who focuses on PC, and isn't primarily out for the mainstream audience.
I think it would be hard to find a company Obsidian burned bridges more with than Sega.
Didn't he explain that exact same situation in the article?
I think you may have missed a couple of games in that timeline, including DA:O the game who's development hell is the reason they're a division of EA in the first place.
I believe it's been said that Tyranny emerged from the ashes of the project that they were working on for Microsoft.
Disney just basically shut down their entire internal gaming operation. If Disney bought them, they'd be dead within 3 years.
Double Fine
Valve?
BG2 to DA:O is still quite the downgrade though. Stuff like DA:O are not what fans want from Obsidian.
It wasn't a timeline. The point was that the sacrifices of being bought out are significant, and historically, either the studio gets dissolved shortly after, or becomes a husk of their former selves. I don't want to see Obsidian's RPGs turn into shallow mainstream games.
Read the thread and Nirolak's posts
exmachina64
Banned
Paradox has approximately two hundred employees and revenue of approximately 70 million last year.
CD Projekt (the owner of CD Projekt Red) has approximately three hundred employees, revenue of approximately 200 million dollars last year, and profit of approximately 86 million dollars last year.
Neither of these companies is in a position to buy Obsidian as-is.
CD Projekt (the owner of CD Projekt Red) has approximately three hundred employees, revenue of approximately 200 million dollars last year, and profit of approximately 86 million dollars last year.
Neither of these companies is in a position to buy Obsidian as-is.
Cave Johnson
Member
Sony. You're up. I need some AAA goodness from Obsidian.
That all depends on the publisher obviously, but I don't want to see Obsidian get bought out either and I'm kinda disappointed the thread turned into to some weird fantasy draft.
I'd also argue that Alpha Protocol is shallow by design,
I don't care how you good you think dialogue options are it's not a particularly deep stealth/action rpg.
Or a good one.
lightskintwin
Banned
First time I've heard of this, yet alone seen any footage. You can tell either that same engine was used and/or a lot of those animations were recycled for Alpha Protocol.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
"This UWA thing really went belly up huh? Lets pinkslip hundreds like with the One."