Microsoft acquires inXile and Obsidian Entertainment

Just announced on their live show.

twitter.com/majornelson/status/1061390391071531008

Both will remain autonomous studios, but now with money.

Gemini73

Yeah, this is good. Could really put MS in a really strong position to dominate the RPG arena for consoles.

Loved Wasteland 2 so pleased to see the 3rd game coming out next year.

Monkey Man wrote:Loved Wasteland 2 so pleased to see the 3rd game coming out next year.

I hope wasteland 3 isn’t made on Unity.

I'm a massive fan of Obsidian so maybe I'm biased but I think this is a great move by Microsoft

Am probably the only one who's not going to be happy about this, but I'm not happy about this.

If the news about PoE II's numbers are true then I can see why Obsidian gave up their independence. I hope it works out for them. Ditto the other team.

I'm a bit worried that this will just lead to the end of the studio's in a few years although hopefully we'll get some good games out of them first.

I hope they give Obsidian a whopping big cheque and get them to make something like New Vegas (using Wasteland, which the aquisiton of inXile seems to hint at). They could use the PoE world to create a more modern RPG with mass market appeal like Elder Scrolls, but actaully done properly with real roleplaying depth and show Bethesda the error of their ways.

Obsidian have said they would love to create something like New Vegas again and this could give them the chance if they get the right investment.

The writer on our game responded to this on twitter with a deaths head emoji. When I asked him about it, he mentioned this was entirely because of his own previous dealings with MS as a publisher/owner.

So yeah. Put me in the "this'll work out for a few years/projects before everyone leaves and Obsidian as known ceases to exist" school of thought.

Hopefully with Microsoft trying to build a library of games for Gamepass they won't just close studios at the first sign of a game being less than ultra successful. I'm quite hopeful that with the sheer number of studios they have now they should have a decent number of games available for the first few years of the next gen which will hopefully be on gamepass if they stick with it.

Peter Crisp wrote:Hopefully with Microsoft trying to build a library of games for Gamepass they won't just close studios at the first sign of a game being less than ultra successful. I'm quite hopeful that with the sheer number of studios they have now they should have a decent number of games available for the first few years of the next gen which will hopefully be on gamepass if they stick with it.

That's not really what I'm referring to. Generally with these acquisitions it's a slow death due to shifted profit expectations and working conditions rather than a rapid demise through closure. Look at EA and BioWare, or EA and any studio they've ever bought. Now, MS is not EA and hopefully they'll be following Sony's model for in-house studios that has paid dividends, but from all accounts MS are a slow moving behemoth with a work culture that is set in stone. My worry is that the agile, innovative styles of inXile and Obsidian simply won't translate which will lead to a brain drain amongst the senior designers.

I read that Pillars 2 wouldn't have been released without Microsoft's money and it still performed quite badly. This may put Obsidian on borrowed time but it also gives it another chance in that it looked like the company would have otherwise closed.

The disapointing thing is that we may see an end to their traditional isometric content. I assume MS did not purchase them for that and want to produce something more mass market that can be sold to a console audience. Like a I said, I would love a spiritual successor to New Vegas, but there could a be a loss of talent going to do other things along the lines of what they have been producing in recent years.

Short-termism is the enemy here. There are execs pressured to show a return on investment quickly and that can end up destroying the thing they wanted in the first place. It's not really their fault I suppose. Managing a newly acquired studio properly and returning a sustainable return in the long term might be wise, but it's not much use to you if your shareholders - who know nothing about game development - get too impatient.

Last edited by Tafdolphin on Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Super Dragon 64 wrote:I read that Pillars 2 wouldn't have been released without Microsoft's money and it still performed quite badly. This may put Obsidian on borrowed time but it also gives it another chance in that it looked like the company would have otherwise closed.

There's this too yeah. I'd rather they be acquired by MS than disappear entirely.

Meep wrote:Short-termism is the enemy here. There are execs pressured to show a return on investment quickly and that can end up destroying the thing they wanted in the first place. It's not really their fault I suppose. Managing a newly acquired studio properly and returning a sustainable return in the long term might be wise, but it's not much use to you if your shareholders - who know nothing about game development - get too impatient.

If what Chris Avellone's been tweeting recently is true, Obsidian has been mismanaged for years, including scamming devs, some of whom put their own money into the company to save it from going under, out of bonuses and royalties. Hopefully that'll disappear now, although I doubt it.

I suppose it all depends on if they want content for this gen or next.
If they just want content for next gen then the studios should have enough time to make games at a reasonable pace assuming they aren't all expected to have games ready for launch day.
The 2 new additions may not be expected to have anything ready until year 2 of the next gen which gives them plenty of time and if they're just carrying on working on games already in development then even better.

Tafdolphin wrote:Am probably the only one who's not going to be happy about this, but I'm not happy about this.

It’s not like you to be unhappy about gaming news. :shock:

Moggy wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Am probably the only one who's not going to be happy about this, but I'm not happy about this.

It’s not like you to be unhappy about gaming news.

I'm a professional cynic... But my heart's not in it.

Tafdolphin wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Am probably the only one who's not going to be happy about this, but I'm not happy about this.

It’s not like you to be unhappy about gaming news.

I'm a professional cynic... But my heart's not in it.

You gotta roll with it.

Moggy wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Am probably the only one who's not going to be happy about this, but I'm not happy about this.

It’s not like you to be unhappy about gaming news.

I'm a professional cynic... But my heart's not in it.

You gotta roll with it.

You got the F.E.A.R.

Microsoft acquires inXile and Obsidian Entertainment

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