It looks like a year of Obsidian wasn’t a particularly good thing for the studio. Neither Avowed nor the Outer Worlds 2 met Microsoft expectations (which I’m not terribly surprised at, Microsoft was oddly propping up the Outer Worlds 2 like it was the next big pillar IP; there’s also probably a reason they wanted the $80 price tag). Surprisingly Grounded 2 is performing the best, which gives me more hope for Microsoft leaving smaller creative projects (like Kiln coming up) alone presumably because they cost less. The big thing mentioned is that Obsidian did not like releasing three games in one year because of how much that stretched the team thin, and they wish Avowed and the Outer Worlds 2 didn’t have such long development times (both of which I think are healthy concerns especially when I know Avowed had an issue of internal reboots and scrapping work).
Nothing sounds terribly “Oh no, Microsoft is going to shut down Obsidian.” but it is somewhat revealing that what many of us see as Xbox’s best success studio last year wasn’t meeting financial expectations and didn’t internally think well of the development cycle for their games last year. I think 3 to 4 years is a REALLY good dev cycle if they can hit it and reeling in the scope of games would be for the best. Especially if Microsoft will have these lofty margin goals now. I just don’t think a new Obisidian IP (or a Pillars of Eternity game) will perform to the levels that Microsoft might demand from the dev cycle and resource cost. Like Avowed isn’t doing Elder Scrolls VI numbers, but at the end of the day because of how the industry works they’ll be priced the same. Avowed might have had to shoot above it’s weight class if it just suffered from a long dev cycle and incurred more cost than it should have.
Not really a surprise to be honest. Great games but the vast majority simply ignored them for whatever reason. And with The Outer Worlds 2, the original $80 price tag was just a massive miss fire on Microsoft’s part and it never recovered. Hoping Avowed does well on PlayStation 5 as im really hoping for a sequel.
Did not like the fact that they even referenced the 30% with Amy on the case, which will mean jobs gone :(. It would be beneficial for all studios to see development get back to 3 to 4 years per game.
If they touch Obsidian Microsoft leadership needs to go, this studio just released three games in a year, pretty great ones too and if they didn’t meet your unreasonable expectations then that’s on you, I also wonder what these sales expectations are when all of their games are on a subscription service and Avowed wasn’t even on PlayStation at launch and still isn’t on it I think, also TOW2 and Avowed should have costed 60$ max, not a dollar more, but they tried to price TOW2 at 80$, giving it unnecessary backlash and Avowed really wasn’t a 70$ game imo, as much as I liked it.
This corporation is weird and don’t give me any confidence going forward that any of these studios are safe, they seem to have insanely high expectations that will never be met.
Still Xbox’s best studio idgaf. How about not setting ridiculous 30% profit goals (that no other publisher in the industry has) and then hamstringing said games by pricing them at $80 a pop. That controversy took the wind out of The Outer Worlds 2 sales before it even launched.
No disrespect to Obsidian but I think they need to price their games better . I fee they would do much better if their games are priced in the range of $45-$60. I enjoy their games but many feel their games aren’t worth $70 . Also it’s tough when the competition like Clair obscur, KCD2, oblivion remaster were price in the $45-$60 , so it makes perfect sense why people gravitated towards other options
It’s more the publisher’s responsibility than the studio’s to set the price, but either way, it was a poor decision to make TOW2 the game to try to raise prices. Even moreso, when Matt Booty (iirc) spoke about pricing games accordingly.
They really should’ve waited until the likes of EA and Ubisoft started pricing games that high, as trying to shoehorn TOW into the same level of prestige as Mario Kart World was incredibly dumb!
Agreed, Microsoft set them up and was a very bad decision to price their games at $70. I think pricing their games at $50 would’ve helped them out a lot . I think at that price people would shrug and say why not since they feel it’s a good price to see if they’ll like a rpg. The danger of waiting for sale crowd is you’ll never know when they’ll pull the trigger or they’ll forget about game and move on something else. As a publisher Microsoft needs to do a better job in putting games in a better chance to succeed . I feel they’ve made mistakes in how they priced certain games
This is what just sucks, I want to be excited about what is next for Xbox, new system and everything but last year was not great when it comes to what happened. Really hope they don’t make any rash decisions.
They kill Obsidian and I’m out, backlog be damned.
Surely Microslop must understand that pricing your games higher than Kingdom Come and Clair Obscure comes with certain… expectations and competition? Especially on PS/Steam where I hope the only “sales expectations” lie, as those are not GP platforms.
Not to mention the whole $80 torpedo they shot at TOW2 to make sure to get some much needed extra bad will! Fucking Microslop.
Just becuase games are on other platforms doesn’t mean people will buy. Microsoft needs to rethink pricing because I think only a few of their games can get away with $70 like cod, Forza horizon , halo, next Bethesda game , and possibly fable.
This is not a shot at Microsoft because the industry is feeling that with this economy where $70 is mainly reserved for the big franchises. I don’t think there’s any shame at lowering entry price for games at launch
Ultimately, I do think the problem with pricing came with the dev cycle and cost of development. Avowed especially shouldn’t have taken as long as it did and only did so due to internal reboots with the initial pitch being “fantasy PVE destiny” as I recall.
Publishers do also need to stop limiting themselves to “every AAA game must cost XYZ price” because that’s insane. The value of COD on the market isn’t the same value every other AAA game has. Really I’d say we have a good opportunity for spread between $60 and $80 for AAA games now. For example, An Avowed feels like a solid $60, a Fable $70, and a once in a generation game like TESVI can get away with $80. Establishing this status quo would even be better for the industry because then people can properly set expectations based on the price.
Of course I think all of that depends on getting games out in time, and having dev cycles that match the finished product. The extra years and resources spent still cost money even if that work doesn’t end up being represented in the final product. Even releasing multiple games in one year puts a lot of stress on the studio. As far as I can tell that criticism came from Obsidian themselves, not Microsoft and it makes sense. It spread them more thin and probably didn’t help either particular game. They are a studio, not a publisher. Probably better for their general health (like as in employee physical and mental health) if they can avoid three games in a single year.
My hope is that Microsoft’s goals were only high and the games only priced so high because of additional costs incurred with the longer dev cycle. Sales expectations in general are weird with Game Pass (though it’s probably a reason for the $30 increase and GPU only change). Microsoft has also been dodgy themselves about the 30% margin. Anyway, the goal has to be 3 - 4 year dev cycles and appropriately priced $60 games. Seriously, I can’t stress that enough: publishers need to get their heads out of their asses pricing all AAA games the exact same; that’s really dumb.
Not sure what the future hold for them tbh. When all three of your games don’t chart on steams 2025 top 100 dollar sales nor circanas top 20 for all platforms something has to happen. Especially when it’s well documented that Avowed was a troubled game from the start well before, and after Microsoft bought them. Plus losing one of your best young directors in Carrie Patel after booting the original director (we still don’t know who), isn’t a good sign for what happens after Urquhart and Sawyer eventually retire.
How can a trillion dollar company be so utterly incompetent at marketing and lack basic common sense?
The pricing of GamePass and the likes of The Outer Worlds 2 were an utter disaster that basic common sense would tell you, would hurt. Then to look to launch a new IP like Avowed without any real push on the marketing side, basic incompetence
Sadly, it won’t be the likes of Amy that will pay the price, but the staff who make the games
Double the price of the Day 1 Game Pass means less people buy Game Pass and fewer people looking to renew their existing Game Pass subscription = Less revenue for 1st party studios
Looking to ask $80 initially just allowed a backlash and in the end meant less physical sales = Less revenue for 1st party studios
Launching a brand new IP (Ok I know Avowed takes place in Pillars of Eternity world) with no major marketing blitz means less people are aware of the game = fewer sales and revenue for 1st party studios
sometimes it doesnt matter what you initially price a game or how much you market it, there is a limit to how much a game will sell if it is not something that the gaming zeitgeist wants. Obsidian have made a bunch of 7/10 games (nothing wrong with that, i enjoy such games and have played/beaten each of Grounded/Avowed/Outer Worlds 1 and 2) but in an age where money is more limited than ever people want to spend their 60-80 bucks on something more than that. I hope Obsidian takes what they have learned making those games and make a great game. Look at how much hype there is for fable, an IP thats been in hibernation since the 360 days and they reveal a game that looks like it hits every note and has so much going on in the game, thats what people want and not more 7/10 “decent but not doing anything great” type games, that people can feel good about spending money on and will last them many hours instead of something that just feels iterative of other games
I get that, and it was sad to see Avowed get caught up in this nonsense over being woke - that was not helped with the art director saying he put stuff in the game to upset Musk.
Xbox should be a savvy Corp and not give the trolls food to eat and make a meal out of. Looking to double the price of Day 1 Gamepass and also looking to ask $80 a game was always going to create a negative backlash. Fable is getting hype because it’s a beloved IP and a game people think of when talking about Xbox. Its going to have to sell by the truck load mind to make a profit, never mind come close to 30%. Since you had to pay over 300 staff for 7 years and counting, its budget must be huge at a basic HR level
Xbox could just handle things a bit better at times
