Bethesda buying Obsidian rumors

[grayx]

If Zeni were to make the necessary changes... Maybe get rid of Todd Howard and the frat team that is Beth's devs, absorb Obsidian's writers into Bethesda and Id's programmers all while keeping the art team and PR... Hmmmmm...

Once upon the time, Bethesda hit the jack-pot through implementing procedural sandbox gameplay. That is the foundation on which they build their sand castle. They weren't the first, but for many, Arena was a revelation. Since then, in every instance, they diminished primary novelty of the gameplay – its vastness and procedurality. I don't even want to talk about the game-story, which was never the shining example for this company (tho Morrowind's was good, mostly because of side-stories/books and side-quests). But, luckily, we could forget Beth studios, they are pretty insignificant for this topic, and however you look, they are doing great (yes, great) job for Zenimax – they make money and that's all that counts, so I don't think they'll change anything at all.

edit: removed some offtopic

 

[Elven6]

It's difficult to tell without looking at the original article, but this could simply be the magazine speculating solely on the success of Fallout: New Vegas and the fact that ZeniMax has been buying studios recently.

Obsidian's success is largely due to them being independent and working on franchises such as KotOR, NVN, etc. I don't know if this will transition well in the event of an acquisition. Obsidian hasn't done too well when it comes to creating their own IP's (as seen with Alpha Protocol) and that could factor into it as well for a buyer.

I'm quite convinced that if Obsidian were given proper backing and tools, they could really succeed in making a masterpiece. Hell, all they had this time around was the backing, thanks to the rubbish engine, and I feel that this game has done a lot of things right. With id's technowizardry, their ideas and BethSoft's financials, that could be a gaming tour de force.

With Fallout: New Vegas or Alpha Protocol? With New Vegas, I don't think Obsidian modified the engine much?

The AP engine was their own unique build, and SEGA at least on the public side of things was backing the project pretty nicely.

Everyone keeps bringing up id Tech 5, but is there any guarantee that the engine can be modified to make a competent RPG?

 

[Ixyroth]

If Zeni were to make the necessary changes... Maybe get rid of Todd Howard and the frat team that is Beth's devs, absorb Obsidian's writers into Bethesda and Id's programmers all while keeping the art team and PR... Hmmmmm...

(High) Quality is not one of their interests, if you haven't noticed yet. Just the opposite, in fact. So long as they serve the overall agenda, and make profits doing so, they don't give two shits about the rest.

 

[Thomas de Aynesworth]

Merging the two studios would be somewhat unprecedented. Zenimax would be better off keeping Obsidian as a separate studio with rights to the Fallout IP.

Bethesda should pretty much just say "yes" to every implement and design feature Obsidian comes up with, similar to how Interplay treated 14 Degrees East during the development of Fallout: Tactics.

 

[Brother None]

Actually, Alpha Protocol used Unreal Engine 3 (rather poorly I might add). Obsidian has never really been good with building their own technology, at best modifying it for their own needs.

Obsidian has yet to release a game on their own engine, Dungeon Siege III will be the first. Almost all their games are on existing engines and mostly using existing assets. "Never really been good with building their own technology" is kinda coming out of left field.

The AP engine was their own unique build, and SEGA at least on the public side of things was backing the project pretty nicely.

As said, it wasn't. As for SEGA, they put up with Obsidian for quite a while but we clearly not pleased with Obsidian's poor project management skills, and by the time of AP's release had already closed the book on Obsidian, done with them.

 

[syllogz]

It would be sweet if Obsidian had some funding for renewing the Alien RPG.
I don't know how far they got with the design but I guess they could make a good game in a few years if the foundations were good.

 

[Jesse Heinig]

Hmm, one of the other devs here just came over from Beth and he was pretty unhappy with their internal workings. Might not be great for morale for Obsidian developers who're used to a lot of autonomy if this were to happen.

EDIT: By "here" I do not mean "Obsidian." That's not where I am at present.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Buying Obsidian to turn them into a Fallout-specialized studio? Now that'd be sweeeeeeet. Unlikely, but sweet.

Really? I don't know. Turning Obsidian into a studio specializing exclusively in Fallout games could really hurt the chances for other good RPG's being released from that sector.

Hehe. As a Fallout-obsessive who couldn't care less about any other videogames at all (et. al.), I'm popping bleeding mind-boners at the mere idea. DOOOOOO IT!

EDIT:

Hmm, one of the other devs here just came over from Beth and he was pretty unhappy with their internal workings. Might not be great for morale for Obsidian developers who're used to a lot of autonomy if this were to happen.

EDIT: By "here" I do not mean "Obsidian." That's not where I am at present.

Ok, fine. Ruin my party.

 

[Brother None]

Hmm, one of the other devs here just came over from Beth and he was pretty unhappy with their internal workings. Might not be great for morale for Obsidian developers who're used to a lot of autonomy if this were to happen.

I don't know how highly Obsidian can value its autonomy anymore. After the SEGA fiasco they almost crumbled. Without New Vegas and its success there might well be no more Obsidian now, from what we know on the outside looking in. But do they want to continue relying on producing these slam dunk cycles as little brothers to Bethesda or Obsidian? The SEGA thing fell through, but I can imagine they'd like to find financial backing to make their own titles.

Being purchased can help there as long as it's not a publisher that's, well, shitty. ZeniMax and Bethesda are kind of seperate but at the same time Bethesda the publisher has nothing but a streak of shitty releases. So, uh, yeah...

 

[monsharen]

With ZeniMax on a sending spree

More importantly: where would they send it?!

 

[Crni Vuk]

Obisidian + ID Tech 5 + Fallout = sounds good to me

Depends. I think IDs technology is not very suited for the kind of games Bethesda usualy is doing. Same for Obsidian eventually. But Obsidian is doing games in a different way not so much like Openworld/Sandbox experiences (Except for Vegas now). And actualy that is what worries me most. If Obsidian is really forced/Pushed in a situation to make games like Bethesda the ID Tech 5 would probably be not the best choice.

 

[Paul_cz]

Zenimax managed to buy id, Arkane, Tango and MachineGames. First two especially are pretty prestigeous studios..and from what we can judge so far, Zenimax seems to leave these studios alone. I doubt they would merge or dissolve Obsidian if the bought them.
And Obsidian being given Fallout 4 to work on with better budget and more time and stability would be dream come true to be honest.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Obsidian would be doing a much better job then Bethesda over could. Hands down.

It would give also the oportunity eventually to see whath append with Vegas. But I guess thats a pipe dream as I would expect they somewhat would get the order to work with Fallout 3s line. More or less. But as said. Its just a speculation. Who knows what will happen or how much "freedom" they realy would get.

But yeah a nice idea would be a independ Obsidian with a Fallout franchise for them while Bethesda is bussy with some TES mmorg or something. Now that would rock. That way Bethesda might never put its hands on Fallout ever again

 

[Zeronet]

Pretty much appears to be baseless speculation though.

 

[shihonage]

Obisidian + ID Tech 5 + Fallout = sounds good to me

Depends. I think IDs technology is not very suited for the kind of games Bethesda usualy is doing. Same for Obsidian eventually. But Obsidian is doing games in a different way not so much like Openworld/Sandbox experiences (Except for Vegas now). And actualy that is what worries me most. If Obsidian is really forced/Pushed in a situation to make games like Bethesda the ID Tech 5 would probably be not the best choice.

ID technology has been suited for rendering vast outdoor areas since Quake Wars, and Rage uses improved version of that engine.

Bethesda's renderer, on the other hand, is extremely POORLY suited for Fallout games.

They couldn't even make houses enterable. Their technology for entering buildings remained the same it was in their original post-apocalyptic game, Terminator: Future Shock, in 1995!

You come to the door, press a button, and it "loads" an indoor map. It's fucking awful. When I played Fallout3 for the first time, and saw Overseer approach a wall and disappear with "door closing" sound, I couldn't believe what I just saw.

 

[Elven6]

Actually, Alpha Protocol used Unreal Engine 3 (rather poorly I might add). Obsidian has never really been good with building their own technology, at best modifying it for their own needs. For a small company that's probably the best way to go.

Whoops, seems I accidentally deleted a word in my post. But yes, UE 3 was what I was talking about, it was somewhat modified by them to accommodate the RPG aspect of it and all.

BioWare has made internal engines in the past and they've worked really well for them. They were also licensed out quite a bit. There are benefits to working on an internal engine and it's not like the former BIS employees are unfamiliar with it either.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Obsidian would be doing a much better job then Bethesda over could. Hands down.

I don't know about that, Obsidian doesn't seem to have someone in charge with even decent project management skills. Bethesda skips the whole design phase and seems to have an "amusement park" approach to game design but I get the feeling that Todd and Emil are ultimately keeping to a time-line. They both produce buggy messes, it's just that one seems to be able to develop to a time-line, which is very desirable for publishers and owners.

 

[Lexx]

I still like the "use a door, enter ingame room"-thing. It's kind of a different game style and unlike a "open" house, it makes the interior feel like a real interior. At least for me.

Also I bet that buildings without loading screen would look just ugly in that engine, as there are a lot problems with shadows and real time light.

 

[Fallout1FTW]

Zenimax managed to buy id, Arkane, Tango and MachineGames. First two especially are pretty prestigeous studios..and from what we can judge so far, Zenimax seems to leave these studios alone. I doubt they would merge or dissolve Obsidian if the bought them.
And Obsidian being given Fallout 4 to work on with better budget and more time and stability would be dream come true to be honest.

It really doesn't make much sense to own two RPG studios and not to merge them. Think about it.

 

[Ausir]

Large companies have lots different studios making the same kinds of games. E.g. Activision owns two studios making Call of Duty games.