Obsidian CEO interested in turning Pillars of Eternity into a Skyrim/3D product.

He doesn't mean exactly like Skyrim but more inline with the scale.

“We can keep doing great stuff with Eternity. I'd love to turn Eternity into more like a Skyrim product,” he says when asked where he sees Obsidian—now 13 years old—in the future. “I'd love to do a science fiction game. I just want to keep making role-playing games—I do, and the team does. Whether that's independent or not, making RPGs we can be proud of is the goal. And that's what I can look back on. We've been very proud of a lot of what we've done as a team.”

Urquhart speaks frankly about the economics of running an independent studio that operates on a larger scale than most. He speaks of the ethics and moral quandaries of returning to the crowdfunding well for a second time, what he’s learned during his tenure at Obsidian, and the friction that can often occur when working alongside publishers, among other things.

Speaking to that last point, Urquhart explores the process of weighing up reward—both from practical and financial perspectives—and how the videogames industry differs from that of other businesses, and the challenges this in turn throws up:

“We've thought a lot about what it takes to make a big game, and what's the reward we get for making a big game. For me to go off and do—and we're not doing this, but let's just say—Knights of the Old Republic 3, and it's going to cost $50 million, and I'll make $7.5 million on milestones and then maybe I'll make another $5 million in royalties. That's pretty good for an independent developer on a project. But, y'know, I can make more profit from two Pillars of Eternitys than I can from one of those games. And then on top of that, if it's a smaller game and it's successful, I'll own it. I'm not gonna own Star Wars.

“Let's say you need some contracting work. The contractor shows up, you figure it out, and maybe it's going to be $10,000. They'll ask for $3,000 upfront, and you're like, 'Okay. I get it.' Let's say I do a $50 million game. For me to get more than $500,000 upfront is a fight. Again, this is not 'publishers are evil' or anything like that, but that world is kinda broken.”

Check out the interview in its entirety over on Gamesindustry.biz.

Follow the big marker.

I would rather not have Obsidian do a large scale game.

Focus on Quality, not Quantity.

They are making a Pillars of Eternity 2...

Is this hinting that this sequel will be more of an open world classic rpg? That sounds cool. Hmm. Don't know if that works. Fallout kind of shed its classic RPGness when it turned 3D. I don't know of many 3D games that are also classic rpg-esque with good writing and tactical combat (especially if you would think of having a party, not that it's required).

Hmm but I really like the crpg style and it is so rare these days. So I would be 100% fine with them making crpg's for a while.

Big scale sounds good but only if they can deliver a polished game with quality quests. New Vegas was pretty good though, so they are capable but what about resources?

All hail Godrim

So they can go back to making broken buggy messes again? Out of those games I only care for New Vegas, and even then how unpolished that game is fucking grating. So Obsidian needs to crpg it for a bit, because all things being equal they could and should have made a more interesting crpg.

That really misses the point of why people invested in PoE. People liked the refreshingly old school top-down RPG. Making it into a Skyrim-esque open world is not only likely beyond the studio's capability, but it ignores the original fanbase and their interests. They should really just focus on using their PoE1 money to dramatically improve the presentation of the next game, not to fix what isn't broken with it's subgenre.

I concur however I still like to see a first-person RPG in style of Ultima from Obsidian

Um, if you mean water EVERYTHING down in favor of more modern-but-still-flawed-combat-mechanics then I'll pass. Skyrim's she shallowest of TES games

I'd be more discouraged by this news if PoE wasn't already an ultra bland overbalanced experience filled with trash mobs. Now? Meh.