Rumor: Obsidian "letter of intent" for MS Acquisition has already been signed, same person who leaked Playground Games

On phone, about to board plane for work so cant post links, but I'll update this.

The rumor is from ResetEra, from the same guy who leaked Playground Games acquisition. My opinion, they made the best modern fallout game by far.

Discuss.

Yeah I heard about this yesterday. Would definitely be a really good addition to the Microsoft Studios.

Amazing how Microsoft is able to buy studios that never produced a single game I have ever played, except for Rare.

Nice to see MS bulk up their divisions. Only thing is if they keep doing it Sony will start buying more as well.

Would be nice to get some real funding and franchises behind them, but Microsoft will likely just kill them off like every other third party they bought.

This would be an amazing acquisition if true.

Big news.

Love Alpha Protocol.

For the longest time, I always thought Obsidian was a private own company, but then again, they are drawn into whoever pays them the most. Anyhow, I do like Obsidian, there games are usually buggy as hell, but great writing, better then what Bethesda release to say the least. Microsoft doesn't have a good track record with acquired studios, but still, I am open to give'em a chance, the same goes for NT.

Also, can I get a complete KOTOR2 game now Obsidian?

No, cause that game is not cannon, thanks to Disney.

But it seems MS bought almost every studio in the UK.

So that's why they won't be making a FO game again.

Man, even The Old Republic era get's scrap by Disney, bummer :(

Guess I'll have to take what I got out of an incomplete KOTOR2 then.

@recloud:

Lol. Obsidian is a nobody studio now, just like Ninja Theory, amirite?

You've never played Fallout New Vegas, or either of the South Park games? Those were pretty high profile games.

Be careful. You guys know they're eventually gonna come for Insomniac right? "Insomniac who? Never heard of them"

They also made the following games:

• Alpha Protocol
• Dungeon Siege III
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Neverwinter Nights 2
• Pillars of Eternity
• Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
• South Park: The Stick of Truth
• Tyranny
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

Obsidian is nothing like NT, those games above are all top high profile and Obsidian is not to be underestimate either.

Don't know how I feel about this. On one side with proper funding and time they can make more polished games and on the other hand MS track record with studios they buy isn't good. If they can make games like tyranny while still being under MS then I have no problems with it.

That would be pretty big, but I hope this doesn't start an arms race between Sony, and Microsoft.

@StrongDeadlift said: @recloud:

Lol. Obsidian is a nobody studio now, just like Ninja Theory, amirite?

You've never played Fallout New Vegas, or either of the South Park games? Those were pretty high profile games.

Be careful. You guys know they're eventually gonna come for Insomniac right? "Insomniac who? Never heard of them"

I don't understand why you're so butthurt. lol

I didn't say I don't know those games, I said I didn't play them, there's a difference lol.

I'm 100% behind that Obsidian acquisition. Obsidian's biggest issue is lack of capital to produce the games they want to make. Microsoft's biggest issue (for me personally) is Microsoft's impotence in the RPG department. This would defiantly help the situation.

I'm not even a lem nor a hardcore Sony fan, but this developer is very good, why the downplaying? If they ever made a new neverwinter nights, I'm all game.

Agreed. Only negatives I can think of about Obsidian is there lack of quality control (buggy games!), but their last few (Pillars 1 and 2, Tyranny, and the South Park games) have been fairly bug-free in my experience.

Not sure why they would sell themselves, they seem to be doing just fine. Hell, Pillars of Eternity was a successful Kickstarter iirc, they don't need publisher money when their fans support them.

Obsidian has made some great games... anyone denying this because of a potential buyout is irrational.

@recloud: "Amazing how Microsoft is able to buy studios that never produced a single game I have ever played, except for Rare."

I'd say it's more amazing that you haven't played a single game from a studio that ms have bought.... Especially as one of them is one of the biggest successes in gaming history......

@sealionact: I know, but I really haven't played them, for real.

That is good, actually, it means Microsoft don't have anything that really appeals to me.

I'm not downplaying the studio or anything here, just talking from a personal perspective.

This is a great developer so this kind of sucks since MS is awful managing gaming studios. Here's hoping I'm wrong and this doesn't end up in another of the many MS failures.

Excellent news.

I was hoping for years that SOMEONE bought them.

They make awesome games but are often buggy because of small budget constraints.

MS will be so much stronger with Obsidian.

The other studios they bought were good, but Obsidian is Great.

Lets be honest the only reason they're buying up studios is because they need content for game pass. They're not going to care whether the games are good or not. They're just going to want as much content as possible to sell game pass subs. There's actually a good chance their studios won't make great games because it's much easier to sell a $10 sub to play the game than it is to sell it for $60.

Do you know how the Netflix streaming model works?

How their partnerships work?

What you said makes no sense at all.

Oh man, fallout is going to become a first party exclusive.

Fallout IP is Bethesda's.

Lol, you took the bait man :P

Wow. This would be quite the big acquisition. I'm not in favor of it - presumably, this would mean one of the great "larger" PC developers would become Xbox Store locked? That would blow. Games like PoE belong on platforms like GoG.

Oh god, I hadnt thought of that

@navyguy21: yeah I mean otherwise I wouldn't care. It would be a good score for MS. But I'm consumer, not an MS shareholder :-P

This is good news. Less money I have to spend because Obsidian games will be included in my Game Pass subscription. However...

You bring up a very good point. UWP games aren't exactly mod friendly. Ah well, it is still better than Sony buying them and holding them hostage on an incapable console. At least MS games can be played on PC where you are not limited by the shit hardware.

Awesome.

Oh shit, you're right. This really sucks.

Lmao... so true. He's not obvious at all.

That's a pretty big pick up if it turns out! No lie.

interesting if true.

I've been playing PoE II recently and its surprisingly good after I couldn't get into the first one.

I imagine MS wouldn't have them making CRPGs though, not exactly system sellers those games

Being honest, I have to admit that if MS picked up Obsidian it would be a HUGE blow to competitors, particularly Sony. Obsidian is a freakin' awesome dev. Alpha Protocol (even with its issues), FO:NV, Pillars, etc. etc. are all amazing. Make no mistake, being a Sony fan, I'd definitely be jealous if this deal happened.

meh, I didnt play any gamemade by them.

Now thats a big pick if it happens, they make actual rpg's and good ones at that

You genuinely should.

I'm...okay with this news. Obsidian makes great games, but they usually don't have the funding to pull them off.

With Microsoft behind them (and hopefully enough freedom to do what they want), they could produce some really good RPGs.

Or it could all go terribly. I guess we'll find out soon.

Microsoft will win regardless. MS is going to aggressively buy up studios for their Game Pass and Xbox Streaming service.

@daniel_su123: lol, you truly believe Sony is idle doing nothing?

No I don't. But companies where they are typically multiplatform will likely side with MS than Sony. You have to admit, Microsoft has a good business model with Game Pass, the money long term is more important and that extra content is free and how they support PC and Xbox. Sony will just keep everything exclusive.

The companies that will saddle up with MS will be paid to do so. The only leverage MS has right now is pure cash. No one knows the prospects of how fruitful Game Pass will be yet. They're going to have to cast as wide a net as possible if they're going to get those subs they want.

I am fine with publisher buying studios heck I would love them to buy indies for them to have bigger budgets but I am not comfortable with publisher owning a big studio like obsidian. This will cause Sony, nintendo and other publishers to also seek AAA studios to join their ranks. Oh well whatever as long as games is there.