Obsidian Entertainment - [Rumour] Acquisition by Microsoft

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Pathfinder: Kingmaker *winkwink*

Yep, day 1 purchase.

Kotaku recently reported and Microsoft is close to inking a deal to purchase the independent developer Obsidian Entertainment. According to the report, the deal is “90%” finished.

…..

If this is true, that's good news. Always struggled with management and tech,
don't see them under MS doing worse.
Besides what would they buy them for? They're wasting their exp/talents on things like silly russian tanks to keep their studio afloat.
Large scale project with big, fat founding would be great.
MS has gone crazy and finally realized they need to invest in their own studios, surprised they didn't make the offer sooner.

Yeah, and I'm thinking about Bioware's fate. If they'd been bought by Sony instead of EA, and had been used over the years to make system-selling games, much like Naughty Dog, I think we might have been much happier with the results. If MS wants Obsidian for that sort of purpose, it might not be such a bad thing.

This could mean that Microsoft and Obsidian are the ones relaunching Baldur's Gate. I hope not, but it might tilt the cards in their favor, at least going by rumors. Still hope Owlcat is doing it, but really, they should be focusing on their DLC and sequel to Kingmaker!

Originally Posted by porcozaur

Kotaku recently reported and Microsoft is close to inking a deal to purchase the independent developer Obsidian Entertainment. According to the report, the deal is “90%” finished.

…..

While being mushroom addicts and allergic to PC, while forcing sjw crap on the site daily, so far Kotaku had reliable sources when it comes to rumors. About this matter they wrote:
https://kotaku.com/sources-microsoft…ian-1829614135

Microsoft is finalizing a deal to acquire the independent development studio Obsidian Entertainment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations. We don’t know if ink is on paper yet, and plenty of major acquisition deals have fallen apart in the final hours, but those close to the companies believe it is all but done.

One person with knowledge of the deal told Kotaku they’d heard it was “90%” finished. Said a second person: “It’s a matter of when, not if.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t comment on rumors or speculation other than to say that the Rumors album by Fleetwood Mac still holds up,” said an Obsidian spokesperson.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
This could mean that Microsoft and Obsidian are the ones relaunching Baldur's Gate. I hope not, but it might tilt the cards in their favor, at least going by rumors. Still hope Owlcat is doing it, but really, they should be focusing on their DLC and sequel to Kingmaker!

Kingmaker seems to be doing well, so I hope Owlcat will make a sequel to that. And what is bad about both Owlcat and Obsidian making D&D type games?

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
Kingmaker seems to be doing well, so I hope Owlcat will make a sequel to that. And what is bad about both Owlcat and Obsidian making D&D type games?

A) Owlcat makes them better.
B) A Microsoft funded one would probably be a huge AAA title, which means it's not going to be the old-school goodness we're seeing now. It would probably become a 3rd-person Dragon Age clone or something with Witcher 3 elements.
C) Owlcat makes them way better. (PoE is cool but seriously, I find Kingmaker closest to Baldur's Gate out of any game we've seen since then.)

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
A) Owlcat makes them better.
B) A Microsoft funded one would probably be a huge AAA title, which means it's not going to be the old-school goodness we're seeing now. It would probably become a 3rd-person Dragon Age clone or something with Witcher 3 elements.
C) Owlcat makes them way better. (PoE is cool but seriously, I find Kingmaker closest to Baldur's Gate out of any game we've seen since then.)

Well, if Microsoft funds and demands an AAA Dragon Age type game, then I'll agree with you, but we'll see if this is really what happens. Isometric games like both Original Sin games and the first POE) have sold well enough recently. In 2007 people thought isometric games were obsolete.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
Well, if Microsoft funds and demands an AAA Dragon Age type game, then I'll agree with you, but we'll see if this is really what happens. Isometric games like both Original Sin games and the first POE) have sold well enough recently. In 2007 people thought isometric games were obsolete.

But we're talking Microsoft, which I think would mean a larger budget and bigger production values. I doubt those would be wasted on an isometric RPG since Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed: The RPG are such big hits now. If they take the name weight of Baldur's Gate I'm pretty sure we'd see something non-isometric. Would love to be proved wrong twice, though. One being that Obsidian is even doing it, and if they did, it would be a true megalithic, big budget isometric CRPG with old-school goodness.

I'll buy anything in the future that's in genres that I like from Owlcat, that much I know for certain. Pathfinder may not be a perfect game, but it is head and shoulders above most of the other drek out there.

Not to mention that it'd be pretty much guaranteed that whatever game that comes out will be focused on consoles, easily playable with controllers, so probably with abilities restricted so you can access them with the controller buttons, etc.

Now all they need to do is buy Fallout from Bethesda and give Obsidian the tech, resources and Q&A to make Fallout great again.

I know that's not likely to happen (Bethesda won't sell), but it is the kind of scope we're likely looking at. Microsoft is doing this for exclusive titles that can compete with Horizon: Zero Dawn and so on, not for titles that can compete with Owl Cat and Beamdog.

One thing not to forget is that Kingmaker is one of many adventure paths that Pathfinder has published over the years . I think they have something like 30+ now. As someone who has played the tabletop game, I can assure you that many of them are quite good and could be adapted to a computer game. That means Owl Cat has plenty of material to work with should Pathfinder continue to give them their licence.