Obsidian Entertainment - Avellone is Out

Hexprone

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What? Robert Purchese at Eurogamer breaks the news:

Chris Avellone confirmed his departure from Obsidian in an email.

"It is true, Bertie," he wrote, "and many well wishes to the folks at Obsidian. On the future, I'm off to pursue new projects, but I can't say anything more at this time beyond life is short, and the ideas keep growing."
Avellone had earlier posted a half-joking announcement to his Twitter.

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What's he up to? Well, Fallout Van Buren does seem to be on both his and Brian Fargo's minds these days. HiddenX (thanks!) linked this video of a talk he gave on the long-shelved game this year/l


More information.
 
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Its interesting, as Avellone took less of a role in POE as initially expected. He also kind of bailed on playing through Arcanum as promised. Still I'm sad to see him go. Even if he was wordy at times, he crafted some very interesting characters and stories. Hopefully his successors can continue his good work.
 
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I can't help thinking of the remark from Brian Fargo earlier this week that it was because of an idea Avellone had that he had decided to secure the Van Buren trademark.
 
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Its interesting, as Avellone took less of a role in POE as initially expected.

He was doing stuff for Wasteland 2 and the new Torment and something else that haven't been announced yet at Obsidian at the same time.

Going by the email, he went to work on an announced project. Could be that he got Fargo to secure Van Buren for him.
 
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I can't help thinking of the remark from Brian Fargo earlier this week that it was because of an idea Avellone had that he had decided to secure the Van Buren trademark.

InXile would have been my first guess too.

I don't think Obs needs Avellone right now and Avellone doesn't need Obs. Between Tim Cain (the systems guy) and Sawyer (the mechanics freak) I don't think they need a terrific creative lead right now. In fact I felt like Avellone's work was almost lost on PoE... I mean, companions aren't even a crucial part of that game as probably half of all players create their own party anyway. And the writing wasn't the main draw of that game either.

OTOH, does it even matter who Avellone's employer is actually? It's not like he isn't on three different payrolls anyway.
 
Curious to see where he goes/what he does from here on.
 
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Well it's a setback for Obsidian, but I can't wait to see what his next project will be. Some have speculated he might join BioWare or Bethesda for a new RPG game.

Well I do remember rumors about BioWare making a new StarWars RPG.:thinking:
 
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I was indeed surprised to not see him at all in the Pillars of Eternity Documentary...
 
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Obsidian lost a good writer thats for sure. Not everyone liked his style of writing, but imo Kreia from kotor 2 was one of the most intresting villain character i've seen in a video game. And what about all the awesome new vegas stuff he did… Intresting to see what he will do next.
 
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I think he was spread too thin over too many projects. This will allow him to focus, perhaps.

This, exactly. I'd like Chris to land at CDPR :) They already have good writing talent and this would be icing :)
 
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That certainly came as a surprise….and not a pleasant one as I liked his contribution and don't like to see him go.

I hope he doesn't stray too far away and continues to be involved in RPGs. If he indeed ends up at InXile, then it is like nothing happened at all as I see them as one big happy family :).
 
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Sad news but the best possible outcome of this would be if he joined Larian. Don't see that happening though. Inxile seems more likely.

I agree. I always liked Larian's games mechanically, liked their worlds, but found their writing a great hindrance to my enjoyment of their games.
 
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I agree. I always liked Larian's games mechanically, liked their worlds, but found their writing a great hindrance to my enjoyment of their games.

the humor in D:OS doesn't really resonate with me. I think that attempted humour in games is often a substitute for atmospheric writing.
 
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Wouldn't surprise me if he's simply taking some time away from the industry. The guy needs a life and burnout wouldn't be out of the question given how many projects he's been tasked with the past few years.

…though as a Founder of Obsidian, I would imagine his share must have been bought out by Urquhart and company… which would have enabled him to put some money forth into branching out and attempting whatever it is he wants to do. Parasailing?
 
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He could possibly be joining Bethesda to work on Fallout 4. Bethesda has a big announcement planned for June 14, so I guess we will know soon.

The other major option if he intends to remain in gaming would indeed be inExile.

But I would not be surprised at all if he takes a break from work and pursues an outdoorsy type hobby, except for the fact he said life grows short but ideas keep growing. That means he intends to remain in the entertainment industry in some respect, and it could be anything like writing novels, comic books, maybe hollywood even as comic book movies are big these days. (he has previously worked on comic books)
 
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Before taking other projects (or even retiring from RPG video games industry, which I guess not) I hope he finishes the promised Digital Novella for Wasteland 2.

I also think he didn't finish the Digital Novella of Pillars of Eternity, has he ?
 
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He could possibly be joining Bethesda to work on Fallout 4. Bethesda has a big announcement planned for June 14, so I guess we will know soon.

The other major option if he intends to remain in gaming would indeed be inExile.

I hope for the second option. I want good old fashioned RPG's …
 
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