RUMOUR NEWS! MS close to finalising deal to buy Obsidian.

https://kotaku.com/sources-microsoft-is-close-to-buying-obsidian-1829614135

Microsoft is finalizing a deal to acquire the independent development studio Obsidian Entertainment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations. We don’t know if ink is on paper yet, and plenty of major acquisition deals have fallen apart in the final hours, but those close to the companies believe it is all but done.

One person with knowledge of the deal told Kotaku they’d heard it was “90%” finished. Said a second person: “It’s a matter of when, not if.

Obsidian, best known for its work on critically acclaimed role-playing games like Knights of the Old Republic II (2004) and Fallout: New Vegas (2010), has been independent since it was founded in 2003. The Irvine, California-based studio has long been beloved by RPG fans, but has often faced financial strains, nearly going out of business in 2012 before it signed a deal for an online tank game and launched a Kickstarter for the isometric throwback that would become Pillars of Eternity.

“Unfortunately, we don’t comment on rumors or speculation other than to say that the Rumors album by Fleetwood Mac still holds up,” said an Obsidian spokesperson.

That would be pretty sweet if true. I really enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas. They seem like a pretty talented developer.

Good for Obsidian, but it's a shame now their games will not be on Playstation.

Great, their games will inexplicably jump in price, be removed from the Steam store and riddled with microtransactions.

So, in 2021 M$ will close the studio and cancel their upcoming game? Okay. Good to know you, Obsidian.

Yup they are known for making the inferior sequels.

@blackballs: Well for me a good game is still a good game. I’m extremely interested in what they might develop under Microsoft.

Lmao gotta love System Wars. No matter what Microsoft does; good or bad, the cheerleaders for Sony have to shit all over it.

Oh no this sucks. **** MS

Alpha Protocol 2 could be good.

Damn, I wanted them to make a new Star Wars RPG after Disney's deal with EA is over. Guess new studios for new games.

I think Microsoft will give them the Fable franchise.

I don't think it will happen since those games are published by other publishers(Lucasarts,Sega,Bethesda etc)

Another great studio they can destroy.

Remember Scalebound.

You do know SEGA owns the rights, not Obsidian.

Good acquisition

@dagubot: I like shit in places where I'm not allowed to in my spare time. It's a good exercise method.

@knight-k said:

Another great studio they can destroy.

Remember Scalebound.

Pretty sure Scalebound was not a studio.

@boycie: Yeah I heard that was a pretty good game as well but I never got around to playing it. I think that KotOR 2 and New Vegas were the only two games of theirs that I’ve played.

Lots of seagulls in this thread.

*Swoop in. Make a lot of noise, and shit on everything.

I will wait for this to be confirmed.

@kuu2: Oh my, that is such an apt description. ?

What ever it takes to get more games out

Yeah, fair point.

Obsidian had a bad experience on AP anyway. Doubt they'd want to go back to it. Apparently some asshole was constantly interfering.

Personally, I think this is bad. As it Microsoft will move them away from CRPG style games and force them to make action-console shit.

Unfortunately the days that publishers outsource projects to independent developers are over.

Pretty sure that Platinum games is the next target.

Shame as it had great potential.

Underrated, nowhere near the shit heap people make out.

Heck, rather boot this up than Mass Effect.

I see a win, win here. Obsidian never has the funding to make the games they want, and Microsoft has always been RPG starved and in desperate need of 1st party genre variety.

It's like one of my favourite developers, this is not great news.

@boycie: LOL Rumours by the worst bs site alive Kotaku.

But if they are true, good for Obsidian Entertainment then, it´s not like their games are console movers.

Lmao, that's insecure cows for you.

Anyway, good if true. Another top quality dev under MS Studios.

Sorry, I'm not really up on the reliability of rumours on different sites. I did put rumour in capitals though to emphasis the rumourous nature on the news

how did they destroy platinum games?

I don't think he had access to a MS/Publisher meme so Scalebound had to do.

@knight-k said:

Another great studio they can destroy.

Remember Scalebound.

Clearly Scalebound is going to be garbage and full of dev issues.

MS cancelled the game. MS does not only destroy studios.

Did you forget already lemmings?

"We’re sorry to say that on January 9, 2017, Microsoft Studios announced the cancellation of Scalebound. We are very disappointed things ended up this way, especially since we know many of our fans were looking forward to this game as much as we were."

Also remember when this studio was good?

What else is new around these parks? This thread did what I expected, shit all over MS good, bad, and the ugly anything related MS/Xbox One news.

Lol typical reactions in the thread. Gonna be interesting next gen when these new developers releasing new games specaily if ms give them the freedom they said they would

Then why did you list a game after saying they destroyed studios? You have as much accuracy saying, "Another great studio they can destroy. Remember Pizza Hut's Bigfoot?"

There is plenty of truth to it though. Very few MS studio acquisitions have worked well, more often than not it spells doom for a company after perhaps just 1 or 2 games.

That being said, this would be a sensible acquisition for a studio to make exclusives (which MS seems to need right now) - and this is a studio that might NEED financial backing. So it could be a short term win-win at least just to keep the studio going. But what would MS task them with making? Halo Wars? Halo RPG? Original IP? This is a company that has made some "buggy" games in the past, so perhaps working on one platform would be helpful in that regard.

Bring it on MS. I want them coming out swinging next gen.

I have a feeling even if MS bought them that we'd still see a couple of their games grace the systems of their competition.

I'll make sure to use the appropriate meme next time lemming.

Another studio for MS to whip to death.

Well its a better acquisition than Compulsion and Undead Labs lol.

Perhaps forget using memes and instead focus on using the appropriate logic?

What exactly are they going to do with Odsidian?

I'm not bashing Microsoft here but I wish that Obsidian had stayed independent. I feel that they are good enough as a independent company and I don't want any company to buy them out whether it's Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, or even third party companies. I hope things go well for them but it's a shame that they couldn't be on their own anymore.

@SecretPolice and @i_p_daily I wouldn't mind Obsidian be in charge of rebooting the Fable franchise. They can do it!

That's the problem with your cow brethren, they always bash! I say, this is a great opportunity of MS expanding their 1st party line up ready for Xbox Scarlet. Yeah, I know you'll brag that you don't need Scarlet cuz you have a PC w/the latest Nvidia card and wait for the PC Release of new Xbox titles.

They've made a lot of good games. Fallout NV was great, but I doubt they'll ever get a chance to make another Fallout game. KotOR II was great too, but that IP is probably owned by Disney now...

Pillars and Tyranny I think are original IP.

What other IP do they own?

Same for lemmings like yourself.