Obsidian Entertainment might be going under

[Northern Goblin]

Obsidian...the guys who ruined KOTOR 2, right ?

I dunno, it had its good points.

Ok granted all those good points were down to the same character... from KOTOR 1.

[Wilian]

Obsidian...the guys who ruined KOTOR 2, right ?

The guys who were in part making games like Planescape Torment.

Besides, KOTOR 2 with the restoration patch which puts up all the content that was cut out due to LucasArts going all RELEASE IT NOW and bug fixes is vastly superior product to KOTOR in almoust every possible way.

[hailey]

Obsidian...the guys who ruined KOTOR 2, right ?

It was more Lucas Arts wanting a holiday release and just shoving it out the door. Although maybe they were behind schedule etc.

Many people think fondly of it now and claim its better than kotor 1 but when I played kotor 2 it was a broken mess with a not particularly coherent story. Maybe the fan patches really fixed it up well

[cFortyfive]

It's not 1%.
It might have been 90 or more.

I don't know who nowadays really still cares if some game got 84 or 90 as a score from some random reviewer.

Many people think fondly of it now and claim its better than kotor 1 but when I played kotor 2 it was a broken mess with a not particularly coherent story. Maybe the fan patches really fixed it up well

Yeah it was I don't know to what extent it was fixed but well...at least they did a decent job as well on nwn2.

[procne]

I don't know who nowadays really still cares if some game got 84 or 90 as a score from some random reviewer.

I kinda do. If there is some game I might be interested in, but I don't really know it and haven't tracked its development then I pay attention to the score, modified by game's genree and its developer. Together with reading the review.

[zaoly]

Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege 3 didn't perform as well as they hoped critically and financially probably caused Obsidian's current state more than FNV.

[Deleted]

good riddance they ballsed up fallout new vegas invisible walls here there everywhere awful story awful characters awful map design it was fallout 3 but smaller with less to see and do. almost all the locations where just empty shacks to give you a damn star bottle cap

[Profyrion]

Actually, no, it was due to Bethesda not coming through on their part of the deal.

And your evidence is where, exactly?

None of those links you posted say anything about this issue. They're just about the layoffs happening, and they don't go into detail. Even the fact that some layoffs happened is very vague (in the stories).

So, again... There's absolutely nothing to show that there was a bad deal between Obsidian and Bethesda. Please don't paint pure fan speculation on a totally anonymous web site as fact.

[Wilian]

So, again... There's absolutely nothing to show that there was a bad deal between Obsidian and Bethesda. Please don't paint pure fan speculation on a totally anonymous web site as fact.

Making a game that has over 5 million sales and for already such small company having to lay off people alone is plenty of show that there is something fishy going on.

[Chinese Bootlickers]

Obsidian...the guys who ruined KOTOR 2, right ?

Because they only had 8 months to push it out.
But this greatly saddens me, the possibility of my favorite studio going down, while certain other studios prosper.

good riddance they ballsed up fallout new vegas invisible walls here there everywhere awful story awful characters awful map design it was fallout 3 but smaller with less to see and do. almost all the locations where just empty shacks to give you a damn star bottle cap

Nope.

[Lancer]

This saddens me :/. I loved Knights of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Fallout: New Vegas.

[PizzaSHARK]

The guys who were in part making games like Planescape Torment.

Besides, KOTOR 2 with the restoration patch which puts up all the content that was cut out due to LucasArts going all RELEASE IT NOW and bug fixes is vastly superior product to KOTOR in almoust every possible way.

Generally speaking, Black Isle Studios (who, in large part, form the veteran members of OE) was the driving force behind the Icewind Dale games and Planescape Torment, as well as Fallout and Fallout 2. They were also involved with the Baldur's Gate games and Neverwinter Nights, however they simply published the Baldur's Gate games (which goes to show you just how good BioWare used to be compared to what they are now) and are uncredited on Neverwinter Nights due to a legal issue if I remember right.

Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege 3 were kind of outside their realm of expertise - I'm guessing they were projects they took just to keep the business going, rather than projects they already wanted. KOTOR 2, as already mentioned, was rushed out by the publisher (LucasArts) and is "completed" with post-release patches and the like. Generally speaking, FNV blows Fallout 3 out of the water in just about every area, possessing a plot with actual choices to be made, better and more varied gameplay, a lot more quests and NPCs to interact with (and a faction system to go along with it), and a whole host of other improvements that make FNV more like an actual Fallout game and less like Oblivion with guns.

Now, that doesn't mean it's for everyone - people who liked Oblivion and thought it was fantastic usually say they liked Fallout 3 more. That's cool - it's an opinion, even if it's totally wrong

However, New Vegas is much more like an actual Fallout game, both in terms of plot and setting. I've heard people say the Mojave feels empty, but that's only because Fallout 3 did the silly thing of spawning creatures around the player rather than having creatures den up in specified areas. It's why you could run into a lone Deathclaw at any place in the Capital Wasteland. In the Mojave, the Deathclaws are only found in certain areas, in their dens. Likewise, you usually only see cazadores, mutated ants, radscorpions, and other wildlife in specific areas - their homes, basically. It's a lot more realistic.

---------- Post added 2012-03-17 at 03:23 AM ----------

And your evidence is where, exactly?

None of those links you posted say anything about this issue. They're just about the layoffs happening, and they don't go into detail. Even the fact that some layoffs happened is very vague (in the stories).

So, again... There's absolutely nothing to show that there was a bad deal between Obsidian and Bethesda. Please don't paint pure fan speculation on a totally anonymous web site as fact.

Twitter posts from OE members that were laid off indirectly cite not receiving the money from Bethesda as reasons for this taking place. We'll never see someone say it straight up, but there's circumstantial evidence that Bethesda not coming through with the money is why these layoffs are taking place.

Additionally, FNV sold very well. We already know Bethesda essentially reimbursed OE for the costs associated with making FNV, but where did all the money from those five million copies sold go? A small studio like OE could go a long way if they were properly compensated for all those sales. Hell, five million boxes shipped is a significant amount of money even for very large studios who have a much larger operating cost.

[Dalantia]

Not a big fan of Obsidian. They tend to release buggy games, even if they get a full development cycle, and the games of theirs I've played seem to be written by someone with a serious hate-on for the notion of Good People.

[Verdugo]

Not a big fan of Oblivion. They tend to release buggy games, even if they get a full development cycle, and the games of theirs I've played seem to be written by someone with a serious hate-on for the notion of Good People.

Hell, and I thought Elder Scroll series were pretty weak on evil part.

And I think you meant Bethesda up there.

[Dalantia]

...I mean Obsidian. I haven't had a good night's sleep in days.

[Wilian]

Being priviledged to visit a forum that has some of the ex Obsidian workers posting there, this one quote about the whole mess with Bethesda sort of struck me. <.<

I don't really have anything to add to this discussion. Instead I thought I would talk to about my favorite scene from Empire Strikes Back. You remember when Han and Leia go to visit Lando on Cloud City - and then Lando surprises them by having Darth Vader there. I love that line where Darth Vader says regarding the deal Lando had with him, "Pray I don't alter it any further", referring to the deal.

Yeah, that was great.

Good to see you guys are back up and running again!

[PizzaSHARK]

Not a big fan of Obsidian. They tend to release buggy games, even if they get a full development cycle, and the games of theirs I've played seem to be written by someone with a serious hate-on for the notion of Good People.

Which games? FNV was almost completely stable despite using the same engine as Fallout 3, yet they added a ton of crap to it. Never bothered playing KOTOR 2, Alpha Protocol, or any of the other stuff they've released since I had zero interest in it.

[Dalantia]

KotOR 2 - written by someone who hates Star Wars.

NWN2 - Buggy. Poorly written. Rocks Fall Everyone Dies.

Alpha Protocol - buggy. fun, but buggy. Perhaps the most frustrating bug I ran into was when I charmed my way through the front gate of a military station - when I was slipping out, I opened the wrong door. The mission debrief and the game acted like I had taken a side entrance and massacred the people I talked my way past - despite actually assisting them in combat against the hostile that showed up, and not firing on them in the slightest.

FNV - Base engine was buggy (which doesn't help), ran into some busted quests, dialogues, some weapons even, and the occasional hardlock.

[Zenotetsuken]

If they had released a game that wasn't a borked POS for the first 3+ months it wouldn't have gotten such bad ratings. If however Bethesda had FORCED them to ship out an unfinished product, and they can prove it then they would have a good case.