In a talk at this week's D.I.C.E. Summit via PCGamer, an industry conference took place where the theme was sustainability. At this talk, Obsidian Entertainment VP of Operations Marcus Morgan and VP of Development Justin Britch said that they want Obsidian Entertainment to make it to its 100th birthday. Considering the rocky state of the game industry at present, this seems like something that is highly unlikely. However, Obsidian Entertainment does have a history of making incredibly popular games, such as Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, The Outer Worlds, and most recently, Avowed.
Obsidian is currently 22 years old, which means that the company has a further 78 years to go. The VPs think that this is incredibly doable as long as they stick to the ideas of staying lean, keeping talent, and setting realistic sales expectations. Compared to other companies, Obsidian is more focused on making games that sit well with the players and have an impact rather than focusing solely on the amount of money it can make.
One of the main pillars in the plan for sustainability is staying "lean and invested," with the company remaining small enough so that none of the employees at the company feel like a cog in a machine and still feel human and impactful in the company. However, it wasn't always this way, as Morgan and Britch stated that they had considered opening up studios internationally but decided not to go ahead with it in the event it weakened Obsidian's pre-existing work culture.
Instead of funneling all of the company's money into a single project, hoping that it will make a massive profit, Britch says that the studio spends time determining how much to invest in the project based on the assumption that it will be a "mild success," rather than a smash hit. This is something that companies like PlayStation and Ubisoft could learn from, as they have both recently funneled money into two major projects (Concord and Star Wars Outlaws, respectively.) with neither turning out quite the way they wanted.
While no names were mentioned during this talk at the D.I.C.E. Summit, there are some very clear examples that come to mind. Namely, the sales expectations of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game didn't perform nearly as well as EA and BioWare were expecting. As a result, EA laid off staff at BioWare.
Thus far, from the three titles Obsidian Entertainment released in the 2020s, the company has been largely successful with its efforts. Both critics and the general audience have received Grounded, Pentiment, and Avowed positively.
If the company continues on this straight and narrow path, it stands a good chance of making it to its 100th birthday.
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