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[proandrad]

They just didn't look appealing to the demographic of people who buy video games. Avowed looked weirdly colorful and outerworlds 2 came across as politically correct slop humor. Both games lacked edge. Crazy this was the same studio that made Stick of Truth.

 

[Paasei]

Haven't played either of them. The static NPC's in Avowed are immersion breakers. First Outer Worlds nothing really mattered when it comes to choices. Your followers stuck with you either way.

Can't even put in the same care in world building as in New Vegas, and they fucking made that game in a year. I don't require them to surpass it, but I do ask it to match it.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

They were gone. John Gonzalez left to Guerrilla but now he's back.

then they need to go the derrick zoolander center for kids who need to learn how to write good again and do other stuff good too

 

[Fess]

I disagree. While GP is important to MS, MS no doubt still expects the games from their studios to sell well outside of it. And there are lot of examples of games that do release on GP and still post very good numbers on Steam.
Plus, if a game fails outside of GP, there is very high likelihood that it also failed to move GP subscriber needle in any meaningful way.

If it's important for real to sell games they really shouldn't have them on Gamepass... I'm not joking here, buying games for me is now as rare as buying music CDs or TV-show boxes. Actually it's more rare. With music CDs and Blu-ray movies I at least get higher quality. I like that. But if I purchase games, what exactly do I get??? It's the same game, the same quality, available the same date

They can't go around thinking that 40 or whatever million subscribers downloading a game on Gamepass is a failure and then close down studios for not selling enough games. Then they need to have Gamepass exclusives or something, so the subscription count definitely go up from big releases, and through that pull in more subscription money.

 

[ByWatterson]

If I want half-baked RPGs replete with "THE MESSAGE" in all of the art choices, I'll play D&D.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Over six years per game and they still released turds. Even replacing the writers wouldn't be enough.

I think the fact that 3 different projects ended in the same year is actually going to work against them now. It's going to be much easier to let go of the studio (or parts of it) if their next big project will be years away.

 

[Fess]

They will have to make their games in Creation Engine. Would love to see that.

Instantly will be a massive upgrade in so many things.

I don't think there is a limitation in Unreal Engine regarding physics, interactivity, life, etc. It's just a design philosophy. And they must know that in 2025 you can't have a merchant npc standing on the same spot day and night waiting for the player to walk up to them and press A, and have no reaction if you whack a sword in their counter or steal everything on their table. The immersion is instantly lost.

 

[CowboyLou]

Days of New Vegas and KOTOR 2 and Alpha Protocol seem to be long gone. I hope I am wrong though.

All the writers and devs responsible for those flawed gems have either burned out, sold out, were forced out of the company via backstabbing, were chased out of the industry via false allegations, or some combination of the above.

Of course it's not just the personalities that matter, but also the non-replicable 'environmental factors' which include the current zeitgeist, mass culture and general life experience. Which is why all the "industry legends" who had their day aren't being replaced by equally talented visionaries.

 

[March Climber]

I think relying too heavily on humor is the issue with The Outer Worlds I.P. I have no comments about Avowed because I haven't played it yet.

However, I think in general more earnest writing is needed again in certain AAA dev studios to balance out the jokes.

Humor struggles being funny if no one is serious.

 

[Seomel]

Avowed - ass
TOW2 - ass
Grounded - ok(kids game so cant push stupid woke shit)
Pentiment was cool

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

I dont think better marketing would improve sales much at all.

The games dont resonate with gamers. Grounded, Avowed or Outer Worlds are all games that have a odd combo or being too quirky/DEI-ish/cartoony. But if you look at their earlier games you had better and gritter adventure/RPG games like SW, NWN, Fallout Vegas.

Very similar to Bioware changing from their old gritty RPGs to modern games Mass Effect Andromeda and Veilguard.

Its because they are trying to appeal to a broader audience now and they think the gritter style isn't going to do that.

 

[PeteBull]

Like many saying here, make more games like fallout new vegas and kotor2, gritty, brutal, dark, catering specifically to hetero male audience, we want good believable writing and character models that arent DEI, no bossbabes since those are only allowed to exist/act like that durning peaceful times in modern day western countries.

Wanna have good sales numbers- make sure ppl who buy AAA games on launch aka heterosexual males are hyped for ur game, not some 1% decepticons, not women, u want male gaze, and a lot of it
On the other hand u can "own the chuds" and experience studio layoffs/clousure, like always

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Both Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 Underperformed and its been confirmed we aren't getting a 3rd game. Which begs the question; what game would we like to see next from Obsidian and why is it Fallout New Vegas 2?

 

[KanKamAndNob]

Same with Compulsion.

 

[foamdino]

Pentiment is the best game they've put out in years (and to be honest it's more of a really good story than a "game" in a traditional sense). Avowed is a travesty given that we should have had Pillars 3.

 

[StueyDuck]

(says muffled under breath) They've never really been a great studio to begin with; they've had great writers sometimes, that's about it. Stick of truth is really the only genuinely great thing they've made.

 

[RoboFu]

Avowed was originally a multiplayer game? That explains a lot.