Obsidian and inXale Acquired by Microsoft Studios
As part of our commitment to bringing a steady stream of new, exclusive games to our fans, I’m excited to announce Microsoft’s intent to acquire two new game development studios – Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment.
Obsidian Entertainment was founded in 2003 in Irvine, Calif. by industry veterans from Black Isle Studios, led by Feargus Urquhart. The studio quickly made a name for itself with the Xbox exclusive Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Over the last fifteen years, they have delivered genre-defining RPGs to players on both console and PC through titles including Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Pillars of Eternity.
inXile Entertainment is a team of industry veterans with decades of PC and RPG expertise. Led by Interplay founder Brian Fargo, inXile’s two development teams in Newport Beach, Calif. and New Orleans excel at creating vast worlds for players to explore with titles such as Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Bard’s Tale IV and the upcoming Wasteland 3.
It was important for us to find studio partners who have strong creative visions, a mastery of their medium and are expert world-builders. Obsidian and inXile embody all of these qualities while also bringing expertise on the PC platform and a unique RPG focus to the table.
While they do share a common heritage, the two creative teams at Obsidian and inXile are very different. They will continue to operate autonomously with their unique talents, IP and expertise. As part of Microsoft Studios, Obsidian and inXile will have the support and freedom to fully realize their creative ambitions on both existing franchises and new RPG projects.
Together, the two new studios bolster Microsoft Studios to now include 13 distinct and diverse game development teams. We’re focused on implementing new Microsoft technologies, delivering content for new platforms and services like Xbox Game Pass, and creating exclusive games that turn players into loyal Xbox fans. We are committed to expanding the Microsoft Studios franchises players already love, and investing in new, exclusive content for every type of gamer.
It is a genuine pleasure to welcome Obsidian and inXile to the growing Microsoft Studios team and work with them to deliver bigger and more ambitious games for their fans. I’m excited to see the teams maximize their potential at Microsoft and can’t wait for what the future has in store.
Announcement video from Obsidian:
And from InXile:
Comments
Some people didn't want Obsidian to join Microsoft, because they would loose the benefit of being independent, but their last game - Pillars of Eternity 2: Dreadfire - sold unbelievably poorly and could've potentially killed the studio due to their terrible management, at least so says Chris Avalonne, who was the leadwriter for a lot of Obsidians games.
Now with Microsoft's aquisition of the studio, Obsidion is officially safe. That's really good, because they make some of the best RPGs on the market right now. Kind of a happy end version of Telltale.
Yeah i've heard that Obsidian wasn't doing so well,still i don't really like this,but at least it's Microsoft not EA.
Let's just hope they don't end up like Bioware.
I find it hilarious they just put "Minecraft" down instead of "Mojang" cause no one knows who Mojang is lol.
My only concern is if Microsoft will meddle with their projects or enforce micro transactions I know they say they won't but they have a bad history for doing it such as Phil saying to Rare "Make Sea Of Thieves more like Horizon Zero Dawn".
Out of all their acquisitions the stand out ones for me are Playground Games, Ninja Theory and Obsidian.
Undead Labs and Compulsion are very meh/average to me and we don't know much about The Initiative yet, also I'm unsure about Inxile. Feels like 343, Turn 10 plus The Coalition are doomed to make Halo, Forza and Gears forever though.
Forgot to add although this could be good for these studios I'm kinda concerned about their being an acquisition raid on independent studios for instance there are quite a few targets for Sony if they feel the pressure to compete with Microsoft's acquisitions such as Insomniac, Supermassive Games, Quantic Dream, From Software, Ready At Dawn, Bluepoint, SEGA/ATLUS and I'm not sure about their situation with Kojima Productions but that could be announced as joining the first party team.
Obviously it's hard to remain independent but I felt some of the studios Microsoft bought and the ones I mentioned are so great due to their independence.
Why couldn't Microsoft Studios acquire and save Telltale Games?
I was also thinking this and was discussing it with a friend earlier. He brought up a very good point that probably played a role, and that was Telltale has always been pretty limited in the games they developed, while Obsidian has been a bit more diversified. A Telltale game, despite the experimentation in TFS, has always followed the same format since TWD S1, and due to Bruner's quantity over quality mentality, so many games were developed since then in the same manner that it has become a signature of Telltale. The problem is that it is something people have grown sick of. Obsidian at least offers a bit more variety in it's gameplay and structure. Another thing is that, while Obsidian has done licensed games like Telltale, they also have their own original IP's, and Telltale doesn't. I can't really speak for InXile because I don't know anything about them.
Basically, Microsoft believes these deals have more market potential than one with Telltale. The Telltale name has been dragged through the mud far too much lately that no company would want to touch it. The company would have to go through a serious rebranding and change, which would include an end to Telltale as we know it, for any chance of someone coming in and saving them.
To be fair, most of those studios you've listed already have a successful relationship with Sony to the extent that they might as well already be second party developers. Insomniacs days go back to the PS1, Quantic Dreams last 3 games have been Sony exclusives, From Software released Demons Souls as a PS3 exclusive, they released the Dark series when MS had a very good portion of the console market and obviously wanted in on it, before going back to PS exclusives with Bloodborne. Not sure who the other developers are, but I'm sure they're fine.
Not too familiar with inXile, but Obsidian was reamed by LucasArts during KoTOR 2 with insane release demands, and then screwed by Bethesda because New Vegas didn't meet certain review averages by a point or so. Anyone who's followed TSLRP knows how much data they left in the game that they simply couldn't get into it by LucasArts enforced holiday deadline, and NVs saw a good deal of it's launch issues patched in subsequent months, and was honestly my favorite of these Bethesda owned Fallout games. Add in the failures of the more recent projects, and they needed the help and exposure. MS is racing from behind, Sony has no need to spend money on companies that would gladly take advantage of their fan base while also having the option of expanding if the other side gets too big, and struggling studios can only benefit from a company backing their projects.
Jup. This is the reason. Microsoft probably would've bought Telltale if their reputation regarding how they treat their workers wasn't so abysmal. Now it would be much easier - or less risky - to just build a completely new studio, if at all.
I am cautiously optimistic about this...it is like Interplay now lives again under 1 roof...even though they are 2 seperate companies. And they still get to develop for pc as well as the next Xbox...I think MS is fucking serious about the next gen.