Game Informer - The hardcore role-playing developers at Obsidian Entertainment currently hold the Kickstarter record for most money raised for a video game. Their upcoming isometric party-based RPG, currently going by the working title of Project Eternity, is envisioned as a direct successor to the Infinity Engine titles of yore – Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Baldur’s Gate. Here’s what we think Obsidian needs to do to modernize the formula.
A gray cloud loomed over this year's big summer game showcases: Over 16,000 game developers have lost their jobs since 2023, many of whom were casualties of success at companies that reported huge profits this year. One of the largest cost cutters has been Xbox, which in January cut 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and in May shut down four studios: Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games. The closure of Tango was taken especially hard, as the studio was still basking in the light of Hi-Fi Rush, a critical and commercial success by all of Microsoft's metrics.
I mean, you should be. Because we now know and understand that even if Avowed is a hit it doesn't mean the studio is safe.
I hope that they're able to buy out their own Studio, like Toys for Bob's did, maybe some of their IPs as well, and go the Larian Studios route instead. We still need a sequel to Alpha Protocol after all. So here's hoping for the best.
Listen to your leaders, rather, good luck!
Ok, fair enough.
As much as we all want another Alpha Protocol only Sega can make that happen.
Honestly, it would be pretty cheap to get the IP rights from Sega. They've done nothing with it and weren't interested in a sequel. But I'd be fine with just a spiritual successor that builds on what they were trying to do with AP.
@Einhander19721h
It's all good.
But to be fair, while SEGA does own the IP and Published the game, it was Obsidian who created the IP and helped bring it back from the dead. So it's only fitting that they should be the ones to work on a proper sequel. And hopefully with a proper budget this time around.
My point is that I want them to stick around for this to happen. But on the current position they're in, things are bleak is all I'm saying.
"As much as we all want another Alpha Protocol only Sega can make that happen."
Not really. If Xbox really want Alpha Protocol, all they have to do is to pay SEGA for its licence and give it to Obsidian or any other Xbox first party or third party to do it, just like Nintendo did with Bayonetta.
na this team tossed out the outer worlds grounded that both made money and they have outer worlds 2 on the back burner sense 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/the...
I really just want a third Pillars of Eternity game. Not impossible under ms, but seems more and more unlikely with MS's new focus on high impact titles.
Of course they're gonna feign confidence. They're about to release a game so they wanna look strong as possible. I know for a fact they're deathly afraid, I would be to and they absolutely should be.
I'm afraid for them right now. MS can't be trusted.
How come no one is interviewing PlayStation studios with the same questions? They had a significant amount of closures as well.
Strange 🤔
Keep supporting MS people and Xbox, they clearly do not care as you can see with all these closures. You want to hurt Xbox and MS just boycott their next console.
Sony has closed down more game studios this generation than the number of new IPs they've created
If we boycott everyone that closed down studios we wouldn't own a PS or Xbox, and would only play indies on Steam.
If we boycott and let them know the reason why they would have to listen. Stop closing game studios they should have never been closed to begin with. I keep saying this but MS is worth 3 trillion!! They do not have to close anything. They will make money no matter what even without closures.
'' You want to hurt Xbox and MS just boycott their next console.''
100%!! But to be fair, most gamers around the planet can see right through MS's BS and most don't care about xbox so no need to tell them what it's obvious. We can safely say that they've been ''boycotting'' the green brand for a long, long time. The proof is in front of everyone's eyes every time their hardware sales figures are published.
If you just push that thought further...most of the world already passively boycotts Xbox
Glad someone gets it. What is doom and gloom going to accomplish for the studio? Nothing. That's why he said what he said.
This is a spiritual or philosophical statement from the developer. Being worried is in itself a negative feeling that isn’t healthy. Live fully in the present moment and accept what comes. Reality is all about impermanence and the law of nature (transient).
Personally, it’s an industry I’m slowly backing out. When it comes to wholesome practices and quality life, video games fit into the “I can live without this”. Given how employees life is (generally), how they are treated, and contributions to personal health .. it’s nice to have video games in the right moderation but I equate it to other industries how the ethics of the operation is lacking at the expense of “at all costs”. The extremity of that idea is demonstrated from top of the hierarchy down. Maybe some of us care, many of us don’t, and some feel it’s pointless due to the insignificance at the microscopic level (what is the value of a singular action against millions). Only we can choose and control our own action.
I'm not worried at all. Obsidian are are awesome devs and I'm looking foward to Avowed.
Chris Avellone expands on his earlier claims that Fallout New Vegas dev Obsidian pitched Bethesda ideas for Elder Scrolls spinoffs.
Really Bethesda? Come on
We could have gotten to explore more of the regions or revisit old ones with another developer making them. Would have shortened the time between releases of the main games.
Just thinking about what could've been. Maybe they didn't wanna be showed up on their flagship title Ala new vegas compared to fallout 3 and 4
it's not that hard to show them up when they're like 20 years behind in terms of engine and development skills. If they had gotten the go ahead i guarantee it would have been better than anything they'd made recently.
The issue here was Bethesda was butthurt that obsidian managed to develop a better fallout game at the time (new vegas) than theirs (fo3) so they didn't allow it.
It's funny how they're both owned by Microsoft now. They should be able to work together now.
Playstationlifestyle writes: "The Outer Worlds’ subreddit is full of threads complaining about the Spacer’s Choice Edition, with many players demanding refunds. Publisher Private Division‘s support team responded to some ticket submissions, promising players that their complaints have been passed on to the development studio.
Over on Twitter, developer Obsidian Entertainment has been responding to fans, apologizing for the issues."
Microsoft got nothing to do with this Private Divison and some other dev did this update.
While I get it is an outside studio, Microsoft now has everything to do with any work on their IPs, including ensuring that any third-party hired to develop their games makes sure they work.
@Christopher
MS owns the IP going forward but they do not own the publishing rights to the first game. Private Division does. MS has nothing to do with the remaster, that's why the trailer for the remaster doesn't have an XGS logo.
I get that the Spacer's Choice Edition has issues but the fault lies with Private Division pushing it out before it was ready. It has major issues on all platforms, not just PS5.
***MS has nothing to do with the remaster, that's why the trailer for the remaster doesn't have an XGS logo.***
Microsoft literally owns the development studio, and, yes, they were involved in the port (this isn't a remaster, it's a port for current-gen consoles).
MS owns the dev, yes. But they still have nothing to do with it. Their only involvement is that a studio they own made the game.
Also, it's not a remaster? Really, since when? So upgraded lighting, updated textures, new animations, etc., means it's just a port. Ok.
Let's look at the Steam description:
"The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition is the ultimate way to play the award-winning RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division. Including the base game and all DLC, this REMASTERED masterpiece is the absolute best version of The Outer Worlds."
What about the Private Division store?
"2019’s hit RPG has been REMASTERED with better graphics, improved performance, additional animations, higher-res environments, and more."
Given that MS is in the middle of trying to buy Actvision, this is very much the bullet loaded into the gun they shot themselves in the foot with.
Wrong. Guilty by association. This goes for this and any other title under their umbrella going forward. No one will draw a line in the sand separating the two when it comes to issues and rightfully so. They made their bed so lay in it, can’t have one without the other.
Good try Christopher. Microsoft doesn’t own publishing rights to first game. The Spacer Choice Edition has bugs on Xbox.
Firstly all versions are the same so this isn’t some big conspiracy.
Secondly Private Division are owned by 2K I believe.
@Christopher
You should to bring back the Bubble system for guys like Obscure_Observer.
the XB version is also borked. This was done by a different outfit and not by MS or Obsidian.
It's bad on all platforms. This article is from PlayStation Lifestyle so they're only going to report on the PS5 version.
Shin, really? You also said go figure as to heavily imply they purposely screwed up the PS version. You even said maybe Sony was right about intentional bugs. Stop and do the research next time
Neither Microsoft, or even Obsidian, are involved in this update.
I'm sure Sony will still now bring this up in litigation. People need to read more than just the headline.
All I have to say is Ghost Wire Tokyo ran fine. Psychonauts 2 ran fine. Wasteland 3 ran fine. There's no evidence that a Microsoft owned company put out a PlayStation game that ran poorly.
But but but…. Microsoft stuck PS5 owners with the inferior PS4 version of Psychonauts 2 so that Series X would be the best place to play on console.
@jin
No.
They honored the promises made to original PS4 owners within the promises of the Kickstarter had prior to the acquisition. Nothing more. Nothing less.
@Jin
There was never a PS5 version announced or promised so PS gamers got exactly what they kickstarted. We also don't know if Sony even gave Double Fine any PS5 dev kits considering they were owned by MS. But sure, MS is bad for giving PS4 gamers a better game by delaying it and giving DF extra funding to finish and include all of the cut content.
Obsidian developed this update. They literally apologized and said they would work on fixing the issues.
The company they used was for graphical updates, but Obsidian still did most of the work. I wish they had taken more time to QA.
“There was never a PS5 version announced or promised so PS gamers got exactly what they kickstarted.“
Could they have made a PS5 version though? Of course they could have.
I hardly think Microsoft are deliberately sabotaging cross platform games…that’s a bit “conspiracy theory”.
I know I'm wasting my energy here, but this has nothing to do with Microsoft or Sony. This current gen port was outsourced to Virtuos, a Singaporean development studio with a surprisingly good track record. The publishing rights of the game go to Private Division, the publishing arm of Take-Two.
This 'remaster' is busted on all platforms. Not even a stable 30 FPS on Xbox Series X's 'cinematic' option. 13900K + 4090 (the most powerful PC components available today) can't run the game at 4K@60. It's currently sitting at Mostly Negative 20% rating on Steam. The game runs worse than Cyberpunk 2077 with Psycho settings and Ray Tracing at native 4K while not looking the part.
And to add insult to injury, they're asking for $60 (currently on a 'special' 20% discount coming at $48). There's no free upgrade. Only if you own the base game and both DLCs do you get an upgrade for $10.
MS owns the IP. They clearly get a build and have to approve THEIR IP to be released the state it was in.
That’s not true, the current publisher for this game is not Microsoft. Microsoft owns the rights moving forward with future games but publishing rights still belongs to take two.
Just a correction, part of the work was done by virtuos. Obsidian was lead and did a lot of work on it and managed the work.
This is just bad management by obsidian.
