Microsoft acquires Obsidian Entertainment and InXile Entertainment

Blade-Runner said:
https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-is-reportedly-trying-to-acquire-obsidian-526418.phtml

Just great....has MS ever not completely fucked up a developer it acquired? There goes any possibility of more great PC centric RPG's for the foreseeable future if this goes through.
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Usually when the big guys take over and the studio no longer produces anything good. Could be a rare exception if something good comes out like when EA bought out Mythic. Them again nothing good has come out since then. Or when EA bought Ultima Online that was a big blow that disturbed any merit value the game had.
 
Comixbooks said:
Usually when the big guys take over and the studio no longer produces anything good. Could be a rare exception if something good comes out like when EA bought out Mythic. Them again nothing good has come out since then. Or when EA bought Ultima Online that was a big blow that disturbed any merit value the game had.
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all they buy them for is the IP rights, they don't actually care about the company it's self. microsoft has a long history of collecting and killing off studios.
 
"Reportedly trying" does not mean they will. I don't blame them, though. I don't think they can continue to run a business off of crowdfunding alone.
 
Blade-Runner said:
https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-is-reportedly-trying-to-acquire-obsidian-526418.phtml

Just great....has MS ever not completely fucked up a developer it acquired? There goes any possibility of more great PC centric RPG's for the foreseeable future if this goes through.
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Sorry... wut? Your last statement there makes it sound like Obsidian is the driving force behind PC centric RGPs. There are plenty of other studios out there making high quality isometric games like the last few Obsidian has put out. Regardless, I'd argue that to most people, their most noteworthy titles were KOTOR 2 and New Vegas, both of which were massive RPGs that were really geared for the console market. Furthermore, those titles prove that when given a big budget to work with, Obsidian can deliver exceptional results. The bottom line is, I think the people at Obsidian are talented beyond what their budget typically allows for and having the financial backing of Microsoft could be huge for them. With enough money, I don't think it's far fetched that Obsidian could grow into another Bioware or Bethesda.

And lets not forget that Microsoft has definitely showed a renewed interest into the PC market. All of their first party titles release on PC now, and typically they are pretty good PC ports. The last two Forza titles are honestly some of the most polished PC releases in recent memory. Yeah, you have to deal with the travesty that is the Windows Store, but I'm willing to deal with that for the right game. One can logically conclude that Microsoft is looking for a studio to make Xbox/PC exclusive AAA open world RPGs to compete with some of Sony's bigger franchises. Obsidian should be able to deliver that, and it'll be on PC if/when they do.

Honestly, I'm hoping this does go through, and Microsoft teams up Obsidian with Playground Games to finish Fable 4.
 
I would hope not. I got into Armored Warfare and when they passed it over to the Russians exclusively it went downhill, not that it was ever that great in the first place (but can be fun). FO NV had some stupid bugs but that is likely due to the utterly terrible engine it used. Didn't care much else about what they did, but they seemed to be decent enough. Would like to see them try another more action oriented RPG/shooter hybrid like Mass Effect without a crappy engine.

Microsoft buying them... is likely worse than EA/Ubisoft.
 
Viper87227 said:
Regardless, I'd argue that to most people, their most noteworthy titles were KOTOR 2 and New Vegas, both of which were massive RPGs that were really geared for the console market. Furthermore, those titles prove that when given a big budget to work with, Obsidian can deliver exceptional results. The bottom line is, I think the people at Obsidian are talented beyond what their budget typically allows for and having the financial backing of Microsoft could be huge for them. With enough money, I don't think it's far fetched that Obsidian could grow into another Bioware or Bethesda.

And lets not forget that Microsoft has definitely showed a renewed interest into the PC market. All of their first party titles release on PC now, and typically they are pretty good PC ports. The last two Forza titles are honestly some of the most polished PC releases in recent memory. Yeah, you have to deal with the travesty that is the Windows Store, but I'm willing to deal with that for the right game. One can logically conclude that Microsoft is looking for a studio to make Xbox/PC exclusive AAA open world RPGs to compete with some of Sony's bigger franchises. Obsidian should be able to deliver that, and it'll be on PC if/when they do.
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Yeah, there is a certain logic to the aquisiton. I get the same gut reaction of "Microsoft is going to eat Obsidian" like everyone else, but you know what Microsoft's game studios desperately need?

Writers.

Good writers, specifically. And that's exactly what Obsidian has a reputation for. The last MS games I played... needed some better writers, to say the least, and even a fraction of Obsidian's former writing talent would've done wonders.
 
This sucks, was my initial reaction. However saw a few youtubes pointing out the MS has bought a few other studioes over the recent years and have been more hands off and letting the companies do what they do.
I don't remember the companies, they were not ones I cared about so not sure if that is true or not. Anyhow if that holds up it could be a good thing. If Obsidian stays in creative control and gets more funding that would be awesome.

Of course it could also destroy them, guess we'll see what happens.
 
Viper87227 said:
Sorry... wut? Your last statement there makes it sound like Obsidian is the driving force behind PC centric RGPs.
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My statement was an over generalization, but in terms of traditional isometric RPG's in the same vein as the original Black Isle games then Obsidian sets the gold standard.

Viper87227 said:
Furthermore, those titles prove that when given a big budget to work with, Obsidian can deliver exceptional results. The bottom line is, I think the people at Obsidian are talented beyond what their budget typically allows for and having the financial backing of Microsoft could be huge for them. With enough money, I don't think it's far fetched that Obsidian could grow into another Bioware or Bethesda.
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This nonsense argument has been spouted so many times in recent history its hard to believe that you can actually suggest it in day and age with a straight face.

Viper87227 said:
And lets not forget that Microsoft has definitely showed a renewed interest into the PC market.
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MS shows renewed interest in the PC market every 5 years or so, and every single time it is nothing but disingenuous tokenism. MS needs to put up or shut up already, because virtually no one takes them seriously in the PC gaming space.

Viper87227 said:
All of their first party titles release on PC now, and typically they are pretty good PC ports. The last two Forza titles are honestly some of the most polished PC releases in recent memory. Yeah, you have to deal with the travesty that is the Windows Store, but I'm willing to deal with that for the right game.
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The fact that you need to deal with Windows Store is demonstrable of how much MS simply does not understand the PC market. And after MS nuked all GFWL accounts, anyone who trusts them not to do it again when they give up on Windows Store has rocks in their head.

Viper87227 said:
One can logically conclude that Microsoft is looking for a studio to make Xbox/PC exclusive AAA open world RPGs to compete with some of Sony's bigger franchises.
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One cannot logically conclude that at all, if anything it is fanciful at best given MS' propensity this generation to pump out rehashes of unoriginal content.

Viper87227 said:
Honestly, I'm hoping this does go through, and Microsoft teams up Obsidian with Playground Games to finish Fable 4.
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Yay, a sequel to one of the most insipid brain dead console RPG's ever conceived by one of the greatest gaming shysters of our generation. Can't wait.
 
Blade-Runner said:
This nonsense argument has been spouted so many times in recent history its hard to believe that you can actually suggest it in day and age with a straight face.
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What nonsense? You say my argument is so ridiculous, but offer absolutely nothing to refute it. My point stands, Obsidian's best selling and widest praised titles were licensed products backed by a big budget, not Kickstarter. I'm not saying any of their other games are bad, but they have proven more than once that they can do great things with a big budget. How am I wrong there?

Blade-Runner said:
MS shows renewed interest in the PC market every 5 years or so, and every single time it is nothing but disingenuous tokenism. MS needs to put up or shut up already, because virtually no one takes them seriously in the PC gaming space.
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I'm guessing you haven't played any of their more recent releases? The last three Forza titles were all solid. They were very good ports (especially the last two), and have delivered one of the best racing series to PC, and there really is no other Forza / Grand Turismo simcade style racer on the PC market. Likewise, the latest Gears was a decent port (regardless of how you might feel about the quality of the game). We also got Halo Wars, and the next Halo is coming. Every first party MS title is coming to PC now. It's pretty obvious that Microsoft hurt you in a terrible way, but it might be time to bury the hatchet, because they are bringing some great games to PC.

Blade-Runner said:
The fact that you need to deal with Windows Store is demonstrable of how much MS simply does not understand the PC market. And after MS nuked all GFWL accounts, anyone who trusts them not to do it again when they give up on Windows Store has rocks in their head.
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No arguements that GFWL was a joke or that having to use MS Store sucks. But at this time, it's really no different than having to use Origin or Uplay. At least this time it's baked into windows. I'd obviously prefer the games to be on Steam, but MS Store has been relitevly painless for me, and comes with the added bonus of being able to play on PC or Xbox. It's not ideal, but it's not the travesty your making it out to be either.


Blade-Runner said:
One cannot logically conclude that at all, if anything it is fanciful at best given MS' propensity this generation to pump out rehashes of unoriginal content.
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Shrug... You seem hell bent on hating Microsoft. I'm not trying to be their white knight, they have definetly put out some sub par games, but they have also put out some very good ones. I prefer to evaluate my games on a case-by-case basis instead of defaulting to "it's trash" because of the logo on the box.


Blade-Runner said:
Yay, a sequel to one of the most insipid brain dead console RPG's ever conceived by one of the greatest gaming shysters of our generation. Can't wait.
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The first Fable was great. The second was OK. The third sucked. Peter Molyneux is an idiot who promised the world and didn't deliver. Blah blah blah. They were all still fun. Sorry you don't agree, or that it's incomprehensable that Obsidian could deliver what Lionhead promised but couldn't.

It's obvoius your extremely jaded towards Microsoft, so it's pretty pointless to argue this further. Have fun living in your doom-and-gloom scenario. I'm chosing to be hopeful that we'll see good things out of an Obsidian that is flush with cash. Time will tell who's right, but I sure as fuck am not losing sleep about it either way.
 
This is really disappointing. As others have said Microsoft acquired studios have negatively affected the games thereof and both studios mentioned will probably be "hit" harder than normal so to speak. Both studios were known for making in depth, PC-centric RPG titles with great modding support, wide release with a lack of DRM (including on Steam), and best of all comprehensive OSX and Linux support. I anticipate that all future titles will hindered severely in these regards, which will really be a shame. I don't want to see them churning out Windows 10 + Xbox only titles, console focused, MS Store preferred / specific, microtransaction-laden handicapped future titles!

Watching what happened to Minecraft since its acquisition was more proof than ever that Microsoft is just the same as ever; they couldn't squash the cross-platform version of Minecraft because it was based on Java, so they instead spun off a new "bedrock" version for Microsoft approved platforms that is more in line with their "vision" including paid addons and the like. This on one of the most popular titles around now owned by a company with tons and tons of resources, but they couldn't just develop the whole thing in the tradition of the original game with a universal version, enhanced beyond its original design and open to modders and players alike etc. They still could have made a fortune offering Realms hosting and selling the game itself etc... but yet they chose the route they did. Every time Microsoft claims to be a "new" company with new ideas, it seems they always go back to their old favorites of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" and otherwise seek control and bending things to the same old vision.


So unfortunate....
 
RanceJustice said:
This is really disappointing. As others have said Microsoft acquired studios have negatively affected the games thereof and both studios mentioned will probably be "hit" harder than normal so to speak. Both studios were known for making in depth, PC-centric RPG titles with great modding support, wide release with a lack of DRM (including on Steam), and best of all comprehensive OSX and Linux support. I anticipate that all future titles will hindered severely in these regards, which will really be a shame. I don't want to see them churning out Windows 10 + Xbox only titles, console focused, MS Store preferred / specific, microtransaction-laden handicapped future titles!
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The thought of having to use the Windows Store to access future old school RPGs is stomach churning...:vomit:
 
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