Obsidian joins Microsoft Studios

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

Should we be concerned?

[DarthParametric 3,782]

No. They were dead anyway. At least now they will live long enough to ship Outer Worlds, and the contract with Take Two should prevent MS from screwing it up. Ditto Wasteland 3 from inXile. Enough deals are in place to prevent either ending up as Win 10 Store exclusives. But all bets are off after that. Both will be churning out exclusives for the Xbone in the future, so whether you are into action console faire determines your take on it. But we weren't getting another KOTOR 2, Mask of the Betrayer, or New Vegas anyway.

[Guest Qui-Gon Glenn]

Any Xbone exclusive can be played on PC. So, it isn't a total loss.

A shame Microsoft doesn't own any rights regarding the Mass Effect franchise. I would enjoy an Obsidian take on that franchise - if it was actually finished 😕

[DarthParametric 3,782]

3 minutes ago, Qui-Gon Glenn said:

Any Xbone exclusive can be played on PC

Hypothetically. But only if you are willing to subject yourself to the Windows Store.

[Guest Sam Fisher]

9 hours ago, Qui-Gon Glenn said:

A shame Microsoft doesn't own any rights regarding the Mass Effect franchise. I would enjoy an Obsidian take on that franchise - if it was actually finished 

😕

Agreed, Star Wars is crap,

Dead Space and Mass Effect are dead- so EA's surviving on? Battlefield and Sports once more I guess.

What a sad state of affairs.

 

[HK-47 84]

They'll probably accidentally downgrade Obsidian's license(s) and files will start being deleted out of nowhere.

[DarthRaindrops 7]

On 11/12/2018 at 3:56 AM, Sam Fisher said:

Agreed, Star Wars is crap,

Dead Space and Mass Effect are dead- so EA's surviving on? Battlefield and Sports once more I guess.

What a sad state of affairs.

 

It just baffles me that Disney gave the license to EA of all companies...

I mean I already knew Disney doesn't really know how to handle video games (I mean for god sake there are NO GOOD games based on the MCU, besides the Lego games and even those are 'decent').

But if I were to give the license of my AAA franchise to anyone, I really wouldn't give it to the 'worst company' in the video game industry.
I'd much rather have seen that Bethesda got the license, as all of the crappy things like microtransactions, shady practices and mismanagement of franchises seem to barely happen there.

ON TOPIC: While studio shutdown is always a possibility. I think we can all agree Microsoft buying Obsidian is MUCH MUCH better than EA or Activision scooping them up.

One thing that always seemed to cause some studios under Microsoft to be shut down was that they just weren't delivering. Some staff put the closure down to "a string of bad decisions and mismanagement" (With Lionhead).

And while Chris Avellone showed us Obsidian management may be pricks, I think we can all agree they can pump out titles in record time if they have to (KOTOR 2 and New Vegas). And I think if you want the RPG crowd flocking to consoles, Obsidian is the way to go (Bioware isn't really in a good place right now after ME:Andromeda and Beth with F76 isn't getting a good response either.)

[Hassat Hunter 571]

EA probably offered the most $$$, and that's all LF cared about from the games department while doing their own damage on films.

" I'd much rather have seen that Bethesda got the license, as all of the crappy things like microtransactions, shady practices and mismanagement of franchises seem to barely happen there. "
Have you seen the Creation Club, Fallout 76 etc.? Bethesda isn't exactly in a recommendable state at the moment.

But yeah, I don't really see this as great news. Last I want is Obsidian forced to make Fable-like console oriented RPG's, which I fear they're forced to make, or more action oriented like Bio...Blegh...Ware.

[DarthRaindrops 7]

It just baffles me that EA just doesn't GET Star Wars. 

I mean compare this supposed 'golden age' of Star Wars to the time when the prequels came out.
I remember games like EP1 Racer, Bounty Hunter, Obi-Wan, Jedi Outcast... the list goes on. The renewed interest in Star Wars really resulted in some great games.

Meanwhile what has EA/Disney/LF done since 2015? Two mediocre Battlefront games... A Lego tie in game for TFA and two in development games...

ON TOPIC: 

I think I'll wait before labeling this as bad news. Many people have already pointed out Obsidian would be bought sooner or later. The sales for Pillars 2 have been piss poor and I think that also contributed to Obsidian selling out.

Also, Microsoft isn't really known for mismanaging franchises or devs. People are always quick to bring up Halo or Fable. But Halo was changing developers (who didn't really do things the way Bungie did it, and it shows).
And Fable's Lionhead was a case of mismanagement and expensive projects (Fable legends was 75M) 
And Lionhead "knew internally that the game wasn't incredibly fun."

Again. If Obsidian is known for anything it is producing games really quickly.

Those games may be buggy but the gameplay always has a certain polish. I guess the only thing that could lead to bad things would be Microsoft following the trend of publishers Obsidian has worked with (LucasArts, Bethesda) in saying 'WE WANT IT DONE IN X MONTHS AND IF IT ISN'T DONE WE'LL SHIP IT ANYWAY." And let Obsidian take most of the blame. 

[Guest Sam Fisher]

Lucasfilm's management of the brand since George Lucas left has been piss poor in general.

After the initial hype of TFA died down, we're left with utterly nothing worthwhile aside from arguably a few books.

[Canderis 180]

LF's management pretty much sucked since ROTS IMO. They just got louder about it since Disney took over.

[Guest Sam Fisher]

Indeed.

It's the Chewbacca game  idea X 10.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

Here's what Obsidian has to say about it.