Microsoft might be buying Obsidian entertainment

The Rumour mill is in full swing that Microsoft is on the verge of completing a deal to Acquire Obsidian Entertainment, you know the guys that made the brilliant Fallout New Vegas. They are also known for the recent Pillars of Eternity franchise.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://ink.mostepic.win/microsoft-might-be-buying-obsidian-entertainment/

Deal is 90% done, MS will own Pillars of Eternity and the brilliant team behind it…

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On one hand I’m happy because then the Obsidian games will be part of Game Pass which is great. I’m also worried though because MS doesn’t have the best track record with these kind of things.

Please may it work out well.

Being in the gaming industry seems to have upped your knowledge of the happenings quite a bit… Must be good to know the ins and outs of your own hobby.

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The people I work with are well connected, and I’m mingling with staff from other studios around Europe. It’s interesting and insightful at the same time. Nobody really talks about what they’re currently working on or gives details around stuff that’s new. However, ask about older titles and you hear the war stories.

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This sucks. Obsidian is too good for MS, or any other single platform.

Obsidian is one of my favourite studios and it would suck if they start making MS exclusives.

Yeah it will still be on PC, but I refuse to use W10 store. End of story.

I don’t like the idea of this but I suppose practically they need a lot of upfront cash to develop new games.

It’s kind of funny how some of the developers that went independent to avoid publisher pressure are being bought up by big publishers. Ninja Theory in particular stands out for me. I hope most of them get to keep their creative independence, and that Microsoft doesn’t pull an EA on them.

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a little insight i’ve picked up over the last couple of months is that creatives and game developers are terrible at all the business and finance ends of things for the most part. Developing a title (especially new IP) will essentially just burn money until you launch (Unless of course your name is Chris Roberts and you sell virtual spaceships)

Sadly established publishers like EA, Sony, Microsoft and the like bring to the table is money and lots of it, with this money they will also bring in good things like purchases of middleware licences, marketing, access to larger development teams, etc etc.

The other side of the coin is that this “free money” comes at a price. That price is pressure, as the publisher will want a return on their investment. The pressure is usually what the indie devs/publishers try to avoid, but the bigger publishers will take creative control and lay down the hammer.

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I see all these acquisitions as a move on MS side to replicate what Sony did to make up for the PS3. They were well behind during the last gen and turned it all around by focusing on the games, by acquiring really good third party devs and pushing really high quality exclusives. Then have these studios actually work together to share their secrets on how to make full use of the platform, and boom, the PS4 is an absolute monster when it comes to exclusives.

I am hopeful MS can do something similar. It wont help the XBOX One, but the next iteration of their platform (not necessarily hardware) will reap the benefits.

Either that or we will get rubbish like State of Decay 2…

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“might be buying”

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Bugger! I understand why but still, bugger!

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How is Microsoft’s track record in this area of buying up studios - do they last? Or does MS replicate EA in sucking the life out of the new studio and discard the left over, withered carcass?

MS is no Sony, Blizzard or EA. They seem to let the studios do what they do best. However, I’d love to see what happens when a studio tries something new that takes a while and/or seems unprofitable. That will give a better idea of how they treat an acquired studio

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They also added inXile Entertainment to the MS Studios roster:

Just think if Microsoft combines the efforts of 2 great RPG developers and throw money and resources at a new IP or title in an existing franchise…

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Yeah, just imagine. A big issue, if not the biggest issue, is that new IP is a huge risk. Commercial success is an unknown, all you can go on is rival titles and hope your investors are willing to dish out the money until you can release