Obsidian Entertainment - Microsoft Acquisition Rumour

I don't think there has ever been a studio - neither independant nor first party - that survived more than two decades in the AAA sector without being said to have declined. The difference is, independant studios tend to disappear somewhere in the bulk of mediocre software developers or bankruptcy.

Imo, Microsoft is one of the best options Obsidian has to stay alive and keep doing what they are best at.

Then I guess Microsoft will own the Pillars of Eternity IP?

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
Then I guess Microsoft will own the Pillars of Eternity IP?

Actually, Pillars of Eternity trademark and IP is owned by a company called "Dark Rock Industries Limited", not by Obsidian. As I recall, Chris Avellone brought this up during his recent postings on the Codex but I believe it was known even before that. You can also confirm it at the bottom of PoE2's Steam page:

PILLARS OF ETERNITY II DEADFIRE™ © 2018 Dark Rock Industries Limited. Obsidian, Obsidian Entertainment logo is a trademark or registered trademark of Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Dark Rock Industries Limited. Pillars of Eternity, Deadfire and the names of the characters, events, items and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Dark Rock Industries Limited and used under license from Dark Rock Industries Limited to Obsidian Entertainment, Inc.

Presumably, at the moment Dark Rock Industries is owned by the same people who own Obsidian. But just buying Obsidian alone doesn't get you PoE ownership.

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
Then I guess Microsoft will own the Pillars of Eternity IP?

I would think so. Could well mean the end of PoE. My guess is that they're not buying Obsidian to continue down that road.

EDIT: That's interesting about Dark Rock. I wonder what that's all about? Maybe just a shell for some legal shenanigans.

I was just looking for where that info originally came from, and it looks like it was in the SEC filing for PoE2 that was required for them to be able to take investors on via Fig:

Dark Rock Industries Limited is a privately held California corporation formed in 2014 (“DRIL”) and the owner of the intellectual property rights associated with Pillars of Eternity II. Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., a privately held California corporation, is a video game development studio based in Irvine, California (“Obsidian”) and an affiliate of DRIL. DRIL is the licensor of Pillars of Eternity II. Obsidian will develop Pillars of Eternity II on behalf of DRIL for delivery to Fig under the Pillars of Eternity II License Agreement.

Obsidian originally owned the intellectual property rights associated with Pillars of Eternity, including the technology used to develop Pillars of Eternity (collectively, the “Pillars IP”). In January 2015 transferred the Pillars IP to DRIL. DRIL has the same owners, with the same percentage ownership interests, as Obsidian, and Feargus Urquhart is the CEO of both companies. DRIL, as intellectual property owner, has previously relied on Obsidian to develop Pillars of Eternity: The White March Parts I and II. It is DRIL’s intention to continue to use Obsidian to develop Pillars IP products.

How much did New Vegas sell, overall? It must be at least 10 mil. Nothing Obs made comes even close ( to half of that) number.

Anyways, MS should look up to Sony when it comes to studio support. When it comes to SP titles, they have been exemplary ( to entire industry): nearly every major release has been highly polish, quality titles, around 90+ by critic ratings.
It paid off and now they've managed to build huge customers trust in their name and why they keep selling so well. And when you take into account most are SP ( oriented), 20-30 hour long with low replayability…those are pretty damn impressive numbers.

Yes, and I'm hoping MS might have realised that they should copy the Sony model - buy some good studios, and give them a very free hand to go away and make great games.

I guess it's vital, though, to have the right studios that can be trusted with that freedom, and run a tight ship. If you have a Molyneux or similar running things, you end up with a budget-bloating mess, and a corporate freakout that kills the studio.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I guess it's vital, though, to have the right studios that can be trusted with that freedom, and run a tight ship. If you have a Molyneux or similar running things, you end up with a budget-bloating mess, and a corporate freakout that kills the studio.

Please don't mention Fable the franchise that Microsoft killed. Still you have to blame Molyneux as well as he always promised you the moon, and delivered poo-poo.

He even ruined Godus and it was a spiritual sequel to populous. Anyway a recent rumor has it that Microsoft is reviving Fable with a new developer. So time will tell.

Link - https://www.techradar.com/news/fable…s-and-features

Yeah, I'm hardly a champion for Microsoft and their ilk, but in some cases I don't think the disasters with purchased studios can be entirely blamed on the evil corporate overlords.

Originally Posted by Ripper
EDIT: That's interesting about Dark Rock. I wonder what that's all about? Maybe just a shell for some legal shenanigans.

If there was some legal shenanigans to exploit it would be more common I think.

I suspect it means that Obsidian owners have been looking to sell the company for some time but they wanted to keep the IP (whatever that is to license or start a new studio to work on them is another question).

Maybe. Given that we know there were some serious tensions in the company, perhaps it was an agreement to protect PoE from the planned sale. Does strike me as odd, though, and I do wonder if there was just some technical legal/tax reason to do with Fig investments and so forth.

It's not an unusual, to seperate operations and IP management. Cliffhanger and Topware/Zuxxez did similar things. I guess it can help when you're at the brink of bankruptcy (for example).

It would be very risky to try to split off ownership of IP if you're facing bankruptcy. It could well be seen as willful disposal of assets.

It's obvious that there is a trick that I don't. My point was, it's not unusual for whatever reason.

If the last decade or so has proven anything, it's that anything can be resurrected and given new life. Creating a separate company to handle IP actually makes complete sense (to me). Also, it's entirely possible a potential buyer might negotiate for both companies, if they felt the IP was an important thing to own as well.

Yeah, the idea of a holding company is very common in certain scenarios - the big multinationals get up to all sorts of shenanigans with them. I'd have just thought that if your endgame is to sell the company, you'd want to boost its value having its assets as part of it.

Obsidian ? "Poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio !"

Originally Posted by Ripper
Dark Rock. I wonder what that's all about?

Black Isle.

Obsidian:

So is Microsoft acquiring Obsidian or Dark Rock? What did the intention to purchase documents say.

I'll have to check my alphabet.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
So is Microsoft acquiring Obsidian or Dark Rock? What did the intention to purchase documents say.

I'll have to check my alphabet.

The rumors if only about Obsidian Entertainment. Doesn't mean it's 100% accurate though.

Microsoft has been in a studios buying spree this year. They announced acquiring 5 last June, most of them were doing Microsoft titles already. The head of Microsoft Studios said they were looking for studios with 50 to 100 devs that release games every 2-3 years. Seems like they are more interested in the devs than the IPs to me.