Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Black Angel]

Spoiler

Dungeon Siege 3 would like a word with you.

Seven Dwarfs, Aliens, Alpha Protocol, Stormlands. Remember when people were excited that Obsidian would finally be able to make a traditional RPG instead of console popamole lcd trash? The truth is that they're a garbage company run by garbage people, the rot starts at the top and permeates down.

Dungeon Siege 3 was an egregious example of bland garbage (and showed how an entire company can phone it in when it suits them... even good writers like Ziets and Gonzalez).

DS3's narrative was sabotaged by Feargus Urquhart.

Roguey
I usually consider myself well-versed in industry gossip (especially pertaining to CRPG companies), but I've never heard of Feargus sabotaging D3 in any way. Not saying you're wrong, but do you have something to back it up?

I've got one for you George: when I departed DS III in June 2009, the creative foundation you were laying was awesome. I expected another story masterpiece. But the final game (10/2011) didn't excite most critics with its story. What the heck happened? =)

Good question, Kevin. The DS3 story went through so many rewrites that I don’t remember exactly where it was when you left the company, but I’m sure it was early in the process – probably right after I finished the Ehb sourcebook.

My early drafts of the story were truer to my usual narrative tendencies. They were more personal - focused on the player – and they depicted a “grayer” version of the Legion. One of the storylines – possibly the one you remember – also included a lot more supernatural elements.

However, it was decided (above my pay grade) that we should keep the story focused on a threat that affected the nation or the world. Also, there was a desire to ensure that the Legion was clearly Good. I think the underlying impulse was to avoid a lot of narrative complexity, which makes sense in a franchise like Dungeon Siege.

So at that point, I started a long cycle of story revisions. Normally, the iteration process is where your story gets progressively stronger. But in this case, I remember feeling that we’d ended up with a weaker, more watered-down story than some of the earlier versions.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...eciation-station.101693/page-190#post-5548080

The only time I recall him getting heavily involved in story at all was Dungeon Siege 3.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...archies-and-more.121588/page-125#post-5599622

(Feargus' story iterations ranged from a wide variety of crap ideas, where you had to dig deep and wide to find the good in them - his craptastic story skills also caused a lot of problems on Dungeon Siege 3).

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...archies-and-more.121588/page-138#post-5600643

After DS3, I did get asked to take on a Project Director role (for a potential sequel) not by Feargus - but because of Feargus.

The reason I was asked, however, was because of how Feargus was treating the team – for all the control he tried in DS3, it had upped in DS4, and the team came to me and asked if I would come on to be a buffer between them and Feargus, since they were finding a hard time getting approvals and getting work done. It ended up being a lesson that made me very hesitant to report to Feargus (even though I did in the last year at Obsidian).

Feargus, it turned out, sometimes had a tactic where if he disapproves of someone or is angry at someone, he micromanages them to an excruciating degree, calls out everything he objects to (not something that’s necessarily wrong, just something he objects to), and makes it very difficult to move forward on anything. I had seen hints of this indirectly, but never experienced it – it sometimes was employed as a way to get someone to resign without actually firing them. It mostly seemed like an extended form of punishment with no positive goal except to punish the person for some perceived failing.

So I agreed to take on the role, because the ones asking me genuinely seemed to need help, and I also foolishly thought that surely this couldn’t be the case. The project also seemed like it might be fun.

Within 2 weeks of the role, I realized the team was absolutely right, and the problem wasn’t limited to what was brought up to me – it was worse.

While being a buffer helped (slightly), the issue started coming up that Feargus would do sudden pivots on elements he had approved and the team had spent a lot of time on. He would also forget he approved them and would assume he hadn't when he saw a decision he (now) didn't like had been made.

I’m not sure I even classify these events as lies when they occurred because it involves memory and the old classic managerial “gut instinct,” but what I discovered is that elements I would fight for and the team wanted (starting with the story, which was being savaged just like DS3) would be given approval by Feargus when I asked, then he would forget he gave approval, and within a few days of me relaying the good news to the team, he would backpedal and say, “Why this story and not mine? I never approved that.” When confronted on the fact he had approved the change, it would then become, “well, it’s not how I feel today.”

When this occurred, I felt as if I had lied to the team and let them down – and the situation had been out of my control despite my best intentions.

Realizing I couldn’t manage if I didn’t get reliable approvals (it undermined anything I said or did), I stepped down.

Truly, hell hath no fury like a

's scorn.

 

[J_C]

Roguey
I usually consider myself well-versed in industry gossip (especially pertaining to CRPG companies), but I've never heard of Feargus sabotaging D3 in any way. Not saying you're wrong, but do you have something to back it up?

I've got one for you George: when I departed DS III in June 2009, the creative foundation you were laying was awesome. I expected another story masterpiece. But the final game (10/2011) didn't excite most critics with its story. What the heck happened? =)

Good question, Kevin. The DS3 story went through so many rewrites that I don’t remember exactly where it was when you left the company, but I’m sure it was early in the process – probably right after I finished the Ehb sourcebook.

My early drafts of the story were truer to my usual narrative tendencies. They were more personal - focused on the player – and they depicted a “grayer” version of the Legion. One of the storylines – possibly the one you remember – also included a lot more supernatural elements.

However, it was decided (above my pay grade) that we should keep the story focused on a threat that affected the nation or the world. Also, there was a desire to ensure that the Legion was clearly Good. I think the underlying impulse was to avoid a lot of narrative complexity, which makes sense in a franchise like Dungeon Siege.

So at that point, I started a long cycle of story revisions. Normally, the iteration process is where your story gets progressively stronger. But in this case, I remember feeling that we’d ended up with a weaker, more watered-down story than some of the earlier versions.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...eciation-station.101693/page-190#post-5548080

The only time I recall him getting heavily involved in story at all was Dungeon Siege 3.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...archies-and-more.121588/page-125#post-5599622

(Feargus' story iterations ranged from a wide variety of crap ideas, where you had to dig deep and wide to find the good in them - his craptastic story skills also caused a lot of problems on Dungeon Siege 3).

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...archies-and-more.121588/page-138#post-5600643

After DS3, I did get asked to take on a Project Director role (for a potential sequel) not by Feargus - but because of Feargus.

The reason I was asked, however, was because of how Feargus was treating the team – for all the control he tried in DS3, it had upped in DS4, and the team came to me and asked if I would come on to be a buffer between them and Feargus, since they were finding a hard time getting approvals and getting work done. It ended up being a lesson that made me very hesitant to report to Feargus (even though I did in the last year at Obsidian).

Feargus, it turned out, sometimes had a tactic where if he disapproves of someone or is angry at someone, he micromanages them to an excruciating degree, calls out everything he objects to (not something that’s necessarily wrong, just something he objects to), and makes it very difficult to move forward on anything. I had seen hints of this indirectly, but never experienced it – it sometimes was employed as a way to get someone to resign without actually firing them. It mostly seemed like an extended form of punishment with no positive goal except to punish the person for some perceived failing.

So I agreed to take on the role, because the ones asking me genuinely seemed to need help, and I also foolishly thought that surely this couldn’t be the case. The project also seemed like it might be fun.

Within 2 weeks of the role, I realized the team was absolutely right, and the problem wasn’t limited to what was brought up to me – it was worse.

While being a buffer helped (slightly), the issue started coming up that Feargus would do sudden pivots on elements he had approved and the team had spent a lot of time on. He would also forget he approved them and would assume he hadn't when he saw a decision he (now) didn't like had been made.

I’m not sure I even classify these events as lies when they occurred because it involves memory and the old classic managerial “gut instinct,” but what I discovered is that elements I would fight for and the team wanted (starting with the story, which was being savaged just like DS3) would be given approval by Feargus when I asked, then he would forget he gave approval, and within a few days of me relaying the good news to the team, he would backpedal and say, “Why this story and not mine? I never approved that.” When confronted on the fact he had approved the change, it would then become, “well, it’s not how I feel today.”

When this occurred, I felt as if I had lied to the team and let them down – and the situation had been out of my control despite my best intentions.

Realizing I couldn’t manage if I didn’t get reliable approvals (it undermined anything I said or did), I stepped down.

How can you dig out these old interviews in an eyeblink? :D Do you save all of them on your computer?

 

[fantadomat]

It's funny when 99% of the faggots in this thread have wasted half their young years playing Obsidian games yet they hate that company with a passion. I believe a proper clinical psychologist doing his PhD would find plenty of material to work with here.

I do love the old Obsidian games and frequently replay them,the new ones lack a good writing and i see them as shit. Now kindly go and fuck some goat.

 

[Riddler]

How can you dig out these old interviews in an eyeblink? :D Do you save all of them on your computer?

Weaponized autism.

 

[Big Wrangle]

I do love the old Obsidian games and frequently replay them,the new ones lack a good writing and i see them as shit.

See, this is where I think the question comes in; if writing was what saved Obsidian's games all this time, can they really be considered good developers?

 

[TemplarGR]

See, this is where I think the question comes in; if writing was what saved Obsidian's games all this time, can they really be considered good developers?

It's not true. For one, writting in Obsidian games is fucking overrated. It seems like people who praise Obsidian's writting are uneducated teenagers for whom these video games are the most philosophical thing they ever experienced, after doritos and mountain dew. In some games, Obsidian's writting can approach "good enough", but most of the time it is mediocre. Still better than the industry average, which doesn't say much in an industry of moustached plumbers stomping on red-shelled turtles and eating shrooms in order to get a bigger cock so they can be stuck in the eternal friendzone of a bimbo princess who can't stop fucking on the side a huge turtle with spikes.

And besides that, it was not just the writting that was good in Obsidian's games. Most of their games build on a solid gameplay foundation of previously acclaimed AAA games, like KOTOR, NWN, Fallout 3. Whether you like it or not, all of those games were enjoyable to play, each for their own reasons. So it is not like past Obsidian games didn't have redeeiming qualities other than the writting.

 

[moon knight]

(beside the butchered pronunciation of latin)

WTF are you on about? Legion largely follows Allen's Vox Latina. Which makes sense since they were taught how to speak it by Caesar, who's an educated man from an Anglophone country and so would have learned to speak it that way. I know Europeans pronounce it more like Italian, and sweaty nerds on the internet pronounce it like they're LARPing a 40k space marine, but Vox Latina has some decent scholarship to support it so I'm not sure you can call that butchering. But maybe I've missed your point, because that whole post was pretty confused from start to finish.

I'm talking mainly about the pronunciation of AE as [a.i]. Thinking that in latin E was pronounced as [.i] is absolutely retarded, because that's the anglo pronunciation of that letter.

CAELUM (Sky) is a good example. In italian is cielo [/'tʃɛlo/], in spanish cielo [sje.lo], in french is ciel [\sjɛl\]. The pronunciation of the E is consistent in those 3 romance languages, which means that it must have been pronunciated like that in latin too. The same if for CAESAR.

Thinking that CAESAR is pronounced similar to Kaiser is ridiculous, when all the romance languages, which are direct discendants of latin, pronounce it differently.

Besides, Vox Latina is too limited. "The pronunciation of classical latin" means nothing because classical latin was for the most part a written language, and it was not the language spoken by the people (and by Caesar), that was vulgar latin.

I don't think it's an error made on purpose to give more characterization to Caesar.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if the errors were unintended then that (somewhat humorously) would add to the realism of an American attempting to speak a language he's never heard, no?

 

[Riddler]

(beside the butchered pronunciation of latin)

WTF are you on about? Legion largely follows Allen's Vox Latina. Which makes sense since they were taught how to speak it by Caesar, who's an educated man from an Anglophone country and so would have learned to speak it that way. I know Europeans pronounce it more like Italian, and sweaty nerds on the internet pronounce it like they're LARPing a 40k space marine, but Vox Latina has some decent scholarship to support it so I'm not sure you can call that butchering. But maybe I've missed your point, because that whole post was pretty confused from start to finish.

I'm talking mainly about the pronunciation of AE as [a.i]. Thinking that in latin E was pronounced as [.i] is absolutely retarded, because that's the anglo pronunciation of that letter.

CAELUM (Sky) is a good example. In italian is cielo [/'tʃɛlo/], in spanish cielo [sje.lo], in french is ciel [\sjɛl\]. The pronunciation of the E is consistent in those 3 romance languages, which means that it must have been pronunciated like that in latin too. The same if for CAESAR.

Thinking that CAESAR is pronounced similar to Kaiser is ridiculous, when all the romance languages, which are direct discendants of latin, pronounce it differently.

Besides, Vox Latina is too limited. "The pronunciation of classical latin" means nothing because classical latin was for the most part a written language, and it was not the language spoken by the people (and by Caesar), that was vulgar latin.

I don't think it's an error made on purpose to give more characterization to Caesar.

I'm not commenting on the correct pronouciation of Latin but that reasoning is.... not good. Consonants become vowels all the time as languages evovle.

Nordic languages used to have hard f's instead of v's in words like höffding->höfvding->hövding for example. Or more recently mig->mej (me).

Did they use hard c's in Latin? I have no fucking idea but taking the current pronouciation of descendant languages as evidence of historical pronouciation 2000 years ago is some pretty wild speculation at best.

 

[moon knight]

I'm not commenting on the correct pronouciation of Latin but that reasoning is retarded. Consonants become vowels all the time as languages evovle.

Nordic languages used to have hard f's instead of v's in words like höffding->höfvding->hövding for example.

Did they use hard c's in Latin? I have no fucking idea but taking the current pronouciation of descendant languages as evidence of historical pronouciation 2000 years ago is some pretty wild speculation at best.

The same exactly evolution in three and more different languages? That seems an unlikely coincidence. The easier explanation is that it was already common pronunciation in the linguistical ancestor of these romance languages, which is vulgar latin.

 

[Riddler]

I'm not commenting on the correct pronouciation of Latin but that reasoning is retarded. Consonants become vowels all the time as languages evovle.

Nordic languages used to have hard f's instead of v's in words like höffding->höfvding->hövding for example.

Did they use hard c's in Latin? I have no fucking idea but taking the current pronouciation of descendant languages as evidence of historical pronouciation 2000 years ago is some pretty wild speculation at best.

The same exactly evolution in three and more different languages? That seems an unlikely coincidence. The easier explanation is that it was already common pronunciation in the linguistical ancestor of these romance languages, which is vulgar latin.

It only means that it was more common and likely spoken by the more numerous lower classes, not that classical Latin/standard Latin wasn't spoken.

 

[2house2fly]

The narrative doesn't require Caesar to be correct about Latin(or anything related to ancient Rome) so whether it's wrong on purpose doesn't really matter

 

[pomenitul]

Chances are classical Latin was pronounced differently from vulgar Latin, with the proviso that the Empire was too immense and diverse to ensure a uniformly accented idiom anyway. This blog post sums it up nicely: http://www.carmentablog.com/2016/11/24/correct-latin-pronunciation-classical-ecclesiastical/

But the main point is indeed that it doesn't fucking matter since New Vegas's Legion is a necessarily anachronistic attempt at bringing back the Roman Empire. Or are we going to upbraid the devs for making The Kings insufficiently consistent with the historical Elvis Presley?

 

[LESS T_T]

gumi, the Japanese company that did equity investment on inXile, announced the selling of inXile shares they own: (Japanese) https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/3903/tdnet/1652810/00.pdf

MS paid gumi 92 million yen (810K USD~). Unfortunately they never announced the amount of shares they had, so no good extrapolation.

Wasteland: Frost Point will still be published by gumi, if you care.

 

[Zakhad]

(beside the butchered pronunciation of latin)

WTF are you on about? Legion largely follows Allen's Vox Latina. Which makes sense since they were taught how to speak it by Caesar, who's an educated man from an Anglophone country and so would have learned to speak it that way. I know Europeans pronounce it more like Italian, and sweaty nerds on the internet pronounce it like they're LARPing a 40k space marine, but Vox Latina has some decent scholarship to support it so I'm not sure you can call that butchering. But maybe I've missed your point, because that whole post was pretty confused from start to finish.

I'm talking mainly about the pronunciation of AE as [a.i]. Thinking that in latin E was pronounced as [.i] is absolutely retarded, because that's the anglo pronunciation of that letter.

CAELUM (Sky) is a good example. In italian is cielo [/'tʃɛlo/], in spanish cielo [sje.lo], in french is ciel [\sjɛl\]. The pronunciation of the E is consistent in those 3 romance languages, which means that it must have been pronunciated like that in latin too. The same if for CAESAR.

Thinking that CAESAR is pronounced similar to Kaiser is ridiculous, when all the romance languages, which are direct discendants of latin, pronounce it differently.

Besides, Vox Latina is too limited. "The pronunciation of classical latin" means nothing because classical latin was for the most part a written language, and it was not the language spoken by the people (and by Caesar), that was vulgar latin.

I don't think it's an error made on purpose to give more characterization to Caesar.

A: That all descendent languages do something doesn't mean that the original language did. Otherwise you could make the argument that Latin didn't use the ablative, since French, Spanish, and Italian do not.
B: modern French and co. are descended from peasant Latin (vulgar Latin) as you seem to know.
C: but classical Latin WAS spoken, by the upper classes, and that's what Caesar is basing his Latin on, not on some forgotten street Latin. They wrote down speeches.
D: this misses another larger point, that there were likely many different "vulgar" Latins. We see this from the remark that Livy showed patavinitas in his writing. So beyond accent, there were recognisable Latin dialects from the word go. The real Caesar would have spoken both dialect and classical Latin, just as an educated Wu speaker can also speak fluent Mandarin. To argue that commonalities show an original common pronunciation makes even less sense if we admit this, since we can't know how much of the modern Romance languages is just convergent evolution or even influence of each on the other.
E: we do see interesting use of dialect by some upper class Romans (e.g. Catiline's letter repeated in Sallust) but it's hard to know if this is really a vulgar dialect or is rather yet another dialect spoken by upper-class Romans, just as RP is not identical with upper class British and just as Mandarin is based on Beijing accent but does not repeat all the weird quirks of Beijing accent or Beijing dialect.
F: in short, this is at most an academic disagreement and not enough to call one side "butchering."
G: and it misses the whole point since the legion wasn't trying to speak vulgar Latin anyway, as I mentioned in C.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I'm talking mainly about the pronunciation of AE as [a.i]. Thinking that in latin E was pronounced as [.i] is absolutely retarded, because that's the anglo pronunciation of that letter.

CAELUM (Sky) is a good example. In italian is cielo [/'tʃɛlo/], in spanish cielo [sje.lo], in french is ciel [\sjɛl\]. The pronunciation of the E is consistent in those 3 romance languages, which means that it must have been pronunciated like that in latin too. The same if for CAESAR.

Thinking that CAESAR is pronounced similar to Kaiser is ridiculous, when all the romance languages, which are direct discendants of latin, pronounce it differently.

Besides, Vox Latina is too limited. "The pronunciation of classical latin" means nothing because classical latin was for the most part a written language, and it was not the language spoken by the people (and by Caesar), that was vulgar latin.

I don't think it's an error made on purpose to give more characterization to Caesar.

Codexers love arguing without doing minimum reading, but then most people are like that
1. https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-pronounce-Caesar-Is-it-Caesar-or-Kaiser
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar#Name_and_family
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centum_and_satem_languages#Centum_languages

Edit: "caelum" is also pronounced with a "k": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caelum

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Phil Spencer is so cool sis!

https://twinfinite.net/2018/12/phil-spencer-xbox-failure-pc-dna/

Spencer also talked about Xbox’s acquisition (or more precisely the signing of the LOI for the acquisition) of inXile and Obsidian Games. He explained that one of the things he really loves about those studios is that the kind of games that they do are great for Microsoft’s lineup.

“When I look at those studios they have a history of building great RPGs. I love PC RPGs and I grew up playing games like Baldur’s Gate and MMOs like Ultima Online… The kind of asymmetric RPG history these studios have… I don’t know if that’s exactly what they’re gonna do going forward, they have creative freedom on what they’re gonna go do. But I will say the thing that’s exciting for me about those studios is what those studios are today and where they come from, not something about what we need to turn them into. I love what they are right now and when I think about where our platform and services are going, we know we need to have more PC DNA inside of our Studios teams, not solely for PC, but clearly, games that have come from PC.”

lol Phil is such a dad

asymmetric RPG

Spencer also feels that it’s good to have three Xbox studios in southern California. Like what Microsoft is building in the U.K., it’s cool to have centers where teams can get together. This is something Rare did with Playground Games and Ninja Theory after their acquisition. There is a lot of creative sharing between the teams, and it “can only lead to good things happening.”

Another element that Spencer mentioned as relevant is Microsoft’s ability to bring stability for those studios and increase the funding for their games. Both studios have the capability to do great games, but there is potential in them that the partnership with Xbox and Microsoft can help them realize. The goal is to make those studios the best at what they are, using the resources Microsoft has as a platform holder and a more diverse business as opposed to one studio running one franchise.

How dreamy is it that Obsidian and Microsoft’s secret star team AAAA studio The Initiative will be helping each other out and Inxile will get so much help too!

 

[Nano]

When I look at those studios they have a history of building great RPGs. I love PC RPGs and I grew up playing games like Baldur’s Gate and MMOs like Ultima Online

This quote gives me a feeling that he actually doesn't know shit.

 

[DayofBlow]

When I look at those studios they have a history of building great RPGs. I love PC RPGs and I grew up playing games like Baldur’s Gate and MMOs like Ultima Online

This quote gives me a feeling that he actually doesn't know shit.

He'd have been 30 when those games came out. What games did he grow up with in the '70s that were like either of those.

 

[luj1]

Microsoft, Obsidian and inXile kind of belong together because they're all equally incompetent. To be honest I can't wait to make fun of the crap they will produce together.

 

[typical user]

I don't have time to sift through 72 pages of garbage so let me ask a serious question. If Obsidian and InXile were to work together on ARPG game with small budget on behalf of Microsoft, would it really be bad? Like if they were to work on Fable 4 or something?

 

[Roguey]

He'd have been 30 when those games came out. What games did he grow up with in the '70s that were like either of those.

Rogue, Wizardry, Ultima I.

 

[Diggfinger]

sigh sorry for the double post guys, but Jason Schreier (the dude that writes for Kotaku and wrote about the Obsidian/Microsoft sale) just said that the Obsidian/Microsoft deal is still in the same place it was last month and still not 100% finalized. My hype for XO18 is officially done, I can't even

(the one hope is that since most of the E3 studio announcements Microsoft made at e3 weren't 100% finalised either, that Josh Sawyer could still show up on stage and announce the sale and show off The Outer Worlds for the Xbox One)

you can find more info on this page, I still don't really know how to link to specific posts sorry: https://www.resetera.com/threads/mi...supposed-to-be-sold-off-by-now.75600/page-120

(Sorry if I ruined anyone else's hype, I thought you girls would like to know)

Josh Sawyer??

He has nothing to do with Tim and Leo's project;
furiouspeachcollectionlove asked:

Are you involved with the project being announced on Thursday?

"Only in an advisory capacity. I’m not doing any direct work on it."

 

[Fairfax]

Sawyer casually confirming that his Executive Producer role is cost padding bullshit.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Josh Sawyer??

He has nothing to do with Tim and Leo's project;
furiouspeachcollectionlove asked:

Are you involved with the project being announced on Thursday?

"Only in an advisory capacity. I’m not doing any direct work on it."

Josh is legit their best public speaker and looks like an older Cole Sprouse. Why wouldn't you want him to announce your game and studio sale (no offense tim, leonard and feargus)?