Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Once Avowed bombs and The Outer Worlds sequel sells much less than the original, Obsidian will be left with Grounded as its only true success since Fallout: New Vegas in 2010.

 

[duskvile]

I hope they could pull off 3rd person character combat but isometric will be fine too.

 

[luj1]

Once Avowed bombs and The Outer Worlds sequel sells much less than the original, Obsidian will be left with Grounded as its only true success since Fallout: New Vegas in 2010.

sad but true

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Behold, your new favorite tune.

 

[cyborgboy95]

From Windowcentral

Xbox developer Obsidian Entertainment already has a number of projects in the works, but there's one other Xbox IP that CEO Feargus Urquhart would like to explore.


During an interview with Tom Caswell on the new Hit the Limit Break podcast, Urquhart was asked if there was a non-Fallout Xbox IP that he'd like to see Obsidian work on. Urquhart immediately responded with Shadowrun, noting that he'd asked to see the list of IP Microsoft owned shortly after Obsidian was purchased and added to Xbox Game Studios.


"I love Shadowrun. I think it's super cool," he says, adding that "If you had to pin me down on one, yes, Shadowrun is the one. I bought the book when it first came out, I probably own four of the six editions, I think it's a super cool IP.

Dou you guys think is there any chance the unannounced third rpg project from Obsidian is an isometric Shadowrun crpg? Oh who am I kidding, it will probably be Grounded 2 isn't it.

 

[duskvile]

Dou you guys think is there any chance the unannounced third rpg project from Obsidian is an isometric Shadowrun crpg? Oh who am I kidding, it will probably be Grounded 2 isn't it.

Maybe as first person RPG. My wish is to be akin to Deus Ex, an immersive sim RPG.

 

[Morgoth]

Shadowrun seems more feasible than taking on another giant Fallout game. As long as they won't further pursue Avoid 2 / Pillars 3 I'm okay with this.

 

[Butter]

A first-person Shadowrun that plays like Deus Ex or Bloodlines would be pretty sweet. Are Obsidian the ones to deliver that though? I'm a bit tired of being told to manage my expectations and be grateful for short and shallow.

 

[MjKorz]

Shadowrun seems more feasible than taking on another giant Fallout game.

Does Microshaft own the Shadowrun license?

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe you should post the original YouTube interview, which has an amusing title:

00:00 - Intro
00:55 - Differences in the game industry now vs then
01:59 - How Feargus would spend his time if he weren't in gaming
02:52 - A game Feargus has played recently indicative of gaming's future
05:34 - A video game Feargus would wipe from his memory to experience fresh
07:23 - Is this the most tumultuous time in the gaming industry?
10:11 - What Obsidian has learned from Baldur's Gate III
17:01 - How Obsidian juggles so many projects
19:35 - Feargus' views on talent retention
23:28 - Feargus' thoughts on the Fallout TV show
25:53 - Would Fallout get made in today's gaming industry?
29:56 - Status of Fallout: New Vegas 2
32:02 - What other Xbox IP would Feargus want to work on?
33:46 - Alpha Protocol 2: Beta Initiative
36:18 - New details on Dwarfs
39:38 - The state of licensing IP
44:45 - Obsidian during Xbox studio closures
50:58 - What would Feargus fix about the industry?
55:52 - Feargus' thoughts on subscription models
01:00:38 - Changes to Avowed in the last year
01:02:50 - Status of Outer Worlds 2

 

[Roguey]

Feargus wearing a baseball cap indoors, guy's self-conscious about how bald he's become.

He was impressed with Hogwarts Legacy.

The most tumultuous time for him would be the death of PC gaming before Valve saved it.

He's only played a bit of BG3, been way too busy.

He acknowledges that Obsidian focuses on content over tech.

He thought the Fallout tv show was "super cool." Would love to make another Fallout game of course.

Like Tim Cain, another fellow who pronounces it "gog" instead of "gee oh gee."

He claims that Outer Worlds 2 development has been going well (in contrast to Avowed's troubled development )

"We were a crappy developer for a year, a year and a half" during covid. Honesty.

 

[Infinitron]

Disclosure: this interview was a part of a paid opportunity to host Obsidian's PAX West 2024 panel. At the panel, a shorter edit of this interview was shown. We have since received permission to share the whole interview with our audience.

In it, Pillars of Eternity architect Josh Sawyer talks about the development process for the two games, what his contribution to Avowed looks like, and where we could see the Pillars franchise go next.

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - Coming up with Pillars
03:43 - Where concepts came from
06:23 - Modernizing Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale
13:13 - How the Pillars games line up with Josh's initial vision
18:07 - Josh's involvement with Avowed
22:30 - The team pitching a Pillars tactics game

 

[Roguey]

Josh says Pillars ended up more traditional than he expected, tried to pull away from that in Deadfire.

Thinks the people who insist on six character parties are wrong, it's one too many.

Multiple people on the studio are on board with making a lower-budget Pillars tactics game but there's a lot of issues regarding how many people can/should be involved holding it up from getting the greenlight.

 

[Tyranicon]

pillars is a dead setting, it will never not be a nonstarter, it stinks of an universe nobody wanted to make

Also, the worldbuilding is just uninteresting. The only thing I know of Eora is that for some reason they had clearly recognizable Renaissance Italians and they made them look like this:

This is something they seriously thought was a good idea.

 

[Habichtswalder]

Josh says in the video that his vision was to take elements from all Infinity engine games and put them in a single setting. The setting should also take several classic elements from different DnD settings to make people feel familiar.

And I really think this approach is the main problem with Pillars. They added so many lore elements that all felt forgettable in the end. Their attempts to make EVERYTHING epic lead to nothing feeling special.

 

[Butter]

pillars is a dead setting, it will never not be a nonstarter, it stinks of an universe nobody wanted to make

Also, the worldbuilding is just uninteresting. The only thing I know of Eora is that for some reason they had clearly recognizable Renaissance Italians and they made them look like this:

View attachment 55546

This is something they seriously thought was a good idea.

From the people who brought you guls and fampyrs. This is really the extent of their creativity.

 

[frajaq]

Trust in Avowed

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

He thought the Fallout tv show was "super cool." Would love to make another Fallout game of course.

That's his destiny in his final form, franchise provider, Raven Software-style.

Don't see how either Avowed nor TOW2 would impress MS enough, unless they become completely unexpected smash hits. In particular since, you know, it's been ten years since FO4. And like two generations of Xbox since Skyrim too. Those are rookie numbers, gotta pump them up.

 

[laclongquan]

The SUNSET SARPARRILLA Puzzle in Sierra Madre

If any of you have a chance to interview MCA or Josh, do ask them is there any reason there's no handplacement of SS bottles in Sierra Madre. If there's any that's because of leveled list (aka automation).

Please~

 

[OSK]

The only thing I know of Eora is that for some reason they had clearly recognizable Renaissance Italians and they made them look like this:

View attachment 55546

This is something they seriously thought was a good idea.

Italians did look like that at one point. They've only gotten a little lighter over the years.