Microsoft acquires studios InXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment (RPGs Galore!)
Shadowrun might be tough to develop when it competes with Cyberpunk 2077 for the setting.
Also here by head of Microsoft Game Studios Matt Booty...
These studio purchases have everything to do with propping up Game Pass.
Tommy McClain
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Alternatively if Cyberpunk ends up being a huge hit, people are going to want more Cyberpunk style games.
Regards,
SB
Was thinking more along the lines of the isometric style, so not a direct competitor.
rokkerkory
Regular
7 new studios in 6 months is incredible. I like the range in variety of expertise as well. I hope next-gen will bring great things for the xbox gamer.
Something VERY important about this conference is that in addition to the old school RPGs that await us -great-, is the amount of strategy games, RPG and fps that we will be able play with keyboard
and mouse .that's a very interesting take. I only think they miss a point about exclusives.
There are people who say exclusives aren't important. But then one drools with some games -say Spiderman, Tetris Effect- they can't have. This shows Phil Spencer's commitment with creating a more rich Xbox environment now that they finally are seeing the potential instead of creating a Netflix hardware device like the original Xbox.
It's not how much Xbox has changed, rather, it's how much feedback changed Xbox
. As has been said for years that has either been ignored, character assassinated, or modded out, the next xbox can be feedbacked again to oblivion going forward. But that has been mitigated with play anywhere, sell off of everything under the holistic Cloud banner so that everyone can participate and thus accepted, now game pass, and in the future a real xbox app that has no hardware attachment.Again there's precedent. Windows Phone no longer exists because reasons, but the apps and services are on everything. Hololens got blasted before it even got close to consumers (fovfovfov) in any form, so it got priced appropriately out of feedback realm and the mixed reality services are moved everywhere. Surface, again, priced appropriately and moved out of feedback realm.
Xbox is clearly next, set into motion by Xbox One feedback. All these acquisitions are padding out the apps and services to run on anything.
So bravo on the articles now showing up. Kudos to all the feedback that got us here. And great job on the article still portraying the real Xbox 2013 policies/hw/services as the end of the world even though they're all in play today, just colorfully worded away or presented from the "right" companies. Optics.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
A weird turn; Chris Avellone, one of the co-founders of Obsidian who walked away a few years ago, has tweeted at Microsoft recommending [wccftech] Microsoft keep the devs and fire the management of the company. Avellone is currently working on Dying Light 2, which is a more dynamic story and RPG elements.
Not really a turn if you follow the links in the story. Avellone has been running down Obsidian management in specific terms about specific individuals since he separated from the company. If his representation is correct, than hopefully the MS buyout leads to some changes to how the company is run despite the PR statements from Obsidian about being allowed to run the studio as they have been.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
I'm familiar with Chris Avellone's views on his former company, the weird turn is him lobbying Microsoft directly in such a public way. I looked at his twitter feed and it looks like he may have deleted the tweets.
I would expect Microsoft to give Obsidian similar creative freedom but be more responsible with studios burning their money!
Announcement Video from InXile:
DF Article on InXile -- https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-11-19-inxile-acquired-by-microsoft-the-interview
InXile acquired by Microsoft: the interview
"We've had one hand tied behind our back; now, no longer."
On Saturday 10th November, Microsoft announced buying Californian role-playing game developers inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment. Two studios independent which had fought for survival for a decade-and-a-half were now under the Xbox umbrella. The message from Microsoft was reassurance: don't worry, nothing will change, we won't kill them - they'll continue to make the games you love, only they'll have more resources and support available to "fully realise" their ambitions. Nevertheless, questions remained.
Both companies are tied up in crowdfunding - particularly inXile, which has Wasteland 3 still to deliver - so what happens there? And what happens to promised PlayStation 4 versions of games - can they still fulfil those as Xbox studios? Moreover, will they leave isometric games behind in favour of glitzier projects?
For this interview, I'm concentrating on inXile, speaking with company founder and video game veteran, Brian Fargo, about the Microsoft deal. I hope to do similar for Obsidian, and I am in contact with the studio, but it's proving trickier to organise.
…
So what sort of size are you looking to bulk up to?
"We're not necessarily walking away from isometric at all."
Brian Fargo: In the short-term we talk about increasing it 30 per cent or so. We're not trying to become multi-hundred-person teams but just filling the holes we've been desperately wanting to: having a full-time audio person, having a full-time lighting person, having a cinematics person - these things that could help us improve what we're doing.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Some things I liked from that.
Pretty amazing job they did on The Bard's Tale IV with only a 35 person team.
I'm extremely curious as to what that is. I've backed multple projects of theirs through crowd funding and haven't been disappointed yet.
I'm both happy and sad that they aren't independent anymore.
Happy, because now their games should be even better with a polish that they've lacked at launch. Always rough around the edges at launch and then the games get polished up afterwards in patches.
Sad, because now I can't get their games at a steep discount by being an "early bird" funder.
Regards,
SB
Hmmm.
They could have multiple projects on the go. This could be a PC only one in theory.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
So, something cool that Microsoft didn't have to do WRT Wasteland 3.
Investors are those that invested more money on Fig.co when crowd funding Wasteland 3, this is separate from the backer tiers (IE - backing the game at the 5000 USD level doesn't make you an investor). In return for the larger investment (I think minimum was 1000 USD), you would get some of the proceeds from sales of the game (based on your level of investment) once it was released IF the game turned a profit.
So, basically now that Microsoft has bought inXile, they will be giving people back their original investment + 32%. From what I heard from one person that invested in the game, this is much larger than the projected returns from the material he got before he invested.
Regards,
SB
Investors are those that invested more money on Fig.co when crowd funding Wasteland 3, this is separate from the backer tiers (IE - backing the game at the 5000 USD level doesn't make you an investor). In return for the larger investment (I think minimum was 1000 USD), you would get some of the proceeds from sales of the game (based on your level of investment) once it was released IF the game turned a profit.
So, basically now that Microsoft has bought inXile, they will be giving people back their original investment + 32%. From what I heard from one person that invested in the game, this is much larger than the projected returns from the material he got before he invested.
Regards,
SB
This probably isn't exactly altruism on MS' part. I haven't read the entire actual Fig prospectus for WL3 in detail, but IIRCthese were heavily retail revenue focused.
Those FIG shares are actual securities and without settling them somehow, MS might have been legally prevented from doing things they'd want to do. like putting the game on Games Pass day one, or whatnot.
Nor could they buy the publishing rights too cheap, as that could be seen as a transaction to benefit MS and Inxile at the detriment of Fig investors. The last thing they'd want is for the game release to be hindered or burdened by potential legal issues.
In other words, it probably was something MS had to do.
Last edited:
