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Chris Avellone has left Obsidian Entertainment

I have a hard time imaging him going to inXile. Why go from a mid-sized independent developer where you're COO and part-owner to another mid-sized independent developer which is smaller and, frankly, less talented, and where you'll have less influence?
 
Why? He didn't really write any of it in the first place from what we've heard.

Curious to see where he goes. He is a co-founder of Obsidian so I would assume he owns some major share of the company. If he is going to another company I wonder what exactly they can offer him compared to the company he's part owner of.

He wrote Durance and Grieving Mother, unsurprisingly the two most interesting companions. But in general he did not write a lot on PoE, yeah.
 

Nairume

Banned
I think I actually wouldn't mind if he ended up somewhere like Telltale.

I'd *love* to see him work on an adventure game where all of his creative energy can go entirely to world/character building and storytelling.
 

Par Score

Member
He's been involved with some of my favourite ever games, so I hope he ends up somewhere that values his talents and lets him use them to their fullest.
 

Durante

Member
I have a hard time imaging him going to inXile. Why go from a mid-sized independent developer where you're COO and part-owner to another mid-sized independent developer which is smaller and, frankly, less talented, and where you'll have less influence?
Yeah, that's why I'm afraid he might be leaving gaming.

Why? He didn't really write any of it in the first place from what we've heard.
Actually, he conceptualized (and mostly wrote) the two companion characters which are also easily my favourites. It's pretty obvious when you play the game.
 

Zolo

Member
This sounds more like he's leaving the gaming industry to maybe pursue book-writing or something.
 

Sendero

Member
That's out of blue.

I mean, doubt he will ever really be fully separated of Obsidian, since think he is a co-founder. But without his name, selling future kickstarter projects will be harder for them

Wonder the reasons, and his immediate future.
 

Guri

Member
I think he was hinting at this a few days ago, so I'm not really surprised. Hope he goes somewhere cool.
 

Nairume

Banned
I have a hard time imaging him going to inXile. Why go from a mid-sized independent developer where you're COO and part-owner to another mid-sized independent developer which is smaller and, frankly, less talented, and where you'll have less influence?
Could be that there's something going on at Obsidian that would make inXile more appealing.

As it stands, inXile is definitely smaller, but I could also easily see them being in a much more stable position.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Fuuuuuuccckkkkk

14765038519_57ebdd785f_o.gif
 

Riposte

Member
This doesn't bode well for Obsidian. I want another game like Alpha Protocol.

I think I actually wouldn't mind if he ended up somewhere like Telltale.

I'd *love* to see him work on an adventure game where all of his creative energy can go entirely to world/character building and storytelling.

Does Telltale even make adventure games anymore? Avellone would be held back by their lack of commit to decisions and consequences.
 

krYlon

Member
I'd be willing for Torment to be delayed another couple of years if it meant Avellone playing a greater role in the project.
 

dorkkaos

Member
Defense against the dark arts? I guess something bad is happening to him soon. I just hope it's not the rape by centaurs bad.
 

_Clash_

Member
Only had a quarter of his final character "grieving mother" make it into PoE. Whatever he wanted for her full story was beyond the scope and tone of PoE.
 

epmode

Member
I suspect that he's headed to inXile, at least judging from his comments about his ideas for an upcoming game. This is weird.
 

duckroll

Member
Avellone is clearly leaving Obsidian to pursue his life-long dream of being a professional Kickstarter stretch goal.
 
I have a hard time imaging him going to inXile. Why go from a mid-sized independent developer where you're COO and part-owner to another mid-sized independent developer which is smaller and, frankly, less talented, and where you'll have less influence?

They do have a pipeline of working on games they want to work on though - Wasteland 2 -> Torment -> The Bard's Tale 4
That might be pretty enticing. I don't know what obsidian's plans future plans are though. Are they going back to kickstarter or doing more for-hire work?
 

epmode

Member
As someone else said already, I just don't see it. Has to be either a big developer/publisher thing or something non-gaming related.

He's made comments about inXile recently. I wish I could remember the interview but I just read it in the last week.

I agree that it doesn't make much sense on the surface.

Edit: Found the article. See my post below.
 

duckroll

Member
You know, considering Avellone's output on Obsidian projects versus non-Obsidian projects in the last few years, one would think he left the company ages ago! :p
 

epmode

Member
Oh here, an article about inXile picking up the Van Buren trademark: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-08-inxile-fallout-van-buren-trademark

I spoke to Fargo recently, however, and he had more to say - implying he intends to make something Van Buren with Chris Avellone, if and when inXile has time. (Avellone retains close ties to inXile, having been involved in Wasteland 2 and, now, Torment: Tides of Numenera.)

I asked if Fargo was doing anything with the Van Buren trademark. "Not yet," he replied. "But there were some things, some ideas, that Chris Avellone had for doing something that made the post-apoc - a twist on the whole what-was-being-done that we really loved. So we talked about it and we thought why not grab the rights so we can entertain this one of these days.

"But nothing now," he stressed. "We have enough on our plate to be doing that right this second."

[Avellone clarified, in a tweet sent after this story first appeared, that Brian Fargo had already secured the Van Buren trademark before he and Fargo talked. "But we chatted about Van Buren (VB first iteration), yes!" he said.]
 

Instro

Member
Only things I can think is that he is either done in the industry or wants to do a kickstarter game that he has complete control over. Otherwise there isn't much of a reason to leave his current position.
 
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