Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Cael]

I dunno what the hate for Fargo is either. inXike would likely be closed down if it wasn’t for this deal. I mean, I guess ppl are mad it didn’t close down?

I dunno.

WELL LETS SEE WHAT IT COULD BE ALL ABOUT

HOW ABOUT THE TIME HE RAN INTERPLAY INTO THE GROUND, AS A JOKE, THROUGH HORRIFIC MISMANAGEMENT, DOING HIS PART TO KILL CRPGS IN THE PROCESS AND USHER A CRPG DARK AGE????

AND THEN MADE A SHITTY COMPANY CALLED INXILE TO MAKE CELL PHONE SHOVELWARE????

AND THEN CASHED IN ON THE KICKSTARTER FAD TO MAKE GARBAGE GAMES WHERE NO ONE HAS EVER EXPLAINED TO ME HOW THEY COULD POSSIBLY COST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR BEING SO BAD AND HALF ASSED. NO ONE CAN ACCOUNT FOR HOW WASTELAND 2 LOOKS WORSE THAN GAMES TEN YEARS OLDER AND NEEDED A RE-RELEASE TO EVEN BEGIN FIXING ITS SHITTY MECHANICS, OR HOW NUMERA IS LIKE FIVE HOURS LONG, OR HOW BARDS TALE 4 SHIPPED UNPLAYABLE AND NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT IT BECAUSE EVEN THE MOST DENSE MORON (EXCEPT THE ONES ON THIS FORUM) HAS FIGURED OUT AT THIS POINT THAT BRIAN FARGO IS VIDEO GAME AIDS AND STOPPED BUYING INXILE GAMES.

THE MAN HAS ALLEGEDLY BEEN INVOLVED IN MAKING VIDEO GAME SINCE THE FUCKING EIGHTIES! WHY IS EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES DOOMED TO FAIL WHILE HE RIDES OFF RICHER AND RICHER?!???

REMEMBER HOW HE WAS RUNNING KICKSTARTERS FOR NEW GAMES WITHOUT EVEN RELEASING THE PRIOR KICKSTARTED GAMES??? HOW DID NO ONE BUT ME REALIZE THIS WAS A FUCKING SCAM??

IT'S LIKE HE WATCHED THE PRODUCERS AS A KID AND THOUGHT "THIS IS IT, THIS IS HOW I WILL LIVE MY WHOLE LIFE, EXCEPT I WON'T MAKE ANYTHING GOOD EVEN BY ACCIDENT AND RETARDS ON THE INTERNET THAT HASN'T BEEN INVENTED YET WILL DEFEND ME"

See kids? This is why you don't do drugs. Visual deafness is not a pretty thing.

 

[Infinitron]

It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people talking about some vicious, widespread backlash against PoE1, and yet never showing any evidence that it actually exists.

What's interesting is that Tyranny, which is widely and less controversially considered to be a second-rate/meh game, also has excellent Steam reviews.

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

 

[Syme]

I mean, what competition there was? Outside of Witcher 3 and perhaps Metal Gear, Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider what other game was actually good that year?

GTA V (PC) and Rocket League come to mind, both sold ridiculous numbers. Best game of 2015 was still HuniePop though.

 

[Lutte]

I'm glad. So glad for the news. It's going to take a while but MS buying them means they will finally die and it's only a matter of time. Few studios survive making more than 4 or 5 games under MS's wing and Obsidian certainly isn't of that caliber as they kept losing publisher trust at every turns and had to find a new one for almost any of the game they've developed. Any RPG forum will benefit from better discussions and audience once the obshitian fans either leave the hobby or outright commit suicide.

 

[evdk]

Nobody has the heart to review bomb them.

It's more like people do not care to reviewbomb them. If you do not already give a fuck about Obsidian you would probably not even know about Tyranny.

 

[Infinitron]

Nobody has the heart to review bomb them.

It's more like people do not care to reviewbomb them. If you do not already give a fuck about Obsidian you would probably not even know about Tyranny.

But they did care about Torment: Tides of Numenera and Bard's Tale IV? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno.

 

[Grauken]

It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people talking about some vicious, widespread backlash against PoE1, and yet never showing any evidence that it actually exists.

What's interesting is that Tyranny, which is widely and less controversially considered to be a second-rate/meh game, also has excellent Steam reviews.

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

Feels more like their games are so average most people can't muster enough energy to condemn them

But they did care about Torment: Tides of Numenera and Bard's Tale IV? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno.

Actually bad games, not just mediocre

 

[Lutte]

It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people talking about some vicious, widespread backlash against PoE1, and yet never showing any evidence that it actually exists.

What's interesting is that Tyranny, which is widely and less controversially considered to be a second-rate/meh game, also has excellent Steam reviews.

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

People who would have hated Tyranny had no expectation for Tyranny and hence didn't buy it and have little to no motivation to leave bad reviews to begin with. Most reviewbombing on steam occurs from butthurt customers, people who actually spent money on the thing and feel remorseful or betrayed.

But Obshitian already did the betrayal once so majestically nobody apart from its retarded fanbase would buy anymore of their games. I mean, the whole PoE being BG successor shtick. That massive joke.

 

[Haba]

Nobody has the heart to review bomb them.

It's more like people do not care to reviewbomb them. If you do not already give a fuck about Obsidian you would probably not even know about Tyranny.

But they did care about Torment: Tides of Numenera and Bard's Tale IV? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno.

You go to an restaurant and have a dinner. The meal was:

a.) It was served cold, the food was kind of tasteless and bland.
b.) They brought in the wrong dish, and there was actual shit on the plate.

In both cases you've lost a customer. Only in one case you've got a guaranteed bad review (and potential refund).

 

[Prime Junta]

I am legitimately fucking furious that DOS2 is such a success. It really doesn't deserve to be. They even fucked up the pretty damn good gameplay they had in DOS1, and the story + worldbuilding is the very definition of retarded. Only thing going for it is that it looks and sounds good.

Because all that means is that now even top-down party-based turn-based cRPGs are shit and are going to continue to be shit for the foreseeable future.

 

[markec]

I am legitimately fucking furious that DOS2 is such a success. It really doesn't deserve to be. They even fucked up the pretty damn good gameplay they had in DOS1, and the story + worldbuilding is the very definition of retarded. Only thing going for it is that it looks and sounds good.

Because all that means is that now even top-down party-based turn-based cRPGs are shit and are going to continue to be shit for the foreseeable future.

I find this comment quite funny seeing it comes from a shill that praised PoE 1 as a best thing since sliced bread.

 

[TemplarGR]

I am legitimately fucking furious that DOS2 is such a success. It really doesn't deserve to be. They even fucked up the pretty damn good gameplay they had in DOS1, and the story + worldbuilding is the very definition of retarded. Only thing going for it is that it looks and sounds good.

Because all that means is that now even top-down party-based turn-based cRPGs are shit and are going to continue to be shit for the foreseeable future.

1) Great graphics for an isometric game. They have a cartoony style that we know sells a lot, and are low enough on system requirements.

2) Tons of "game critics" played 2 hours and proclaimed it "best game ever made until now and at least for 50 years more". They probably were really lazy to keep playing but didn't dare criticize it because they saw it had tons of combat system options so obviously it had "depth". It must have, right?

3) Nice voice acting

4) It actually wasn't a success. If many pc publications proclaim your game a masterpiece and game of the year, talk all day long about it, manufacture hype, and still all you can sell is around 1m copies, you are a disgrace... The other times an RPG was called "masterpiece" and "GOTY" it sold 10-20+ millions of copies... Just look what FO3, FNV, Skyrim,Oblivion, Witcher 3, Witcher 2, have sold. All of them were considered GOTY by major publications.

Then look what DOS II sold in a couple of years with no single player competition and laugh. Hard. A success my ass.

 

[Nano]

Jesus christ you Linux parasites will never face reality. No one cares. As a gamer, yes Proton has made strides. But even then it's not 100% compatibility and a lot of games that are compatible still have issues. This is before you get into backwards compatibility with pre steam games. Windows is utter bullshit but it's still the primary platform for PC gaming. With support for any issue you can find. Unless Linux can find a way to get day one parity with windows game releases no one will want to know.

It's almost hilarious how so many PC gamers developed Stockholm syndrome for Windows and Microsoft.

 

[LESS T_T]

Optimistic version of the future: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...t-told-us-everything-about-the-future-of-xbox

If Microsoft continues on this trajectory (and judging by its rhetoric and investment, it's likely it will), then the firm will care as much about which platform you're accessing Game Pass through as Netflix is bothered about which device you're watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on. Indeed, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that gamers will be able to play Sea of Thieves - via xCloud - on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 in the not-too-distant future.

If, of course, they subscribe to Game Pass.

[...]

So when it comes to the big reasons to subscribe to Game Pass, it is going to fall on Microsoft. Which is why the company has already more than doubled its internal development capacity in less than six months. Xbox studios boss Matt Booty says that the primarily aim is to acquire mid-level teams, which can bulk out the Game Pass offering. And most of the companies it has bought do fit into that category (although Compulsion Games perhaps sits closer to the indie side of things, whereas Playground and Obsidian are AAA in size).

It's potentially a promising place to be for the likes of Obsidian and Ninja Theory. Gamers may come in for Forza or Halo, but they hang around to experience Pillars of Eternity or Hellblade. These are perhaps games that Xbox fans might not necessarily choose to buy, but as part of a package, they'd certainly give them a play. And with less pressure to deliver unit sales, these creatives can perhaps feel free to try new things.

It's how Netflix works. Customers come in for Daredevil and Stranger Things, but hang around for Altered Carbon and other unique properties. Indeed, the whole concept appears to be borrowed from the Netflix playbook. Commission big new shows in-house, add in legacy shows from partners, and sign up some independent projects, too.

 

[Funposter]

4) It actually wasn't a success. If many pc publications proclaim your game a masterpiece and game of the year, talk all day long about it, manufacture hype, and still all you can sell is around 1m copies, you are a disgrace... The other times an RPG was called "masterpiece" and "GOTY" it sold 10-20+ millions of copies... Just look what FO3, FNV, Skyrim,Oblivion, Witcher 3, Witcher 2, have sold. All of them were considered GOTY by major publications.

Then look what DOS II sold in a couple of years with no single player competition and laugh. Hard. A success my ass.

Those games had TV spots, billboards, etc. as well as enormous name and brand recognition. This is an enormously stupid take. What matters is that the game made money, therefore allowing further develop and prompting more outside investment. The other games you listed had tens of millions of dollars pumped into their advertising budget, with the sole exception being The Witcher 2. TW2 sold 1.7 million copies after one year, less than what Divinity Original Sin 2 has sold in the same amount of time.

 

[Jason Liang]

Just to make sure that everyone knows Brian Fargo and Interplay were legends of computer gaming before his stint at inXile, or even before the release of the original Wasteland, here is Arnie Katz's interview with Fargo from the first issue of VG&CE almost 30 years ago.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...magazine-tribute-archive.112887/#post-4900546

 

[TemplarGR]

Those games had TV spots, billboards, etc. as well as enormous name and brand recognition. This is an enormously stupid take. What matters is that the game made money, therefore allowing further develop and prompting more outside investment. The other games you listed had tens of millions of dollars pumped into their advertising budget, with the sole exception being The Witcher 2. TW2 sold 1.7 million copies after one year, less than what Divinity Original Sin 2 has sold in the same amount of time.

TV spots and billboards are mostly in US. For the rest of the world they don't market the games nearly as much as you think. In Greece IIRC only Nintendo and Sega in the 90s got TV spots...

Also the Witchers actually had LESS brand recognition than Larian had. Larian had an established RPG series since 2002... CDPR began from scratch. The original Witcher was relatively unknown everywhere but slavic europe and it had no marketing, it sold due to sheer quality.

Plus, i can't think of better marketing than having every fucking shill on the internet proclaim your game GOTY. Fuck TV spots, who cares about TV these days? Everything is online. People buy what Youtube and Twitch are promoting.

Yes the DOS games made money, but considering the amount of publicity they received, they FAILED.

As for the TW2 vs DOS2 comparison, it is flawed because:

1) The market has grown since early 2011.

2) TW2 had enormous competition by single player AAA games in that year alone, DOS2 was practically the only worthwhile single player release in 2017. I am not talking only CRPGs, i am talking EVERYTHING! In 2017 everyone and their dog just released multiplayer games and pixel art indies... I mean seriously, TW2 got released the same year as fucking Skyrim... The same year as fucking Dragon Age 2. A few months after Mass Effect 2... A few months after Fallout New Vegas... TW2 had COMPETITION, DOS2 had nothing, unless you consider Fortnight DOS2's competition.

3) TW2 had enormous pc requirements for its day. It needed a beefy pc, while DOS2 can play on pretty much anything modern...

I am sorry, i am not making stupid arguments, you just fail to understand the market.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Yes the DOS games made money, but considering the amount of publicity they received, they FAILED.

D:OS costed at least three times what PoE did, even if you consider the additional funding. PoE2 costed approximately four times what PoE did, yet D:OS2 costed approximately five times what PoE2 did. They are behemoths. Of course, D:OS games are not in the same league of TW3 or FO4, but they are not in the same league of PoE games either. It's foolish to put Larian Studios in the same category of AA medium studios. They have more funding, more personnel, more marketing, their games are more friendly to a modern audience, etc. They have next to nothing in common with isometric single player cRPGs and is idiotic to praise their games under this pretense.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I am legitimately fucking furious that DOS2 is such a success. It really doesn't deserve to be. They even fucked up the pretty damn good gameplay they had in DOS1, and the story + worldbuilding is the very definition of retarded. Only thing going for it is that it looks and sounds good.

Because all that means is that now even top-down party-based turn-based cRPGs are shit and are going to continue to be shit for the foreseeable future.

I find this comment quite funny seeing it comes from a shill that praised PoE 1 as a best thing since sliced bread.

A shill that won't play Underrail or Age of Decadence because of graphics. Let's not forget.

 

[Razor]

I quit POE in like 10 minutes and don't really know much about POE2, but even I know: (1) fairly novel "fantasy island chain" setting; (2) gameplay is less linear; (3) ship combat; and (4) much more "woke" for those who are looking for that in their game...

Wait a minute. I haven't tried neither of the PoE titles (not a fan of generic high fantasy). Are you implying that PoE 2, on top of its inherent handicaps (high fantasy+ sequel), was also infected with SJW-ism?

 

[Latelistener]

Unreal was looking a lot better than Baldur's Gate in the graphics department.

I don't think so. 2D has no boundaries, limited only by imagination. 3D at the time was suffering from low polygonal models, barebone levels and other things mostly because video cards back then couldn't more.
Unreal was also a prestigious PC-exclusive flagship title that pushed forward 3D visuals. Most 3D games didn't look like that.

Spoiler

Shave off a year, and that's Deadfire.

You'll not only have to "shave off" a year but also other things where the budget went in. I mentioned them in the previous post.

Alpha Protocol looks freaking ugly compared to Deadfire. All it has over it in the production values department is cinematics.

Okay, how should re-phrase that? You put Deadfire on a shelf for $50 and you put RDR2 right there with it for $60. I hope I shouldn't explain the difference between those games.

You can sell anything if the price is right. Most AAA games are struggling with sales today and they go cheap very quick. And then with a broad smile you put an isometric RPG for $50 among them. It won't sell. It has nothing to do with RPG market - the whole market is oversaturated. There are simply too many games.

 

[ga♥]

Does this open a way for MCA to go back at Obsidian (if the management is gone/replaced)?

Inb4 Microsoft Office 2018 lead narrative.

 

[Brancaleone]

It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people talking about some vicious, widespread backlash against PoE1, and yet never showing any evidence that it actually exists.

As opposed to the tons of evidence provided about the "it was the casualz" theory, right. How was it? "The evidence that it was casuals lies in the fact that casuals never leave any evidence".
It's adorable to read pages upon pages of people doing mental acrobatics in order to avoid entertaining the idea that PoE1 might actually have been a mediocre game. But after years of having invested themselves in explaining to the uncouth masses how each and every flaw of PoE1 was actually a feature/was the best option available/couldn't be done any other way/ was what the market was asking for/was done in the best possible way given the circumstances/etc. etc. etc., I do actually understand the need to die on that hill.

Playing PoE1 feels like homework, an especially dull kind of homework with no significantly redeeming points. What you call "vicious backlash" is actually a deep sigh and "yeah, I'll pass the sequel".

Basically, Obsidian's fans really like Obsidian. Nobody has the heart to review bomb them. They're really lucky to have that.

You definitely have a point there. That's at least part of what led Sawyer to be completely blindsided by Deadfire's commercial failure (apart from, as many have already said, his complete inability to understand the appeal of IE games).

 

[Funposter]

TV spots and billboards are mostly in US. For the rest of the world they don't market the games nearly as much as you think. In Greece IIRC only Nintendo and Sega in the 90s got TV spots...

I do not live in the US. The location listed under my post count is not a joke. I remember that leading up to the release of TESO: Morrowind (a relatively unpopular MMO), I couldn't walk around the city without seeing at least fifty buses carrying an enormous advertisement for it.

Also the Witchers actually had LESS brand recognition than Larian had. Larian had an established RPG series since 2002... CDPR began from scratch. The original Witcher was relatively unknown everywhere but slavic europe and it had no marketing, it sold due to sheer quality.

The original Witcher? Yes. By the time of TW2, the brand had time to grow, and I would say many "core" gamers were peripherally aware of it. In contrast, before the release of D:OS, I had met literally two people that had ever played a Larian game.

Plus, i can't think of better marketing than having every fucking shill on the internet proclaim your game GOTY. Fuck TV spots, who cares about TV these days? Everything is online. People buy what Youtube and Twitch are promoting

Youtube and Twitch are promoting Fortnite. Most sales for a game aren't produced after release, the casual consumer is caught up in the hype leading up to the release. Skyrim is a great example. It had a very effective trailer, and I distinctly remember people who had never even heard of The Elder Scrolls, let alone played previous games in the series, being incredibly excited for that game based on its very effective gameplay trailers. The Witcher 2 lended itself better to pre-release bullshots etc. than D:OS 2 did.

Yes the DOS games made money, but considering the amount of publicity they received, they FAILED.

As for the TW2 vs DOS2 comparison, it is flawed because:

1) The market has grown since early 2011.

This is primarily due to the influx of Chinese consumers to platforms such as Steam. Don't kid yourself, the core PC gaming market that would purchase a game like D:OS2 has not expanded that much in the last seven years.

2) TW2 had enormous competition by single player AAA games in that year alone, DOS2 was practically the only worthwhile single player release in 2017. I am not talking only CRPGs, i am talking EVERYTHING! In 2017 everyone and their dog just released multiplayer games and pixel art indies... I mean seriously, TW2 got released the same year as fucking Skyrim... The same year as fucking Dragon Age 2. A few months after Mass Effect 2... A few months after Fallout New Vegas... TW2 had COMPETITION, DOS2 had nothing, unless you consider Fortnight DOS2's competition.

TW2 released over a year after Mass Effect 2, and over six months after New Vegas. It was released six months before Skyrim. TW2 arguably had a much better launch window, releasing in a period where nothing was being released, whereas D:OS2 was released leading up to the traditionally busy holiday season.

3) TW2 had enormous pc requirements for its day. It needed a beefy pc, while DOS2 can play on pretty much anything modern...

So did Crysis, and that game sold extraordinarily well. The rationale of "well it works on any machine" benefits enormous companies such as Blizzard, but being next-gen eye candy is actually an enormous selling point for a game. I would suggest that many players purchased TW2 because its visuals put the likes of New Vegas, Mass Effect 2 and even the not-yet-released Skyrim to shame.

I am sorry, i am not making stupid arguments, you just fail to understand the market.

I think it's you that actually fails to understand the core market, and what drives the purchasing decisions of many consumers.

 

[evdk]

Does this open a way for MCA to go back at Obsidian (if the management is gone/replaced)?

Inb4 Microsoft Office 2018 lead narrative.

Clippy: "What can change the nature of a paragraph?"

Wait a minute. I haven't tried neither of the PoE titles (not a fan of generic high fantasy). Are you implying that PoE 2, on top of its inherent handicaps (high fantasy+ sequel), was also infected with SJW-ism?

Razor edge. Also slow.