Layoffs Hit Obsidian Entertainment, Number Affected Unknown

That's sad to hear.

I doubt most of the bugs in Fallout New Vegas were even their fault. They're working with the creaky Gamebryo engine, the one Morrowind used, and it's not like Fallout 3 itself was free of glitches. The publisher, (Bethesda) probably rushed FNV out the door before it was properly QA'd

" Wish everyone good luck. 

And go and make Alpha Protocol 2.

"

Wish everyone good luck. 

" @Gizmo said:

"
                That's what you get for shipping buggy-ass games, Obsidian.
            "

Please don't make such hatefull comments, sure they've released some games with bugs in them but jeez, have some class Gizmo!

Even Patrick said in the article that this sort of things happens on quite a regular basis at the end of making a video game, when they've finished working on a certain game.

And Obsidian still exists to a fully working degree. So what sort of things were you thinking when you typed your comment?

"

I hope these are non-newsworthy planned layoffs, as Obsidian are the only major RPG developer outside of Europe not kicking the genre's corpse.

I kind of like Fallout 1 and I loved New Vegas, but I hated New Vegas (confused?), yeah, I had epic beef with the Xbox 360 version of New Vegas, the load times were obscene.

Hopefully it was their betatesters. Zing.

NO!

Who are going to make buggier sequels to already buggy games ?

" Too bad.  New Vegas was fantastic.  Much better than Fallout 3.  I wish it had better DLC. "

Well the good thing is, they can always be brought back if things pick up and turn for the better, I have faith in them and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them by any stretch of the imagination, and for the record if you think FOnv was a horrid game you are insane, not saying it's the greatest but it's clearly not horrid It's above the middle of the pack just under great.  

Depressing. I've pretty much loved everything Obsidian put out. Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions were great. Alpha Protocol was great. Fallout New Vegas was my game of the year. Ugh, who am I supposed to get quality RPGs from now?

That is really unfortunate. I love these guys even though I didn't play New Vegas and Alpha Protocol yet. The stuff they did before that was always interesting and unique if a bit janky at times. Hopefully they'll continue to make cool games for a while.

Okay - I liked New Vegas a lot. And it's always sad when someone loses their job.

I skipped new vegas.  it didnt look as interesting as fallout 3 and people said it was even buggier (!)

I think Obsidian should have just been given the Fallout license full time.  Bethesda Game Studios is great at making long cave networks and vast dungeons to explore, Obsidian is capable of making an incredibly branching story offering tons of player choice.  That is Fallout.  Vast dungeons are Elder Scrolls.

It's sad but it seemed inevitable. As great as they were at a lot of aspects, they've also been pretty consistently buggy. It's always felt like it was going to catch up with them sooner of later.

Hopefully they can get jobs elsewhere, maybe go onto bigger and better things.

A shame to hear, but it is a unfortunate part of reality in this day and age.

I still have my fingers crossed for a Fallout: New Vegas GOTY Edition with all DLC included and perhaps some changes to address the bugs and glitching that hampered this great game.

I like Obsidian because they try new things and their stories don't suck ass.

When you consider that the last really great game they made was almost a decade ago, that kind of makes sense, right?

I guess i wont ever get to play Alpha Protocol 2, man thats a shame cause i really like both Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol

"
                That's what you get for shipping buggy-ass games, Obsidian.
            "

Please don't make such hatefull comments, sure they've released some games with bugs in them but jeez, have some class Gizmo!

Even Patrick said in the article that this sort of things happens on quite a regular basis at the end of making a video game, when they've finished working on a certain game.

And Obsidian still exists to a fully working degree. So what sort of things were you thinking when you typed your comment?

I blame Matt Rorie.

Damn it, it just f-ing sucks Obsidian is a pretty good RPG developer...Not to mention some people who were in Black Isles are, or used to be in Obsidian. 

@Delta_Ass: BURN IN HELL MONSTER *pulls trigger* 

In the class of 2010 school book of the video game industry Obsidian was voted "Most likely big name studio to fail!"

That's what you get for shipping buggy-ass games, Obsidian.

" Well, they released KOTOR 2 and it was an okay game.Then they released Neverwinter Nights 2 and it was a horrible game.Then they released Alpha Protocol and it was a horrible game.Then they released Fallout New Vegas and it was a horrible game.I gotta say, I kinda saw this coming. "

Hard to feel too concerned about any of these anymore tbh, it just seems to be how the industry operates nowadays.  Are these guys staying out of work for extended periods of time, or are they just getting picked up by some other project in a different part of the cycle?  I would assume it's the latter given the quantity and quality of games still coming out.

Hopefully Obsidian have at least one project in the pipe for after Dungeon Siege 3 comes out (any news on that?).  I can't imagine they're in too much trouble given the success of New Vegas. 

Personally, I've enjoyed every game they've put out, and DS3 looks alright too.  One of my favourite devs for sure.

While it's probably partially because of DS3 completion, I have to imagine the failure of Alpha Protocol and death of the Aliens RPG must also have a hand in it. Here's hoping all those let go can land on their feet quickly.

Really hate to hear that, especially after New Vegas doing so well. The only weird thing was the lack of downloadable content information after Dead Money was out, they left it too long and the buzz around the game has pretty much burned out now.

" Delta_Ass said:

" Well, they released KOTOR 2 and it was an okay game.Then they released Neverwinter Nights 2 and it was a horrible game.Then they released Alpha Protocol and it was a horrible game.Then they released Fallout New Vegas and it was a horrible game.I gotta say, I kinda saw this coming. "

Except, you know, three of those four games are great, and the third is ok if you like D&D. "

That sucks, I really liked what Obsidian did with Fallout New Vegas.

Obsidian =/= Black Isle.

That's a bummer. Even though I think Obsidian isn't an especially amazing game developer (I think NWN 2 is alright and New Vegas is genuinely better than Fallout 3. KotOR 2 and Alpha Protocol can go die in a hole), people losing jobs is always bad. Hopefully Dungeon Siege III will do well for them, even though exactly 0% of that game interests me.

"

Sorry for those folks.  Surely they'll land on their feet somewhere.

Can anyone tell me were all the bugs and kinks finally ironed out from New Vegas??  That game had a lot of potential, but I had to stop due to all kinds of issues.

"

I loved Alpha Protocol; I'm sorry that wasn't a hit from them.  That said, it's always the same lack of polish/poor QA thing that tarnishes each of their games.

I hope Bethesda buys Obsidian.

Wait! Obsidian is making DS3? How had I not noticed this?

God Damn... And I was looking forward to that one after enjoying 2. It's off my list now.
These guys are the worst game dev ever from a technical standpoint. They've never released anything that wasn't a buggy mess.

And they still haven't announced when the next Fallout: New Vegas DLC is coming either.

Man this really sucks, I really enjoyed both Alpha Protocol and New Vegas. My thoughts go out to all those laid off.

I played Alpha Protocol for the first time this year and I think that game got a bad rap.  If you could get passed the original Mass Effect combat foibles you can enjoy Alpha Protocol.

" @Laketown said:

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "

one day people will learn that obsidian does not do much of it's own testing, the publishers do.also this is mad sad :( "

uhhh, then what does a "quality assurance tester" do exactly.

" @Laketown said:

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "

one day people will learn that obsidian does not do much of it's own testing, the publishers do. "

Yeah and those people are like yo we can't ship this game it's crazy broken, and Zeni-max still puts the game out.  "

Alpha Protocol was in development for a long time and look at how that turned out, it's not just the "rushed" fallout sequel I'm talking about guys. "

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "

one day people will learn that obsidian does not do much of it's own testing, the publishers do.also this is mad sad :( "

" @Laketown said:

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "

one day people will learn that obsidian does not do much of it's own testing, the publishers do. "

Yeah and those people are like yo we can't ship this game it's crazy broken, and Zeni-max still puts the game out.  "

" Speaking of Dead Money, was that ever released for PC? I gave up checking after the first couple of months, and just uninstalled FNV 'cuz I needed the SSD harddrive space. "

:(  I loved New Vegas and Kotor 2

" @blacklabeldomm said:

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "

one day people will learn that obsidian does not do much of it's own testing, the publishers do. "

" "Quality assurance tester..."nuff saidbut still people losing jobs is never a good thing, hope they get back on their feet soon. "