Microsoft Reportedly On the Verge of Acquiring Obsidian Entertainment

[Raevenlord]

Reports are circling around the web regarding an imminently/closed deal between Microsoft and Obsidian Entertainment, developers of Fallout: New Vegas and, more recently, the Pillars of Eternity series. Microsoft has been on a roll with its investment in games studios, bringing numerous big development houses (such as Playground Games, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs) to their fold and putting together new internal studios (The Initiative, for one).

Should the deal go through, Obsidian Entertainment would bring a wealth of new RPG games development experience to the Microsoft Game Studios umbrella - with a specific focus on PC gaming. At the same time, Obsidian Entertainment themselves would have access to resources and tools that would otherwise never be available for them - and have we said this is Microsoft's coffers and resources we're talking about? Even though Phil Spencer is often seen as a magnanimous leader of Microsoft's entertainment division, Obsidian could find themselves working on some specific projects for Microsoft, instead of pursuing their own IPs/new IP ideas. Or that could not materialize at all, and the studio be given free reign (as much as there can be in these things) for their own creativity.





Asked for comment, Microsoft and Obsidian representatives had this to say:

"We do not comment on rumors or speculation." -Microsoft

While Obsidian actually answered in a meaningful, mystery-settling way for some existential questions some readers might have:

"Unfortunately, we don't comment on rumours or speculation other than to say that the Rumors album by Fleetwood Mac still holds up." -Obsidian Entertainment

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[StrayKAT]

While I like that they've been free from publisher constraint and made some original RPGs, I'd love to see Obsidian create truly AAA RPGs again. It's kind of a catch 22, I guess. And some may disagree, but I think Microsoft is one of the better game publishers. Some of the only disappointments you here from their games is due to the developer's issues (Bungie dropping Halo, Epic moving away from GoW, etc). Although Forza's MT was a bad thing (at least they're getting rid of it though. That's more than I can say about EA or Take 2).

 

[necroanonym]

"bringing numerous big development houses"
"Undead Labs"
:/

 

[rtwjunkie]

And there goes yet another great studio.

 

[StrayKAT]

And there goes yet another great studio.

Well, they've always been hit and miss to me. They already did a lot of contract work and were wrongfully rushed (NWN2 and Kotor 2). I think they only recently finally got to come into their own, but making games (especially as big as they want) is expensive. Even for isometric RPGs like theirs apparently. Even those were crowdfunded. It's not a happy existence.

 

[Frick]

And there goes yet another great studio.

Does MS have the same history as the others though?

 

[StrayKAT]

Does MS have the same history as the others though?

You didn't ask me, but I say no.. as far as publishers go, they have a decent track record. Just like the other company with hardware to push: Sony. It doesn't serve them well to abuse developers. And the few times where I've heard of them overpowering a developer and "forcing" a release, it was justified. Like Chris Roberts back in the day, with his Starlancer/Freelancer games. He's a genius, but a total flake. And Star Citizen proves how bad it is when left to himself.