Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Vault Dweller]

I can attest to that. I naively planned to release Titan Outpost last year. I guess I could have, if I had cut corners everywhere and never reiterated anything. Quality is an ambiguous concept, but personally I like complex, involved quests with branches and non-binary outcomes. Quest complexity doesn't scale linearly and every angle you add increases your workload by almost factor of two.

If not more.

PS You made Dungeon Rats, which I really enjoyed, in less than a year. You let the mechanics do all the heavy lifting for you on that one, but I still consider it a quality game. When I played it, I thought it would have a broader appeal than AoD for some reason. I was surprised to see it sell a lot less. I know you sort of regret it and consider it a mistake, but I'm not sure the proof was in the pudding on that one. Obviously you thought it was a quality game, or you wouldn't have released it. Did the sales change your perspective on that? Or are dungeon crawlers exempt from being called quality RPGs? I'm not inviting you to go down a semantic rabbit hole here, I'm just curious if you're still proud of it.

Glad you liked it. I naively expected it to have a broader appeal too (because I didn't know better) but it had very little exposure and thus sold mostly to people who really liked AoD combat. As of today AoD sold 144k copies, DR 40k. Without AoD (if it were our first game to test the waters) it would have sold 8-10k copies at best.

I don't regret it because we couldn't jump to Colony Ship right away and making a quick combat game, no matter how limited, was the best option, considering that it allowed us to test party-based gameplay, XP divided between the party members, CHA-driven party size, etc.

It was never meant to be a Quality RPG (no game that has 50 linear fights has a shot at this title), but it was the best we could do in 10 months.

 

[TT1]

So, now Microsoft have a lot of Studios and its clear they are not focusing on XBOX anymore, but on this Game Pass platform, more focusing on PC.

Its pretty clear to me they will have to buy a game store in near future. So, what do you see happening: Microsoft will try to buy Steam or GOG/ CD Projekt Red?

 

[hexer]

The problem with PoE is that developers didn't take any risks.

Take for example Deadfire - apparently a war happened in the region but you're get a role of an adventurer in a post-war period.
Any real writer/DM would jump at the opportunity to throw the party into the drama/turmoils of war - that's at least what I do - but not Obsidian!

I absolutely felt no emotion while playing PoE.. except frustration.
With them you get the mundane experience! Enjoy your "wild ride"!

 

[2house2fly]

Deadfire is pre-war if anything

 

[J_C]

So, now Microsoft have a lot of Studios and its clear they are not focusing on XBOX anymore, but on this Game Pass platform, more focusing on PC.

Its pretty clear to me they will have to buy a game store in near future. So, what do you see happening: Microsoft will try to buy Steam or GOG/ CD Projekt Red?

Why would they need to buy a game store? They have their own.

 

[TT1]

So, now Microsoft have a lot of Studios and its clear they are not focusing on XBOX anymore, but on this Game Pass platform, more focusing on PC.

Its pretty clear to me they will have to buy a game store in near future. So, what do you see happening: Microsoft will try to buy Steam or GOG/ CD Projekt Red?

Why would they need to buy a game store? They have their own.

Full of nothing. I dont know a single PC gamer interested on their store.

 

[hexer]

Deadfire is pre-war if anything

What? I was certain the war already happened.
In any case, a big opportunity was missed there.
You build the world, create opposing forces, place them in a small region, build the tension and then fail to launch.

Why would they feel uncomfortable to try anything new and exciting.. due to a limited budget.. or a creative block?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I can attest to that. I naively planned to release Titan Outpost last year. I guess I could have, if I had cut corners everywhere and never reiterated anything. Quality is an ambiguous concept, but personally I like complex, involved quests with branches and non-binary outcomes. Quest complexity doesn't scale linearly and every angle you add increases your workload by almost factor of two.

If not more.

PS You made Dungeon Rats, which I really enjoyed, in less than a year. You let the mechanics do all the heavy lifting for you on that one, but I still consider it a quality game. When I played it, I thought it would have a broader appeal than AoD for some reason. I was surprised to see it sell a lot less. I know you sort of regret it and consider it a mistake, but I'm not sure the proof was in the pudding on that one. Obviously you thought it was a quality game, or you wouldn't have released it. Did the sales change your perspective on that? Or are dungeon crawlers exempt from being called quality RPGs? I'm not inviting you to go down a semantic rabbit hole here, I'm just curious if you're still proud of it.

Glad you liked it. I naively expected it to have a broader appeal too (because I didn't know better) but it had very little exposure and thus sold mostly to people who really liked AoD combat. As of today AoD sold 144k copies, DR 40k. Without AoD (if it were our first game to test the waters) it would have sold 8-10k copies at best.

I don't regret it because we couldn't jump to Colony Ship right away and making a quick combat game, no matter how limited, was the best option, considering that it allowed us to test party-based gameplay, XP divided between the party members, CHA-driven party size, etc.

It was never meant to be a Quality RPG (no game that has 50 linear fights has a shot at this title), but it was the best we could do in 10 months.

Look VD, it sure would never be a game that would have appeal to anyone but a tiny audience of hardcore fans.

When you hit a fight that is too powerful for you in DR, that's it. You're stuck and must reload an old save that is a few hours old and pray that you will preserve more consumables.

In AoD when you hit a brick wall, there's a lot more you can do, you can explore other environments and try to solve other quests until you become stronger.

I completed AoD, but DR I gave up on after a few fights, because it was too aggravating to me.

 

[Reinhardt]

In Baldur's Gate the buy-in is that you assume your character cares about an NPC named "Garion" getting killed

Who cares about Gorion, in BG Sarevok wants you dead.

 

[Quillon]

What? I was certain the war already happened.

You're thinking of PoE1. Yeah If the game took place during Saint's War it wouldn't have been such a snoozefest at the least.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Hi everyone, saw this article and thought of you (it also helps explain who Inxile are!!!) - https://kotaku.com/microsoft-s-new-studio-acquisitions-show-how-much-xbox-1830383030

Some choice highlights:

For Obsidian and Inxile, the deal was simple: Both studios have faced financial struggles over the years, and crowdfunding wasn’t enough to support the type of ambitious games they like to make. Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity 2, which came out earlier this year, was a commercial flop (and a good game overshadowed by the transcendent Divinity Original Sin 2). Inxile’s recently released Bard’s Tale IV earned mediocre reviews. Bouncing from crowdfunded project to crowdfunded project seemed unsustainable, and now, both Obsidian and Inxile have financial security for years to come (or at least until the next time Xbox changes bosses).

Truth is, as Team Xbox has been signaling for quite some time now, and as we’ve gathered from our own conversations with both people in and outside of the company, Microsoft is no longer interested in competing directly with Sony. That’s a battle it lost as soon as Xbox executives started outlining its original, odd plans for Xbox One in 2013. The PS4 has outperformed the Xbox One so resoundingly, Microsoft stopped providing hardware sales figures.

Instead of licking its wounds and trying to fight Sony yet again next generation, the Xbox division under Phil Spencer has taken a drastically different approach. What Microsoft wants most today is studios that will help boost its impressive Game Pass subscription service, its upcoming streaming platform, and its continued stabs at PC gaming. Developing big Xbox exclusives is no longer a priority for Microsoft, and in fact, the company decided in 2016 that it would release future games on both Xbox and PC. Soon enough, Game Pass will also be available on PC, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Microsoft embrace Steam—or overhaul the Windows store—as it tries to reach the hundreds of millions of people who play video games on computers.

As originally pitched, Stormlands was going to have co-op multiplayer, Urquhart said. Then that executive producer made a different suggestion. Recalled Urquhart: “About three months into the whole pitch process [he] said, ‘I think what we want to do is really hit it out of the park with this. What do you guys think about dropping multiplayer and just really focusing on it being a great roleplaying game?’”

Then, as was common for Microsoft at the time, there was a shuffle. “About two weeks after that, he was reassigned, and a different producer was put on it,” said Urquhart. “He had a different vision for that, and that vision was to double-down on multiplayer.”

Stormlands was, in many ways, the epitome of the old Microsoft way of doing things. Microsoft insisted on a long list of supplemental features including Kinect, cloud computing, and SmartGlass support, and the project became so bloated, neither company could salvage it. Today, under new leadership and structure, the Xbox department is very different, and it’s easy to envision a world where Spencer and co allow Obsidian and Inxile to thrive. If that happens, the good news for people who just like to play games is that two talented mid-size studios that might not fit into the gaming industry on their own have a chance at long-term success thanks to Microsoft’s evolving ambition.

Sorry if this has been posted before, the thread is moving sooo fast, lol forgive me!

 

[Rake]

Fallout has a really simple goal (everyone you care about is going to die or be displaced unless you can find a water chip)

I don't care about them. The player character cares about them. In much the same way that Eder cares about Bearn, and Pallegina cares about Giacolo

So? Caring about them isn't necessary to angage with the plot. I saw it as "well, they gave me a job that forced me to leave my home and can't go back without completing it. So i'll just explore the world to see if i can make a life for myself there". Returnig the waterchip to the vault was just something i did because i wantet to progress the game (and xp), not the main reason to play Fallout.

 

[Boddler]

Guys lets not forget amidst all this, about Pallegina.

Pallegina.

Her existence alone silently says everything we need to know about POE.
...

Vailia is colour swap Italian niggers, people don't complain about Redguards, they are actually cool and have an interesting culture.

Pallegina’s voice actress sometimes makes a vocal utterance in combat (in PoE 1) that seems off for a Renaissance Venetian.

Something transliterated like “brrraap” with a rolled “R” (alveolar trill).

This is a typical modern vocalization heard in many African-language cultures and in African descended populations in Europe and the Caribbean (hear it often in European black rap, and in African and Caribbean dancehall music).

This utterance came off to me like the voice actress was riffing and ad-libbing aggressive combat vocalization in the recording studio, and the sound designers and directors left it in.

Subtle barely conscious differences between peoples are partly why this kind of palette swap usually seems off.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

What I want to see is a fist fight between Feargus and Fargo. Wouldn't that be great? Also, "Feargus and Fargo" sounds like the name of a law firm.

 

[J_C]

What I want to see is a fist fight between Feargus and Fargo.

You really hate Feargus, don't you?

 

[HanoverF]

What I want to see is a fist fight between Feargus and Fargo. Wouldn't that be great? Also, "Feargus and Fargo" sounds like the name of a law firm.

They won't be throwing punches anymore

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Chris Avellone you were asking what happens to Fig if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Infinitron]

Hah!



Also:

 

[Bocian]

Hah!

It's like that thing Cleve was talking about.

 

[2house2fly]

So? Caring about them isn't necessary to angage with the plot. I saw it as "well, they gave me a job that forced me to leave my home and can't go back without completing it. So i'll just explore the world to see if i can make a life for myself there". Returnig the waterchip to the vault was just something i did because i wantet to progress the game (and xp), not the main reason to play Fallout.

Yes, exactly. You don't need to "give a fuck" because the quest to save the vault is just a push to get the player into the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

This is how little Microsoft gives a fuck about stompy shooty robots.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Hands off my boy Phil, heathens. He is a good dude and a rare breed of exec who actually seems to understand games not just numbers on a spreadsheet. And If I'm not mistaken he got a bump up the ladder recently and reports directly to the CEO instead of having 3 layers of corporate paper pushers above him, so that should bode well for the future.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Hands off my boy Phil, heathens. He is a good dude and a rare breed of exec who actually seems to understand games not just numbers on a spreadsheet. And If I'm not mistaken he got a bump up the ladder recently and reports directly to the CEO instead of having 3 layers of corporate paper pushers above him, so that should bode well for the future.

If he was the dude who kicked Mechwarrior to PGI he has my undying enmity.

 

[Rake]

So? Caring about them isn't necessary to angage with the plot. I saw it as "well, they gave me a job that forced me to leave my home and can't go back without completing it. So i'll just explore the world to see if i can make a life for myself there". Returnig the waterchip to the vault was just something i did because i wantet to progress the game (and xp), not the main reason to play Fallout.

Yes, exactly. You don't need to "give a fuck" because the quest to save the vault is just a push to get the player into the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

That's not the same with what VD was talking about though. A quest (and a companion quest to make things worse) with a premise no one will care about isn't good enough. And if this quest is indicative for the writting of the whole game (i haven't played it yet), then the low sale is absolutely deserved.
Why would a player care about it IS a valid question a dev should ask from himself. I remember an old Avelone interview who said something about him starting his game design prosses with "cool moments" for the player, and building the game from that.
And always has the player experience at the back of his mind when designing something.

Fallout wasn't about the story, so the story was barebone, just an excuse to push you out of the vault. PoE for example had much more emphasis on story, the game wasn't so much about randomly exploring an unknown world, while maintaining a similar barebone plot hook. Essentially the game wants you to just play it because "reasons", and it doesn't work in that kind of game.
From what i'm reading, Deadfire didn't improved on this issue

 

[Quillon]

In a perfect world this MS deal will mean that:

1) Boyarsky&Cain can create and work on whatever they fucking wish to work on with very limited interference from the "Upper Management".
2) Badler will direct the next Pillars of Eternity, finishing the trilogy. With proper marketing the game will end up selling millions of units making Badler a wanted project director.
3) Parker will get to create his own Skyrim (in Pillars universe I presume) that actually ends up being better than anything Bethesda has ever created. Both Parker and Feargus can finally stop talking about creating Skyrimesque game of their own.
4) Josh will finally get to work on his tactical game. The game is perfectly balanced and grognards everywhere are satisfied.
5) Feargus, Parker etc. will retire after their contract obligations are done and someone capable of leading the company will takeover the reins and mistreatment of employees (according to Avellone) will cease.

Even if this perfect world scenario starts: I don't see Obs developing 4 different games simultaneously. Current Cainarsky game + maybe 2 games at most, tho only 1 more likely. Everybody on the list seems to wanna do different things(tho not sure about about what badler wants), even if they attempt they'd fail hard with favoritism and shit down the line if MCA has been truthful with us

Where is he btw? MS paid him off/threatened him into silence? :D