https://kotaku.com/sources-microsoft-is-close-to-buying-obsidian-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.”
“We do not comment on rumors or speculation,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.
“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.
Dunno what I think of this.
Obsidian seems like a different company nowadays since some pretty important people left it, and there doesn't look like there's much history of gamedev acquisitions by microsoft to look at for precedent like say, EA. Just mojang and uhhh, I guess they've been doing fine?
Microsoft next gen is going to be interesting to see. I hope all those studios put out some good content unlike Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 imo. (not saying theyre terrible but i find them boring and broken.)
How about no.
MS doesn't seem like its an awful company to be under. But that's probably because as a whole, video game sales are a pretty minor part of their income. Its only part of their income for the Xbox segment and even that pales in comparison to Windows Server and MS Office sales and services. No need to work your devs because game sales isn't going to break MS.
Wasn't it Obsidian that was working on a really interesting next-gen(at the time) game for the Xbox One that MS ended up pulling the plug on because it didn't meet their bullshit criteria of being something completely unique? MS has been really trying to please gamers lately so I don't think this is all a ploy to get studios to blow all their money on a huge AAA game(Platinum with Scalebound) then to buy them when they end up cancelling the game
To me, the biggest problem is that Microsoft will most likely chain them to their shitty little walled garden, next to Mojang and the Forza devs.
I'd rather be able to get their titles on any platform of my choice.
MS fucks up a lot with Windows and their other services, but their games are fine. They haven't released anything exceptional in a while, but their games are still adequate enough that I wouldn't recommend against them. And lord knows Sony and Nintendo ain't showing any love to people playing on PC.
It'd be nice to see Obsidian make a game with a real budget behind it. I'm not worried about this.
MS handled Remedy alright, honestly, it was just the property they were working on (Quantum Break) was unfortunately nothing special.
Please do and then just leave them the fuck alone.
Obsidian have fuck all money and I'd much rather they exist under Microsoft than not at all.
Do to Obsidian what you did to github.
Feargus was always only interested in cashing out at maximum value.
That company doesn't exist any more, and you know it.
I do. Let me have my naive hope.
I dont see why this is an issue. Microsofts studios seem to be really good
Alright, cool, what's the problem? Are Microsoft going to stop them from trying to make games, because they haven't exactly made that many games to begin with, the most notable games are Knights of The Old Republic II and Fallout: New Vegas
Most of the talented individuals that made the games great have long since moved on.
It's not a ploy to anything, M$ wants tentpole games and they're pretty sure they can do that with this company in a specific genre, and all the people that wanted to Obsidian to further interactive storytelling into an evolving platform equal to movies and tv and better than that where they could be are gone. M$ gets a solid ev that puts out installments of _____ and Feargus can retire with his couple of cronies a rich ass man. It was pretty clear after the firings and quittings they weren't up to the same level of storytelling prowess and as an inde they were having to buy a lot of shit directly out of pocket what other devs take as a part of an umbrella package, and that was hitting the bottom line harder than the people in charge wanted.
With M$ money and infrastructure, esp insurance severance and technology, they can ameliorate those costs immediately and directly over the next year, and just churn out safe nice social media friendly installments of ______ only worrying about the process itself and not much else. Pretty much win win for everyone involved, unless you like old Obsidian games that pushed boundaries and more, and while lots of people pay those lip service, we can see from the steam leak, a lot of new players are just content to read a wiki or watch a video than actually play those games.
Honestly, who cares? Obsidian died years ago.
There's Rare but they were already half-dead when Microsoft acquired them.
And was 16 years ago. Microsoft and the industry as a whole has change a lot since then.
Microsoft is starving for exclusives (and they're kind of open about it, judging from last E3), so I doubt it's going to be like what happened to Rare
I don't trust AAA publishers, period. Every one that MS has acquired has just become a living shell (Mojang is a notable exception).
The modern trend of publishers doing 180s and shafting entire studios or shoehorning mtx into shit just further proves that if you're under any AAA publisher, you're living on borrowed time. I feel MS will go that direction someday as well. Blah blah slippery slope blah. Nobody thought EA would go the way it did, and look at what happened there.
buy it use it break it, dismantle it, sell its assets off...
no studio microsoft buys is long for this world because they want them to exclusively release on a cyclic schedule for their console.
At least we know their games will still come to PC. Imagine if Sony had bought them.
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