Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[TT1]

Come to think of it, I probably would be excited to work on Avowed, and this would last about a month. Then Carrie would call me up and give me a good old managerial go-over Or, more accurately, from Tim Cain's likely experience, she is more on the passive aggressive side of approaches.

Hey, at least now Josh can release a PnP PoE campaign parallel with the game and we can have our own Avowed the way we want it, right?

Iirc you did some modding back then. You already did your part.

For Deadfire, they said they've improved moddability by externalizing much of the data about the RPG system. This got me inspired and I hacked together a json editor, adapted to their game files, as an angular app which I hosted on a domain I bought. It took me about a week. I bet a senior developer at Obsidian could have provided that for the same amount of time, or less, and with better quality. I was mostly happy with the initial version but I eventually put it down because I couldn't support it as the patches started coming in, I just didn't have time for it. I remember TT1 actually donated to the patreon I set up for it and to this day I feel a bit sorry for taking it down. You didn't have to do it buddy!

I had lots of fun creating items for Deadfire. The modding was really easy and very intuitive, as they were basically xmls with the properties. They nailed it, but at some point I moved on to play other games and they keep releasing versions, so I had to go back and update it in the nexus every time, so I gave up.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

I thought they delayed it so it wouldn't compete with Veilguard.

I wonder what the sales impact would have been had both games dropped at the same time? I'm sure Veilguard benefited from the lack of genre competition in its release window.

 

[Tyranicon]

I thought they delayed it so it wouldn't compete with Veilguard.

I wonder what the sales impact would have been had both games dropped at the same time? I'm sure Veilguard benefited from the lack of genre competition in its release window.

I'm honestly surprised that two of the biggest names in RPGs, a very small niche, somehow ended with the same release window and didn't work it out until almost at launch.

COMPETENCE.

 

[RepHope]

I thought they delayed it so it wouldn't compete with Veilguard.

I wonder what the sales impact would have been had both games dropped at the same time? I'm sure Veilguard benefited from the lack of genre competition in its release window.

My hunch is Avowed would be received better if it was released closer to Veilguard, specifically if it came out at least a month before KC2. Right now it’s going to get ripped to shreds, it’s fundamentally a mediocre game with no ambition or exciting new mechanics releasing in a month with games that do have ambition (AC aside).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I thought they delayed it so it wouldn't compete with Veilguard.

The more fool they.

 

[Tyranicon]

I thought they delayed it so it wouldn't compete with Veilguard.

The more fool they.

I mean, look at the current situation.

Big daddy EA shoveled millions into the marketing so that Veilguard could be saved from an abysmal launch, including whatever happened with the pro reviewer scores.

Meanwhile Microsoft is pushing Avowed out to die against the wall that is KC2, at a laughable 70 USD pricetag for an AA game.

 

[sebas]

Microsoft has a LOT of money they need to spend to avoid taxes, they bought Minecraft for 2.5 bil for fucks sake! They have also payed through the nose for all these other studios for nothing but IPs and a bit of clout. So while they obviously want their games to sell, I don't think it's that critical. Anything they can put up on their game pass is enough I guess.

 

[sosmoflux]

Avowed has one thing going for it and that's Dragon Age The Veilguard flopping so spectacularly how could Avowed possibly be any worse

 

[Tyranicon]

Avowed has one thing going for it and that's Dragon Age The Veilguard flopping so spectacularly how could Avowed possibly be any worse

Lol just wait. I suspect the same exact accusations are waiting for Avowed when it releases.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

MEA cringe -> DATV cringe
Outer Worlds cringe -> Avowed cringe

 

[ropetight]

Avowed has one thing going for it and that's Dragon Age The Veilguard flopping so spectacularly how could Avowed possibly be any worse

Lol just wait. I suspect the same exact accusations are waiting for Avowed when it releases.

Veilguard will sold 1 million eventually, only because it had multimillion selling AAA predecessors.
Disavowed has PoE, niche games that sold a million at best and are mostly unknown to the normies.

If Obsidian offers similar gameplay and bullshit with Awwwwd like Veilguard, they will fail even more.
M$ will help with marketing, and sabotage sale numbers with Gamepass...

 

[Cryomancer]

I don't think that Avoided will sell poorly. I mean, most people where negative about Failguard everywhere except Retard era and even Retard era had to censor everyone who disagrees about Failguard. I don't see the same negativity towards Avoided. Also, people are starving for Skyrimesque type of games and will buy even a subpar skyrim clone.

 

[Tyranicon]

I don't think that Avoided will sell poorly.

It's 70 USD for a smaller, uglier, worse Skyrim-clone with modern writing and a lack of marketing.

This thing is DOA.

 

[Robber Baron]

smaller, uglier, worse Skyrim-clone with modern writing and a lack of marketing.

And no mods

 

[Infinitron]

Seems likely that "sales" (as guesstimated by looking at Steam player counts) will be low, but we'll never know how many people are playing it on the Xbox app with Game Pass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Are you going to play this game on release, Infinitron?

 

[Infinitron]

Are you going to play this game on release, Infinitron?

Maybe with Game Pass, although I don't know if my PC is up to it.

 

[DemonKing]

Disavowed has PoE, niche games that sold a million at best and are mostly unknown to the normies.

...and they were isometric, party based games.

Remember when Commandos went first person (Commandos Strike Force) and what a success that was?

 

[Inec0rn]

I don't think that Avoided will sell poorly.

It's 70 USD for a smaller, uglier, worse Skyrim-clone with modern writing and a lack of marketing.

This thing is DOA.

it really is.. and likely without mods and mod tools to fix half the game and make it playable.

 

[AwesomeButton]

MEA cringe -> DATV cringe
Outer Worlds cringe -> Avowed cringe

It feels as if the writers room dictates the tone of games in these companies more than any one person formally wearing the hat of "game director", "project director", "executive producer", or whatever term these pompous asses have decided to copy from their treasured movie industry.

It's like a milder version of Jeff Bezos coming down from the heavens and still unable to alter the direction of his own employees writing at the Washingpon Toast.

What led to this? Aren't these guys supposed to conform to a project's overall direction, and get changed if they don't? Isn't this how employer-employee relations usually work?

I remember watching some documentary on the production of "The Sopranos", where Matthew Wiener was recalling a conversation David Chase had with him when he was hiring him to write for the show. Among other warnings and advise, Chase told him "I'm not running a writers school here. If you can't write, I'll fire you" Why doesn't it work the same? If I'm running a game development project, what's to stop me from firing people who impose their own style contrary to the direction I've given? There is supposed to be enough supply in the labor market for their jobs.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The reaction online hasn't been that welcoming to any Avowed footage. I don't think this will sell much, or create any lasting market for the brand and obsidian.

People keep saying it looks and runs like something from the last gen, with bad combat.

I bet Obsidian and Inxile are one bad launch away from getting fucked by Xbox. Hi-fi Rush was a critical success and its studio still got canned.

 

[ropetight]

Troika never reached this stage of Obsidian where they are burnt down and creatively bankrupt; they just shipped three buggy cult classics that didn't sell well and rode into the sunset.
Most people that played their games still miss them, because they weren't showing signs of slowing down before their demise.
If they started churning out simplified singleplayer MMO-likes we wouldn't cherish them so much.

Obisidian outlived its natural lifespan with combination of luck and Kickstarter craze; it is now 20 year old shaky cat that is blind, deaf and can't digest most of the food.
Somebody M$ should put them out of their misery.

 

[Inec0rn]

Well similar story to Larian really except Larian stuck to their guns and kept making and refining on Isometric RPG. These guys stopped making what they liked making and focused on what they thought would sell well, lets see how it pans out for them.

 

[Cryomancer]

Well similar story to Larian really except Larian stuck to their guns and kept making and refining on Isometric RPG. These guys stopped making what they liked making and focussed on what they thought would sell well, lets see how it pans out for them.

Except that Larian got a success with DOS1 and a huge success with DOS2 and a epic success with BG3.

Pillows sold relative well in the first game and sold poorly in the second iteration despite being much better. They must try something new. Sadly, the "something new" is imo much worse than other similar games like The Bloodline and Tainted Grail : The fall of Avalon.

 

[Jenkem]

Seventy Dollars?!?!