Obsidian shutting down?

[BobbyFizz]

Not really any skin off my nose but I suppose it's always a shame when everything goes tits-up:


From the article here http://geek.pikimal.com/2012/03/14/o...elopment-team/

"Although Obsidian has not made a public statement, a few now-former employees have taken to social media to confirm the news. Animator Andre Nguyen tweeted his best wishes to “fellow Obsidianites who were laid off today” and producer Jason Feder also sent out a tweet saying, “So long, Obsidian.” Meanwhile, programmer Michael Bosley, who is still with the company, got straight to the point in a Google+ post, writing, “Obsidian laid off a bunch of folks today.”

Edit:
Michael Bosleys' google+ post https://plus.google.com/101129273233...ts/fBUJjJVwvxT

[Kelron]

Very sad if it's true, but I'd like to see the news from a reliable source first. Also, cancelling one project and laying off staff working on it does not mean the entire studio is shutting down, though obviously it indicates financial problems.

[Battle Programmer Spike]

Oh gods... I hope this doesn't come to Obsidian shutting down for real.

[Voon]

To think they were doing just fine...

Are they going bankrupt or something?

[Battle Programmer Spike]

So far nothing official, Voon... but it has been know that for the past six months the managers/owners of the company have been going on without salary just to be able to pay the staff they wanted to keep. The cancellation of this next gen project that was supposedly for the new Microsoft's console will make things worse. Hopefully whatever other project they have running will keep em afloat for a while.

[jnx]

Very sad if true. Obsidian was so close to excellent on many an occasion, but never quite reached it. They would've deserved a hit game. On the past few days I've actually been playing Alpha Protocol (bought from some steam sale, you know the story), and it has plenty of nice ideas. It's just too bad the execution is lacking on every part.

[soldant]

It's just too bad the execution is lacking on every part.

That's my biggest problem with Obsidian games. It's like Bohemia Interactive's ARMA series. They're great games encrusted with a shell of impenetrable bugs or weird issues that simply shouldn't exist. You leave them alone for ages until they're patched to a decent state, by which point the price has dropped anyway. And apparently support is too little, too late.

[Battle Programmer Spike]

Sadly (or fortunately? hum...), that's hardly they fault, since most of the times the publisher is the one calling the shots at how long support will be active since Obsidian are just contractors.

[R-F]

Obsidian: Kickstarter, please.

[Voon]

Obsidian: Kickstarter, please.

Haven't they discussed about it already? I mean, they intend to make a kickstarter project for Planscape 2 iirc

[Heliocentric]

I'd buy alpha protocol or new vegas again tbut I'm not convinced that they are getting the money. Where is the tip jar?

[Althea]

Sadly (or fortunately? hum...), that's hardly they fault, since most of the times the publisher is the one calling the shots at how long support will be active since Obsidian are just contractors.

Pretty much this. Obsidian have been constantly held back by publishers - KotOR2 still affects their reputation to this day, but a lot of people don't seem to realise it released like it did because of LucasArts, not because of any real fault on the side of Obsidian.

If this is true, it's sad, but Obsidian never really managed to get past their reputation - even with New Vegas. Hopefully some of those who have been laid off find work quickly. I would guess that inXile is hiring ;)

[Drake Sigar]

Obsidian's games may have been buggy unfinished messes, but they were some of the best buggy unfinished messes I've ever played outside of the Ultima series. Hell, KotoR 2 is better than KotoR 1 in terms of characters & story. NWN 2 was a better official game than 1 (although to be fair, 1 was just a brilliantly simple toolset), New Vegas was better than Fallout 3! Alpha Protocol was the best RPG hybrid to come out in the last five years. Wait hang on. *Wikipedia* Ok we're good, Bloodlines came out in 2004.

[R-F]

Obsidian's games may have been buggy unfinished messes, but they were some of the best buggy unfinished messes I've ever played outside of the Ultima series. Hell, KotoR 2 is better than KotoR 1 in terms of characters & story. NWN 2 was a better official game than 1 (although to be fair, 1 was just a brilliantly simple toolset), New Vegas was better than Fallout 3! Alpha Protocol was the best RPG hybrid to come out in the last five years. Wait hang on. *Wikipedia* Ok we're good, Bloodlines came out in 2004.

Pretty much this. Obsidian's games might be mildly buggy, but they always push the boat forward in terms of storytelling, character development and general awesomeness. And then you see them barely sell, and BioWare's games make millions and you're just left scratching your head.

Alpha Protocol is BioWare wants to make when they say "cinematic RPG" (and, in fact, they tried to rip it off for Dragon Age 2, but failed miserably) and it introduced the "three choice method" used lately in BioWare's RPGs. Sadly unplayed because people.

[karthink]

Alpha Protocol is BioWare wants to make when they say "cinematic RPG" (and, in fact, they tried to rip it off for Dragon Age 2, but failed miserably) and it introduced the "three choice method" used lately in BioWare's RPGs. Sadly unplayed because people.

I think you a few words?

[R-F]

I think you a few words?

No.

Because people. >:|

[karthink]

OK, but I also didn't understand what you were trying to say. Dragon Age 2 was an Alpha Protocol rip-off? How? Alpha Protocol was cinematic? And Obsidian ripped off the "three choice method"?

[Drake Sigar]

Taking one element (timed attitude choices) from AP doesn't make DA2 a ripoff. That's like saying F.E.A.R is a ripoff of Max Payne because of slo mo. If anything I thought DA2 was an unwelcome ripoff of Mass Effect, if you can even call it that when both games belong to the same studio.

Also, Thorton beats Hawke & Shepard in a handicap match any day of the week. And I'm sick of having to look up how to spell Shepard every time I want to... do that.

[karthink]

DA2 had timed attitude choices? I'm failing to see any connection between it and AP.

[soldant]

Sadly (or fortunately? hum...), that's hardly they fault, since most of the times the publisher is the one calling the shots at how long support will be active since Obsidian are just contractors.

Perhaps, but it seems to be a consistent thing with Obsidian. I can understand publishers shafting them (KOTOR2 being the biggest example) but given that they have a history of this I have to wonder if it's always entirely the publisher's fault.