Fairfax, that's true enough.
But my original suggestion stands: don't support games where Sawyer is involved.
That's a bit extreme. I'll definitely support games where he's not the project lead, or I'll buy them when they're extremely cheap at best.
So, MCA left Obsidian over how bad PoE actually was? I really hope the people over at Exile give him WAY more control over the content of the next Torment.
No one besides MCA, Fergus and whoever else was involved does. He did post this on facebook:
Honestly, I can't imagine one disagreement that could single-handedly make MCA leave. It was probably due to numerous things that were bothering him over time and it reached a breaking point more recently. None of the employees have said a word about it, he's not mentioned anymore and neither is his work (notice how they comissioned more art for PoE where Durance and the Grieving Mother are absent, just like every other artwork), not even the novella he said he's still going to deliver and is being edited.
What we do know is that he was having his role consistently reduced over the years. He became lead designer(and lead writer, I think?) for AP then director in 3/4 of FNV's DLCs.
After that he never got the same kind of role again. Not even in the company's cancelled projects, apparently. He then worked on Wasteland 2, FTL (for free) and PoE (we know how that turned out).
After 7 or 8 games without a meaningful role, as Creative Director, co-owner and co-founder of the company I'd be pretty pissed, but we don't know that he was.
As for Torment, do you mean Tides of Numenera or a potential sequel? Because even though he seems to be doing more stuff than he did in PoE, he's not calling the shots there either. Hopefully they'll stick to the original Torment's vision document and follow it like a bible. That would give us a remotely similar experience, at least.