Obsidian Entertainment - Josh Sawyer Taking a Break

Originally Posted by you
That is really too harsh. While his systems are not exactly perfect he has been willing to listen and evolve.

Can't remember any moment he listened to what I said (no trashmob respawns did not came really from general feedback) and besides, someone has to be evil so why not me.

Well maybe now he won't "balance" the fun right out of their games!

I've never deeply loved the balance solutions that Josh has come up with. On the flip side, tho, some of his theoretical writings about RPG balance have been fantastic, and I appreciate the thoughtfulness he puts into this stuff. I've come to the conclusion that prefer somewhat different solutions, but he's sincere and doesn't phone anything in. I'd much rather see Josh's brand of gameplay systems than so much of the dreck being peddled these days, so good on him.

Originally Posted by screeg
It's too bad there's still no serious effort to actually stop "burn out" (aka 100 hour weeks for 40 hours salary) through legislation. People working for free means governments cheated of payroll taxes, you'd think that would be enough for them to step in.

He has a creative burnout, not overworked burnout. No legislation is ever going to fix people getting bored of working on the same thing for years.

His plan is to do some small things on other projects that don't requite too much creativity than move to direct something differently form POE (he talked a few time about a bike RPG and an historical one).

He's currently managing Deadfire bugfixing and balance.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
I'm glad he's ending on a high note. Pillars 2 is fantastic and nearly erases all of my issues with the first game (at least so far…)

Thanks, Josh!

Maybe but it is selling badly so it will not be remembered as a great.
His leaving might also be connected with that.

curious how you know if it is sell badly or not.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Maybe but it is selling badly so it will not be remembered as a great.
His leaving might also be connected with that.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Maybe but it is selling badly so it will not be remembered as a great.
His leaving might also be connected with that.

How do we know sales already?

Originally Posted by Archangel
Maybe but it is selling badly so it will not be remembered as a great.

I'm afraid I need links with facts not opinions to back up that statement.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
How do we know sales already?

We don't as Steam Spy is useless nowadays and it's still on GOG's top 5 sales chart.

It is not useless, it is just less reliable. Sales are bad, a bit over 100 000 and it is very low on Steam sales chart.
GoG sales chart means little overall, I think other devs said they are 10% or so of total sales.

But most of the negative info about sales comes from bad concurrent players, it is way less than Poe1 or DOS games. And those numbers are correct.

Steam Spy has been crippled by Steam's latest update to block users info from being shared. Though you can use Steam Chart to compare both games for some evidence.

Link - http://steamcharts.com/app/560130

Link - http://steamcharts.com/app/291650

Hmm, maybe he is just going to do something else. Not sure how I feel about him, I do love New Vegas but the other stuff is ok at best. I like POE but don't love it.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well Steam Spy has been crippled by Steam's latest update to block users info from shared. Though you can use Steam Chart to compare both games for some evidence.

Link - http://steamcharts.com/app/560130

Link - http://steamcharts.com/app/291650

Even that isn't reliable, D:OS1 peak players is lower than Deadfire's and it sold more then POE1 did.

I'm mostly enjoying it and do find it plays better than PoE in many respects (except the ship stuff…which is tedious). I'm surprised its doing worse than PoE though.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Even that isn't reliable, D:OS1 peak players is lower than Deadfire's and it sold more then POE1 did.

Didn't say it was reliable just sharing some links for evidence. Basically as stated already nobody will ever know unless Obsidian, Steam, GOG, and other sellers share the data.

Bottom-line I want evidence when a forum member says sales are bad.

Originally Posted by booboo
I'm surprised its doing worse than PoE though.

Many players backed it on fig and got their keys early might be a factor also. At this point I really don't know unless more data is released instead of third party speculation.

It is not much of speculation when you compare Steam Spy, concurrent players and Steam Top Sales list (it is very low there). Then you check twitch as well and it is very low everywhere. Game is just not interesting to anyone.
PoE also had a really terrible completion rate, even Act 1 had a bad completion rate (you can check these numbers through Steam achievements). I guess not enough people found PoE interesting to buy PoE2 and POE2 didn't have all the hype to bring in random people to buy it.

That is too bad, if it is selling poorly. (And I do think what Archangel is saying regarding the numbers seems like solid info)

This also gives rise to other speculation. Like, is Sawyer's sudden hiatus related to the now infamous Chris Avellone Codex interview, where he was "spilling the beans" about the inner workings of Obsidian? Perhaps there was some internal fallout over that.

Or, maybe Chris Avellone is forming a new company, and Sawyer is also going to be part of it? This relates to another thing as well -I thought I read another news item or info in a post or something, that some other notable developers were moving on from other games and projects too, and maybe they are also joining with this new company.

I'm just speculating, and going pretty far out there to the unknown inner Earth realm here to do it, I'll admit.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
Like, is Sawyer's sudden hiatus related to the now infamous Chris Avellone Codex interview

Sawyer has been talking for months about moving away from POE to work on other stuff, so no. Also, he's not leaving Obsidian as far as I know, just stepping down as creative director to recharge is creative batteries.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Bottom-line I want evidence when a forum member says sales are bad.

Alltime peak concurrent players for PoE was 41787, alltime peak for PoE2 was 22639. Both peaks occurred within a few days of release. Seems very safe to say that PoE2 hasn't had as much interest as the first one, unless there is a trend developing where more people wait until long after release to play these games.

For comparison's sake, D:OS1 had a peak of 21953 and D:OS2 had a peak of 93350. Going in the opposite direction.

Originally Posted by Stingray
Alltime peak concurrent players for PoE was 41787, alltime peak for PoE2 was 22639. Both peaks occurred within a few days of release. Seems very safe to say that PoE2 hasn't had as much interest as the first one, unless there is a trend developing where more people wait until long after release to play these games.

For comparison's sake, D:OS1 had a peak of 21953 and D:OS2 had a peak of 93350. Going in the opposite direction.

While we are speculating let me throw this in. I think Larian are making an Ultima. Mike Laidlaw has been hanging out with Swen Vincke. Mike used to work for EA/Bioware who owns the Ultima IP. He would know the people to talk to. Swen is a big fan of Ultima. Lots of writers have been recruited to work on an RPG and they are saying its a property they want to write for. It could be D&D but I think it is Ultima. Plus Mike has been throwing out Ultima references on Twitter lately.

I have no evidence for this but…Larian have been very successful with an Ultima like IP in D:OS. Who better when EA needs to resurrect its reputation alot.

So you believe Larian bought or got temporary through a contract rights to make another Ultima game?

If yes, I say no. EA would bless such thing only if it's another Ultima Online and for all I know, Larian doesn't care about MMOs.

And also… Don't forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aRYe5ixXLk