Obsidian Entertainment - Project: North Carolina - back on the menu

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PCInvasion reports that Obsidians cancelled 2012 project has been picked up by a different publisher.

At the conclusion of a long chat with Game Informer, Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart talks a little bit about the company's cancelled ‘North Carolina' project and its upcoming rebirth (in something of a new form).

North Carolina was the working title for an Obsidian game intended to be a first-party launch game for the Xbox One. Microsoft's cancellation of the deal was a major contributor to Obsidian's financial problems in 2011/2012.

Very little is known about what the game actually was, but Urquhart explains that at the time the project was unsuccessfully re-pitched to a number of publishers. He characterises this as Obsidian's lowest point, and the catalyst for the Kickstarter to make Pillars of Eternity.

However, he goes on to say that a publisher (he doesn't name who) has in fact now picked the title up. You can hear the relevant section at this time-stamped link.
More information.
 
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aww yeah.

Since this game pre-dates Sawyeritis at Obsidian, I have high hopes for it.
 
Hopefully not an X-box One (or PS4) exclusive.
 
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I fear the "re-purpose" might not end up as an RPG.
But if it does it's most likely good news.
 
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"North Carolina" is a peculiar code name... Let's see North (and South) Carolina was named after King Charles I and King Charles II of England. The name "Carolina" comes from the Latin word "Carolinus," meaning "of Charles." The state is nicknamed the "Tar Heel State." No one is sure what the hell that means. Something to do with pine trees. Well, that's a dead end.

But North Carolina was also where the Wright brothers conducted the very first powered flight of an aircraft (in a town called Kitty Hawk). Early Airplanes make me think of Steampunk (i.e., the opening cutscene of Arcanum). So it's got to be Arcanum 2 :).
 
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A game that's Xbox exclusive or any kind of exclusive idiocy?
Not interested even if it turns out to be Mona Lisa among games.
 
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Have you even read the article? ;)
While ‘North Carolina’ was (presumably) intended as an Xbox One exclusive, I’d say it’s a fair bet that the “re-purposed” version of the pitch will be for a broader set of platforms, which would include the PC.
 
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Sawyer said he would love to do a history game without fantasy elements, maybe this is it.
 
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Sawyer said he would love to do a history game without fantasy elements, maybe this is it.

A Microsoft-contracted game for XBox that's low-fantasy and historically correct? Unlikely. Unless they completely changed the original concept.
 
aww yeah.

Since this game pre-dates Sawyeritis at Obsidian, I have high hopes for it.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Sawyer was the director for Project North Carolina.
 
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Sorry to burst your bubble, but Sawyer was the director for Project North Carolina.

Sawyer also worked on F:NV, but that game came out without severely autistic balance - it included all the typical Bethesda fun like tons of perks and unbalanced equipment. Of course Sawyer wrote his own mod, but that could easily be ignored. ;)
 
I know many people criticize Sawyer for being obsessed with making RPGs balanced, but it seems ironically enough there's a lot of complaints on Obsidian's forums about how unbalanced Pillars is (e.g., Cipher is overpowered, Rangers suck, etc.).
 
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People who care about Pillars also care about balance in that game, it's not surprising. Especially since Pillars is best understood as an RTS game with a thin roleplaying veneer, people care about unit balance. Personally I find player choice too invalidated in Pillars to care either way.
 
I think the non-combat portions I've seen were nice (particularly interesting when playing as a Paladin)… Problem is the game is very combat heavy and I really dislike the combat (and RTwP combat in general) so I stopped playing right around the time you get the stronghold. Perhaps I'll give it another shot somewhere down the road when the expansion is fully released (and cheap).
 
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Very interesting! I wonder if it's that high school RPG that Chris Avellone wanted to make. Ha! not likely…

I hope it's a 1st/3rd person exploration heavy RPG. I'm getting a bit tired of party based isometric at the moment after playing through PoE, W2, Shadowrun and Divinty:OS this past year or so.
 
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Very interesting! I wonder if it's that high school RPG that Chris Avellone wanted to make. Ha! not likely…

I hope it's a 1st/3rd person exploration heavy RPG. I'm getting a bit tired of party based isometric at the moment after playing through PoE, W2, Shadowrun and Divinty:OS this past year or so.

Couldn't a 3rd person party based RPG be "exploration heavy"? Doesn't seem mutually exclusive, even if the tendency has been to make party based RPGs combat heavy.
 
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