Kotaku: Microsoft is Close To Buying Obsidian (Sources)

Isn't that the song everyone loves? I don't even know which song could be called underrated. An album like that probably doesn't have one.

@mavs: It's definitely a gem like everything else on the album but I've more than once seen it buried beneath the exemplars that are "The Chain", "Go Your Own Way", or "Don't Stop".

It's official.

Also inXile? Huh.

With inXile this totally feels like a We Still Make PC Games movement.

I think it'll all work out well.

Mouse and Keyboard support being added to the XBO also bodes well for people who want Obsidian to continue to make classic CRPG style games.

Personally i'd rather they tried something new and more ambitious.

I for one want Alpha Protocol 2.

I'm glad to hear they're keeping Obsidian and InExile separate, but I bet that won't last long if one of them crashes and burns. In any case, I'm very curious to see what kind of games they'll be making. Are Microsoft looking for them to continue working on stuff like Wasteland and Pillars or are they aiming to establish Sony-like single-player tentpoles franchises? I'd be down for either, honestly.

Give Obsidian the time and money to make Alpha Protocol 2, you cowards.

Man Inxile as well eh? Crossing my fingers and my toes on this one.

Really excited to see what both studios can do with a AAA budget and time(im assuming we won't see their MS games until next gen)

InXile too? I'm not sure they were worth going after, but I guess Microsoft wants to make a statement about... RPGs, or PC gaming, or something. I still have a sour taste in my mouth from Torment: Tides of Numenera, but maybe The Bard's Tale IV will actually serve me better once they finish patching all of the bugs and performance issues out.

I still reserve the right to be cynical about all of this. Maybe this Microsoft money will be a good thing, and they can finally make something on the level of an Alpha Protocol or New Vegas without getting screwed over by the publisher. But when Josh Sawyer says they can make "A wider range of games" that sure doesn't sound like they're planning on making the kinds of CRPG revival stuff I've enjoyed for the last 4-5 years.

So Microsoft went ahead and put the clamps on a huge chunk of the crpg market in one fell swoop huh. Yeaaa, I don't see this backfiring on the fans of these types of games in the future, at all ... (this will be an interesting post to revisit)

Here's hoping Owlcat makes Kingmaker work for them and pursues this space for a long time now. And maybe Larian guys get a bit more serious with their storytelling and class design.

Also que inXile getting merged (or rebranded) into Obsidian in about 5-6 years tops, it'll start off with some help on a project or some joint co developing, and at the end the teams will giving an interview about how super happy they are to join forces and be working together now and that it's all for the best. Not that I have any particular fondness for inXile but still.

Maybe I'm too skeptical, maybe, but watching the business end of this industry for the past twenty odd years, being skeptical has borne out nine times out of ten, unfortunately.

@tennmuerti: Its hard to disagree with your cynicism. Especially when you consider that Tyranny sold so poorly that Paradox doesn't want to fund any more crpgs. And Pillars 2 sold worse than that.

I seriously doubt that MS will fund more than one crpg from each studio.

@cupofdoom: I don’t know, maybe they will benefit from a bigger budget. That said, as has been mentioned a-many times before, Microsoft really needs a win in their gaming lineup and they’re not gonna get that with a niche CRPG. I can see them asking Obsidian to create a more accessible RPG that would see mass appeal on the market which would probably mean simplified mechanics backed up by good writing. That will no doubt anger core fans who thrive on the complexity of CRPGs and the versatility it brings.

But I can’t really see them funding more than one CRPG if any at all. With the XB1X, GamePass and backwards compatibility Microsoft is starting to pull strongly ahead in terms of services. They just need games. Titles like RDR2 that are starting to similarly pull out ahead as being superior on Xbox by a vast margin are a good start but they won’t convert existing PlayStation owners. Now if they had a modern Mass Effect like title exclusive to their platform that could really start to turn the tides and Obsidian has the potential to deliver that. Although they’ve never been known for their technical prowess, maybe the extra financial backing will help?

This is not an EA moment where EA chews up developers and spits them out for shareholders. Microsoft needs developers to make the Xbox more competitive towards Playstation especially for the next gen of consoles.

Honestly now seeing the results of Pillars 2 sales, which is heartbreaking that game is amazing, I'm glad to see this because there's no way Obsidian would have been able to continue long.

I haven't been a fan of most of the recent Obsidian and inExile games, despite really wanting to like them, so I'm optimistic about this move. Those studios need bigger budgets and better direction than "Try to recapture the magic of 20 year old games." I want to see Wasteland 3 done in the style of Fallout: New Vegas.

Man, I’m an Xbox-first guy, but I hope Microsoft lets these guys be who they are and do what they do. Platform, design, development...support them at being what they built up.

I feel like these things seldom end well, and that Microsoft has had a bad track record lately. I’m hopeful they’ve learned a thing or two with their iffy first party output this generation.

Pillars 2 was better than the first one, but I also found the world of Pillars of Eternity incredibly dull and boring. Nothing made me want to have an adventure in that setting. It is something a lot, though not all, of video game rpg developers fail with when they abandon the table top licenses. Dragon Age is the same way, I have never thought once that it is a world I wanted to really revisit in and of itself. Bland, vaguely dark, fantasy settings are a dime a dozen. Not sure why it is, but they mostly seem to be built around one story, like any given final fantasy game. Whereas the settings of ttrpg's are specifically built for there to be infinite stories told in them. So a new DA, PoE, etc, doesn't really inspire much innate interest in me beyond what the characters themselves might be doing, like Morrigan, and none of the PoE characters particularly made me care enough that they were returning.

That all said, I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish now, but with all the stuff Chris Avellone has been saying I'm not hugely optimistic either. It is all very much wait and see, and putting most of my rpg hopes in CD Projekt Red, and that Larian and Owlcat can keep improving.

I would like to keep an eye on Owlcat, in hopes that their next game doesn't need a several gig update every hour.

I'd settle for A) reasonable load times, or B) everything in your capitol not being spread across multiple loadscreens.

@mrwakka:
Avellone's on quite a crusade, isn't he? I noticed him tweeting at Phil Spencer a few days ago recommending Obsidian management be fired if/when the deal went through.

I mean... even if everything he says is true, maybe it's time to let it go. He's just looking a bit unhinged now, and he's not doing himself any favors.

Is it just me or is it weird that they bought up 2 CRPG studios, it's great that they got a huge capital injection just a weird investment choice IMo. Also InExile making a Fallout game would be pretty funny.

FASA, Ensemble, Lionhead...all worked on fairly complex games, and all were closed. Bungie decided to leave the MS grip...FOR ACTIVISION. Minecraft's popularity has waned pretty heavily since MS bought Mojang (that could also be due to the popularity of Fortnite). Twisted Pixel bounced from MS money. Rare has been used and abused so much, and Sea of Thieves just isn't great.

This is a scary thing to see. Hopefully it ends up doing well, but I feel like we'll hear about the end of inXile in about three years, with Obsidian taking probably six years.

@jakob187: Still preferable to maybe hearing about Obsidians end this year considering how their recent games have sold.