Obsidian and inXile acquired by Microsoft

[Latelistener]

Josh is legit their best public speaker

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

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.

Watch some of the unscripted interviews Phil Spencer does with Giant Bomb after every E3. He's absolutely a serious gamer, or at least as serious as you can reasonably expect from a high level corporate VIP. Game industry would be much healthier place if other big publishers had someone like that at the helm.

 

[Cross]

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.

Watch some of the unscripted interviews Phil Spencer does with Giant Bomb after every E3. He's absolutely a serious gamer, or at least as serious as you can reasonably expect from a high level corporate VIP. Game industry would be much healthier place if other big publishers had someone like that at the helm.

 

[DragoFireheart]

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.

Maybe they'll make something so bad it'll be good.

 

[Volrath]

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.

Maybe they'll make something so bad it'll be good.

Spoiler

they won't

 

[taomcio]

When I think of Phil Spencer's 'gaming' background, I always like to remind words of Frank Zappa about executives in music industry

 

[Big Wrangle]

In PR, rhetoric is king.

 

[luj1]

Ask Pete Hines

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Did anyone else catch that Josh was talking about playing Skyrim on his twitter?? Didn't Josh say on tumblr before that he played a ton of Bethesda's Fallout games before making Fallout: New Vegas!?



Could he be working on Obsidian's new Microsoft skyrim game (that Chris leaked earlier in this thread)!!?



lol sorry I know this is all speculation but still pretty fun to gossip about tho, right?

 

[DragoFireheart]

what retard plays Skyrim nowindays:

Breath of the Wild
Morrowind
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There I gave ya four alternatives to shitty Skyrim.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

what retard plays Skyrim nowindays:

Breath of the Wild
Morrowind
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There I gave ya four alternatives to shitty Skyrim.

the kind of retard who wants to make a game that sells as well as Skyrim.

 

[Quillon]

what retard plays Skyrim nowindays:

Breath of the Wild
Morrowind
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There I gave ya four alternatives to shitty Skyrim.

the kind of retard who wants to make a game that sells as well as Skyrim.

hmn, 3rd action PoE next then? :D

 

[AwesomeButton]

Ask Pete Hines

In fact I am informed that what you see there is known as "The Pete Hines Smile".

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

what retard plays Skyrim nowindays:

Breath of the Wild
Morrowind
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There I gave ya four alternatives to shitty Skyrim.

the kind of retard who wants to make a game that sells as well as Skyrim.

hmn, 3rd action PoE next then? :D

MCA said that Chris Parker wants to make something like Skyrim now that they have Microsoft money:

Spoiler

Sure. Now Feargus can get that 30 mil budget he once asked for BG3 but....

So it's slightly worse than that. Forget BG.

The indications from Obs. is that Chris Parker is calling the shots for the next "AAA" project (his shallow take: "hey, I get to make Skyrim!"), so I'm already done even if ol' "hope my employees guess frame of mind today" Chris Parker's management style wastes countless dollars and time. (To his defense, he learned this shit-stained argument from Fergie McFerg who would change his mind on a daily basis and not tell anyone - but what I can't condone from Parker is how pig-eager he embraced it, and also, how he was the best person to... "realize" it. Cue sad trombones - all of them, everywhere.)

But in terms of money vs. time: MS has the former (dollars) to spare... the best part, is the secondary part, time, which is a FAR more rare resource for MS.

Eventually, regardless of terrible producer/exec producer* demands, you need to deliver on something players want/may want... and I'd never want to play a Chris Parker-inspired game, esp. if it was one Fergus agreed to... without profanity.

(But as the PoE1 KS video showed [and you can hear], there's a LOT of profanity between clashing owners and clashing viewpoints. Nick? Were you there? Sure you were - you heard it. It's okay. It made me uncomfortable and feel shitty, too.)

* Chris Parker has been - ughhhh, Nick you had a chance - identified as the next, best EP for this shitshow. Be stronger, Nick. Fight for your love of games. Fight for Obsidian.

If Josh is playing Skyrim, my guess would be that it’s market research for this project. TES games are painfully boring ennui simulators (including the older ones), but business is business.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Imagine Chris Parker's Skyrim, fused with Far Cry and Assassin's Creed (pushed by MS), one game to rule them all. Produced by Fargo. Directed by Parker and Ferg. Balancing by Sawyer. QA by BT4 testers.

Need I go more?

I don't even.

 

[Delterius]

what retard plays Skyrim nowindays:

Breath of the Wild
Morrowind
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There I gave ya four alternatives to shitty Skyrim.

WTF?

You seriously trashtalk Skyrim, then suggest Zelda? ZELDA?

Seriously, 70% of this forum are just edgy shitposters trashtalking popular games because they think that makes them look cool.

As for Dragon's Dogma, for the love of GOD, just post in the weeaboo section. WTF IS THAT POPAMOLE SHIT!

You people have SHIT TASTE IN RPGs...

but zelda is pretty great

 

[Quillon]

Who is Zelda?

 

[Delterius]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Who is Zelda?

the guy who saves the princess

 

[Quillon]

Who is Zelda?

the guy who saves the princess

but who Zelda really is? what's his likes? dislikes? tell me everything! or provide a link

 

[DragoFireheart]

Who is Zelda?

the guy who saves the princess

but who Zelda really is? what's his likes? dislikes? tell me everything! or provide a link

ugh

 

[Delterius]

Who is Zelda?

the guy who saves the princess

but who Zelda really is? what's his likes? dislikes? tell me everything! or provide a link

zelda likes you quillon

 

[Spectacle]

If Microsoft buys ZionMax next, we just might get to see a new Fallout game made by Obsidian...

 

[2house2fly]

He means Zenimax. He renamed it in his post so as to suggest that the company is largely staffed by Jews.

 

[LESS T_T]

Fargo listened to mustawd., and provided things Codex to chew: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...o-i-spent-50-percent-of-my-time-raising-money

Brian Fargo: “I spent 50% of my time raising money”
InXile on Game Pass and why becoming a part of Microsoft is the 'holy grail' for ambitious games developers

Life as a mid-sized independent games development studio must be terrifying at times.

Companies like Remedy or Ninja Theory, which make these wonderful, high quality games that are sort-of-but-not-quite AAA projects. Games that are single-player, mostly, with a dedicated audience that isn't quite big enough to justify the big budgets.

We speak to these companies all the time about survival. And it's often about trying new things, being careful with budgets, and always, always, always raising money -- hoping to find that magic hit to take them to the next level.

"It's always been difficult for development companies to become self-sustaining no matter which business model you are using," says Brian Fargo, CEO of InXile.

"At least 50% of my time is in fundraising and we have so little room for error. It generally takes a mega hit to break you out of the cycle and that is always hard to come by. A mid-size hit is nice, but the after-tax monies from that generally support another five to six months of payroll and leave you back on the hamster wheel. It turns out that talented game developers are expensive. My friends always like to comment that I should 'just make a Fortnite or Minecraft'."

So it must be exciting to those stuck on the funding treadmill to hear that Microsoft, which has historically been only interested in high-end AAA studios, is openly acquiring mid-size game developers such as Ninja Theory, InXile, Obsidian and Undead Labs.

Or at least it would be exciting if it were not for Microsoft's inconsistent track record with development studios. Although the likes of Rare, Turn 10, and Mojang might speak warmly of their parent company, the former employees of Ensemble, BigPark and Lionhead might feel differently.

"It's a natural thing for gamers to worry about, but Microsoft was very clear in their desire to give us resources to improve our quality while we continue to bring our unique style of games to our fans," Fargo reassures.

"We also spent quite a bit of time with the development groups they purchased and their teams could not have been more enthusiastic about how fortunate they felt to finally be given the time and money to create. I only know the Microsoft under Phil Spencer and Matt Booty and they are passionate gamers who care deeply about supporting talent. More important than words and promises will be the games that come from us in the future, that will be the proof."



InXile makes RPG experiences such as the upcoming Wasteland 3


Microsoft's decision to acquire these businesses comes from a different place, too. InXile's titles are not exactly expected to drive hardware adoption of Xbox consoles. The studio has been picked up to deliver games into the Game Pass subscription platform.

Halo, Gears of War, Forza, Sea of Thieves... these titles are expected to drive adoption of the subscription service. Yet these games take years and years to craft. Xbox is looking for content to fill the months in-between the big launches. They're looking for titles to keep people engaged in Game Pass as they await the next major game in the Crackdown universe.

Some of those games will be legacy titles from third-party publishers, some will be from indie creators, and some will come from the likes of InXile, Obsidian, Compulsion Games and Undead Labs.

On paper, you can see how this appeals to mid-sized development teams. They can create the games they want without the pressure to deliver big numbers. They can also reach an audience of people who perhaps would not have played their games previously. Similar to how Netflix encourages people to try different shows as they await the next series of Stranger Things.

"As a creator, all I care about is getting our games in front of millions of people so we can watch them play and hear about their experience," Fargo enthuses. "Game Pass immediately provides us that audience and gives us more energy to focus on creativity rather than worrying about things like monetisation. I also see it as a vehicle to allow developers to take more creative risk with their games. I think Netflix is a good example of a subscription service that allows an offering of artistic content that was unlikely to be financed otherwise. Buster Scruggs seems like a fine example of that."

He continues: "It is an absolute benefit to have a business model that allows Microsoft to support our dreams. The stable of development support we'll have access to is unlike anything that we've used before. We were blown away by the tools we'll be able to use that will allow us to hone our craft."

InXile says Microsoft offers more than just the freedom from worrying about money. There's the resources of all those development teams (Microsoft's development family now features 13 studios), and the possibility to work on some of Xbox's existing brands (although Fargo says the team is currently focused on their own IP). There's also the financial backing that will enable the team to add experts in cinematics, audio and animation to the team.

"Our money raised through crowdfunding was a wonderful catalyst to get us back in the saddle making the kind of games that speak directly to our fans. That said, we were always well aware of the in-house disciplines we were missing. The benefit to having talent focused on specific areas of game creation can have a profound effect on the overall experience. A few key positions we're looking to hire will allow our games to shine like never before. Gamers are very discerning, and they notice when a team adds that extra little touch or when things are tightly integrated."

Fargo concludes: "Spending 100 per cent of our energy making games with the resources we only dreamed of in the past. It's the holy grail for an ambitious developer."