Feargus-Urquhart
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Obsidian CEO eyes a quick return to crowdfunded games
Though the newly-titled Pillars of Eternity has yet to debut, Obsidian Entertainment is already working on ideas for its next crowdfunded roleplaying epic. "What I'm trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC – forget console for now – with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity?" pondered Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. "Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?" Good question, but given Avellone's earlier epic roleplaying games, giving him free rein could very easily result in George R.R. Martin-style roleplaying game that's 500 hours long and involves 200 different characters. Even with modern technology that's not feasible. Solution? Episodic games. "Would it make sense for it to be episodic? Because going out there and saying, 'We're gonna make 100 hours of gameplay,' everyone goes, 'Oh my god, how could it not cost millions?" states Urquhart. "But could we create ten hours and have people pay ten bucks? And generally when we say ten hours, it's usually 15. But if we go with five episodes, then people get between 50 and 75 hours." Obsidian's plans are actually further along than anyone suspected, and as Rock Paper Shotgun grilled Urquhart, he let slip that the company is working toward creating a game based on a licensed property. "There's something we're talking about that I think would be really cool, but it's not an original property," said Urquhart. "It's a licensed property ... It's something we can still do a ton of creative stuff with, though. And then the other thing is an original property. Also, there's a third thing that somebody approached us with, but I really don't think that's going to work out." It appears that the massive outpouring of crowdsourced cash and support has emboldened Urquhart and his colleagues at Obsidian. There's no telling which of these project they'll aim for once Pillars of Eternity is complete, but we can always cross our fingers for a new Planescape: Torment, huh?
Report: Obsidian considered 'sci-fi Skyrim' RPG Backspace
Obsidian Entertainment once had a sci-fi game in development, built using the Skyrim engine and that game's "Radiant AI" system. Dubbed Backspace, the project was in development at Obsidian in early 2011, Kotaku sources claim. Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart confirmed the studio could possibly come back to the idea in the future. The Backspace design document describes "simple time travel" and combat similar to Skyrim, "but slightly faster since there is no concept of blocking." It calls for a game that is a mixture between Mass Effect, Borderlands and System Shock 2. Players would navigate between various worlds, linked together by one massive space station. "Backspace was a project concept that we neither cancelled nor greenlit," Urquhart told Kotaku. "We had some great people work on the idea for Backspace for a bit of time and then moved them off to other projects as opportunities came up. We've been around for ten years now and have had a bunch of great ideas that we still have sitting around that we may be able to return to in the future." Obsidian Entertainment has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment, including South Park: The Stick of Truth for publisher Ubisoft and Project Eternity, a Kickstarter campaign that yielded $3.9 million for the development studio to create a PC-only isometric dungeon crawler similar to Baldur's Gate.
Fallout: New Vegas 2 ideas, courtesy of Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart
Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart has a few ideas on where a potential sequel to Fallout: New Vegas could be located and how it'd have to be "separate" from what the team at Bethesda is currently working on."If I think of going from Fallout 1 to Fallout 2, we tried to associate the two areas somewhat closely," he told RPS during an interview back at DICE. "It wasn't just 'Oh, we're gonna do this 2,000 miles from here.' So I think if we were to do Fallout: New Vegas 2 – or just a new Fallout – we would probably separate it from what the internal team at Bethesda's doing. We'd keep it on the West Coast, because we're West Coast people. They're East Coast, so it makes sense."As for possible locations, LA seems to be high on Urquhart's list of places – or, as it's known in the cannon, the Boneyard. "And we need an interesting confined area. So I mean, it could be LA. Fallout LA. That could be interesting. It'd probably be The Boneyard, which is from Fallout 1. It could be very different. It could be almost a Walking Dead meets Fallout-like thing because of all the radiation."Of course, the onus is on Bethesda to greenlight a new Obsidian game and, according to Urquhart, the two studios are still on good terms. Still, with new consoles looming in the horizon, it's a tough time for publishers and developers – do they continue to make games for the established consoles or put their eggs into the next-gen basket?"We talk to Bethesda all the time," Urquhart said. "And I think the challenge here doesn't just apply to Bethesda specifically, but to a lot of publishers in general. But basically, what does all the [current] console crap mean? The challenge in this period of time has been, you have this console transition, and it's strange that they're still not announced. But that always creates a disruption in the industry. And now you mix in [the emergence of] mobile and F2P stuff, and it's left a lot of people reeling."
Obsidian has a new Star Wars game pitch for Disney
Obsidian Entertainment, developer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, has an idea for a new Star Wars game, and is eager to pitch it to new IP holder Disney."We pitched a between-Episode III and Episode IV game [to previous Star Wars owner LucasArts]," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told RPS. "Because we think that timeframe is super interesting. It's the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it's Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few. So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story."Obsidian hasn't brought its pitch to Disney yet, but it plans to present this same concept – which LucasArts was enthusiastic about before it was sold to the company."We haven't [talked with Disney yet]," Urquhart said. "We're kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that's one of my next big things to do."
Obsidian's XBLA title 'on hold'
Obsidian Entertainment announced last year that it was working on "an original IP XBLA game," but times have changed. Targeting a launch for the first quarter of 2012, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said at the time it would be an "action RPG that's focused on fun." Checking in with Urguhart about the project, we were told, "That project is currently on hold; we are looking at where we might want to take it." It's been a rough news week for Obsidian, as layoffs hit the company and it came to light that the studio missed a bonus based on Fallout: New Vegas' metacritic score by one point. Obsidian is most definitely working on the South Park RPG at the moment, which will be published by the even more financially troubled publisher, THQ.
Obsidian CEO laments Fallout: New Vegas' 'glitchy' launch, working on better QA for Dungeon Siege 3
In a new interview with Play Magazine, Obisidian CEO Feargus Urquhart addresses the launch of Fallout: New Vegas -- which was, uh, pretty ugly. On Xbox 360, the game is still very much plagued by issues. "Now in the case of Fallout: New Vegas, we made a gigantic game, and I'm proud with what we were able to do but I wish it wasn't as glitchy when it came out," said Urquhart in the interview (as excerpted on NowGamer). "The criticisms people had are fair, but it's difficult to get a game the size of New Vegas bug free. But that's an excuse, and it doesn't matter when someone's paid $60 for a game. It's something we need to work on." With the launch of Dungeon Siege 3 on the immediate horizon, Urquhart emphasized that Obsidian is placing extra emphasis on quality assurance for the game -- a process of "playing and playing and playing and playing to ensure it's of a high standard," he said. "On top of this," Urquhart added, "this is the first time we've got to use our own technology on something, which means we know where to find the bad bugs from the start!" The full interview will be published in Issue 205 of Play Magazine, which hits UK newsstands this Thursday.
Obsidian working on XBLA title for Q1 2012 (and some other things)
Obsidian Entertainment is currently working on "an original IP XBLA game," which is being targeted for release in the first quarter of 2012. In a recent interview with Game Revolution, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart mentioned, "It'll be an action RPG that's focused on fun -- not Dungeon Siege; it's quite a bit different in a different genre with a different camera." "We also might throw our hat in the whole free-to-play thing," Urquhart added, before passively referencing another game -- based on a "licensed product" -- he'd be "killed" if he talked about in detail. In our own recent interview with him, Urquhart similarly hinted at a "once in a lifetime" licensed game that is "something we've been working on since the middle of last year; just with a small team -- it's only been five or ten people." This could be that Wheel of Time project, or something separate -- "I'm hoping that'll be announced around E3," Urquhart told GR of the mystery project. The studio has also pitched an Icewind Dale reboot to Atari, in addition to shopping around general pitches for a game based on "a new world" and a sort of "what if" Sauron won scenario for a Lord of the Rings title dubbed "Defiance." But first! Obsidian has to wrap up Dungeon Siege 3. Talk about keeping busy.
What's in a Name: Obsidian Entertainment
Feargus Urquhart co-founded Obsidian Entertainment (Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas) after Interplay's Black Isle Studios closed in 2003. After we left Black Isle, we were going to start a company and we needed a new name. We wanted it to be a good name, a strong name, and we wanted it to be something that people would remember. And so we threw all of these names around -- we had Scorched Earth, we had Three Clown Software, and lots of other stuff. And eventually Obsidian got on that list, because we were Black Isle, and what's something like that? And someone said there's that Obsidian thing, that glassy, magma stuff, and we put it on there. So we came down literally with a short list, and we showed it to our significant others. And they were like, "All these names are dumb, except that one." So really it was the significant others that actually said that's what they would name a company, because it sounds cool, it has some relevance ... and it's not Three Clown Software. Obsidian Entertainment is currently working on Dungeon Siege 3, available this May and published by Square Enix. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
Obsidian Entertainment: Playing in other people's worlds
Obsidian Entertainment has no shortage of street cred -- its founders originally created Interplay's Black Isle Studios, and put together some of the most classic PC RPGs around, including the original Fallout, Planescape: Torment, and the Icewind Dale series. But since forming Obsidian in 2003 (and making Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and most recently, Dungeon Siege 3), Feargus Urquhart and his crew have created another reputation: That of building sequels for properties created by other studios. "Correct," he tells Joystiq in a recent interview, as if fessing up to being called a "sequel house." If there's a connotation associated with that term, Urquhart doesn't really care. "What I grew up on was obviously roleplaying games that had the fifth and the sixth and the eight and the twelfth," he says. "So I think in general, RPGs have a lot of sequels, because you can keep on adding on to the world, you can keep on coming up with new stories. I think from that perspective, it's great to be able to make these, even if they're sequels, because you get to go play in someone else's world."
What's in a Name: Black Isle Studios
Feargus Urquhart is now known as the co-founder of Obsidian Entertainment, but before that he helped found Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay that created some PC RPG classics like the original Fallout series, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. I took over the RPG division of Interplay in 1996, and we were trying to come up with a name, because "RPG Division" didn't work. Or people wanted to call it Dragon Play, and I'm a big nerd, but Dragon Play was too much, too nerdy. And we came up with all of these different things, we came up with 12 Gauge, but that didn't really fit us, and we came up with this and that. And I was always holding back a name, because it was me, it was from my history. So where Black Isle came from was that there is, more of a peninsula really, but there's an isle in Scotland, and it's called the Black Isle, and that's actually where the Urquharts came from. So I was always going to hold that back for when I got to start a studio, but Brian Fargo, who ran Interplay, was getting mad at me, and was like, "You just need a name!" And he walked in and was going to come in at me, and I was like alright, I got a name, and it's Black Isle. He was like, "That's perfect!" And that's how Black Isle Studios got named. Black Isle Studios was laid off from Interplay in 2003, when most of its team went on to create Obsidian Entertainment, currently working on Dungeon Siege 3 with Square Enix. Stay tuned for the story behind Obsidian's name from Urquhart himself. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
Obsidian leads talk about their favorite Square Enix franchise
In a recent interview with Siliconera, Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart and lead designer Nathan Chapman pondered which of Square Enix's other RPG franchises they'd like to get their hands on post-Dungeon Siege 3. Their decision was unanimous: "If I could come across everything that I played I would have to go with Chrono Trigger," Urquhart explained. "I think Chrono Trigger was one I really enjoyed." "I think we're going with Chrono Trigger because it has elements of a Western RPG," Chapman added. "It's more open, it's still mostly linear, but there are parts you can explore more." Yeah, we guess that's a good reason to go with Chrono Trigger. You know what's another good reason to go with Chrono Trigger? How about because Chrono Trigger is the best game ever made, and every video game developer in the world secretly wants to work on the next Chrono Trigger. We think that's a pretty good reason, too.
Obsidian CEO describes Fallout: New Vegas as 'almost' original IP
Obsidian Entertainment has worked on a number of games based on existing franchises, including Star Wars, Forgotten Realms and Aliens*. While the studio will release an original IP in Alpha Protocol in just several weeks (through publisher Sega), its following release will be the next installment in the Fallout franchise, Fallout: New Vegas, with publisher Bethesda. At a recent Bethesda press event, I asked Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart about the studio's decision to take on the next Fallout versus pursuing an original IP. Head past the break for Urquhart's thoughtful response. *[Editor's note: The Aliens-based game was ultimately canceled.] %Gallery-92131%
Obsidian CEO: Aliens RPG felt like a finished game
Of the perils one encounters when writing about games, the most painful is arguably following the games that almost were; games that were canceled just shy of release. Some are simply vaporware, announced one day and then were never heard from again, and others are in the spotlight for years, before being banished to a dusty hard drive in a closet somewhere. Duke Nukem Forever will stand ... well, forever as the most prominent example of the latter, but the Obsidian-developed Aliens RPG that Sega canceled could very well hold the second-place trophy. At a press event last week, we asked Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart some followup questions about the axed title, which he'd previously asked us to do; however, it still hasn't been the required year since we first talked to him, so we're still missing the details as to why the title got the guillotine. But we did learn that the game looked and felt nearly complete before its cancellation. "Oh, if you had come in and played any of the last builds we were working on, you would have said it was a finished game," Urquhart told Joystiq. "That's how close we were. It looked and felt like it was ready to ship." He went on to explain that you only played as the Colonial Marines in the game (not to be confused with these Colonial Marines), and that missions would have involved tasks like protecting the robot sentry guns that were featured in a deleted scene in Aliens. One of the biggest challenges, Urquhart said, was, "How do you make a 15-foot long Alien turn around at the end of a hallway?" Besides terrifying turn-based hallway combat, there also would have been multiple types of Marines, lots of gear to play with and ... wait. This is just like pouring salt in a freshly reopened wound. Thanks, Feargus!
Obsidian CEO almost talks about canceled Aliens RPG
We cornered Obsidian's CEO Feargus Urquhart with a motion tracker (notepad) and a an M41A1 Pulse Rifle (pen) at Austin GDC to ask him exactly what happened with the canceled Aliens RPG the company was working on for Sega. The game was announced back in 2006, and then canceled abruptly in February earlier this year. Of course, it took Sega four months to officially let us know about it. So what did happen? The good news? There's an answer. The bad news? You're going to have to wait until February 2011 to get it. We hope we remember the question that far in the future. If that makes anyone think about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you get bonus points. Read on after the break for what he said, which did not include the proper pronunciation of his name.
Obsidian working on unannounced fourth project
In addition to the upcoming Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as the perpetually delayed/possibly dead Aliens RPG, Obsidian Entertainment is apparently working on a fourth, unannounced title. In an interview with GameBanshee, Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart said, "We have been working on another title for the last four months that we can't talk about yet." According to the piece, the game is being developed on the company's internal engine, though Urquhart had, more or less, positive things to say about his company's experience with Unreal Engine 3. "Our engine, like Unreal, is a tool and different jobs can be done better with tools that are made for them ... there are things that our engine may never do as well as Unreal, but likewise there are things that our engine will do that will be better than Unreal," Urquhart says of the choice. Considering the rest of the interviews answers, we're fairly certainly that the game's not a new Neverwinter Nights nor Knights of the Old Republic 3. Guesses, friends?
KotOR franchise to continue, says LucasArts
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/KoTOR_franchise_to_continue_says_LucasArts'; Not sure how I missed this one last week. All that turkey and football must have conspired with the dark side to cloud my awareness of all things Star Wars. In an interview with Next Generation's Colin Campbell, LucasArts VP Nancy MacIntyre mapped out her company's plans to continue delivering Star Wars goodness to Force-sensitive geeks like me over the next few years. "Our fans want a logical progression of the Star Wars story line, so we are committed to only two Star Wars experiences a year," says MacIntyre. This must be a new policy moving forward because there have been no fewer than 25 Star Wars titles released in the past seven years (not counting handhelds), and at least one of those games had some serious continuity problems. Still, the best news is the continuation of an old favorite, as MacIntyre confirms: "We've also got Star Wars franchises like Knights of the Old Republic ... that we will not leave behind. It's very important to us that we grow those franchises." It's important to us too, Nancy! The big question now is, will Obsidian return to helm the Ebon Hawk? Feargus Urquhart indicated earlier this year they would be happy to work on KotOR 3, but whomever LucasArts selects, let's hope enough time is allocated to finish the next installment properly. See also: Mod community strikes back, restoring KotOR2
NWN2: new interview with Urquhart, more screens
Here's the situation for Obsidian Entertainment and co-founder Feargus Urquhart as they prepare Neverwinter Nights 2 for launch: you're following up a popular, award winning series started by BioWare (again); Atari's potential implosion could have a major impact on your efforts to support the mod and user communities; and you have the hopes and dreams of millions of D&D fanboys (myself included) riding on your shoulders. What pressure? FiringSquad talked to Urquhart about all this, as well as NWN2's toolset and DM client, why we probably won't see a demo, and Obsidian's deal with Sega to create an original RPG franchise. There are a bunch of new NWN2 screens too. See also: Customization is key in NWN2 Obsidian's Urquhart: happy thoughts on KoTOR 3
