Pillars of Eternity Deal Announced By Obsidian and Paradox

Greg Tito

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Pillars of Eternity Deal Announced By Obsidian and Paradox

The RPG powerhouse of Obsidian is partnering with Paradox Interactive to help market and publish its Kickstarted Pillars of Eternity.

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Saviordd1

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Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
 

Korten12

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Aug 26, 2009
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Saviordd1 said:
Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
Or maybe they just want to get help getting the game out there?

There's a difference from having the publisher interact with development, and another that's simply helping it get out onto shelves. They've always had trouble with the former.
 

synobal

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Saviordd1 said:
Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
If they are just putting the cash up to market the game and distribute it then it is a vastly different relationship usually a publisher puts up the funds to actually get the game made and that gives them a lot of power over the development of said game, it's time tables and just what the finished product is.
 

Sidmen

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Saviordd1 said:
Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
The point of the Kickstarter was that no publisher was willing to give them the funds to make the game in the first place. Now that the development is funded, bringing in a publisher to... well, publish the game makes absolute sense.

I'm constantly surprised at the vitrol spewed at Obsidian, considering they've developed nearly all my favorite games to date.
 

LordMonty

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Yup THis is all good by my view of things. Publishers are not all EA, EA make everyone look bad... even book publishers!

This is a good thing and hopefully this means more people get to see, play and hear about this game. Good on Paradox having the fair that this can go further and sell enough for them to invest in its onging sucess. Its a publisher taknig a small risk for a small game No one should hate on this.
 

Saviordd1

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Sidmen said:
Saviordd1 said:
Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
The point of the Kickstarter was that no publisher was willing to give them the funds to make the game in the first place. Now that the development is funded, bringing in a publisher to... well, publish the game makes absolute sense.

I'm constantly surprised at the vitrol spewed at Obsidian, considering they've developed nearly all my favorite games to date.
Just because they're your favorite games doesn't mean other people don't hate them.
 

BrotherRool

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Saviordd1 said:
Wasn't part of the point of the kickstarter to avoid publishers?

Then again this is Obsidian, they're just full of disappointment.
You're thinking of Wasteland 2. Obsidian's fans complain about publishers a lot, but Obsidian themselves actually never do. Brian Fargo (Of Wasteland 2) is hugely vocal about how much he hates publishers and working for publishers and he's even used Obsidian as an example before, but then he has no intent of ever working with them again.

Whereas publishers are Obsidian's living. They survive on the whim of publishers and their staff is too large to support on kickstarter alone, they don't want to burn their bridges with the people they're going to be working with for their next paycheck.


Even then, it's worth noting that whilst this is a deal with a 'publisher' not only is it a completely different sort of publisher, but it's a completely different sort of publishing deal. Normally a publisher takes all the money a game makes and pays the developer a living wage, and that hasn't happened here. And normally a publisher has creative control, but that hasn't happened here.

This is the healthy side of publishing, where the publishers don't have the money of the power but they do have a useful service to offer developers. Obsidian don't employ marketers, they don't employ people who make sure the things are put in boxes and sent to the right customers, someone who can offer that to them is a good thing.

Even Wasteland 2 has this type of publishing deal (With Deep Silver, which incidentally makes the news post a little incorrect). Developers don't want to spend their time filling out forms
 

Gary Thompson

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Out of all the publishers they couldn't have picked a better one than Paradox.

I'd rather than get the friendly Swedes as a publisher than run out of money and make a half-finished game.
 

WoahDan

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Good news as far as I'm concerned, two of my favourite developers, one of whom is also a good publisher, are working together colour me interested.

From a business perspective, kickstarter is being used in an interesting and new way that will also mean that the backers are more likely to get the product they want whilst hopefully oversite might even reduce the project bloat some of these kickstarted games have been suffering from.

I really don't see how this can be a bad thing.
 

Smiley Face

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Jan 17, 2012
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Now that Obsidian's developed the whole game without interference and everything, I just really, really hope that this time they've actually done some proper QA on their game... I love their stuff to death, but really, the buggy-ness...
 

Abomination

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... those are two of my favorite 3 companies (Cd Projekt being the obvious other one). Paradox does some great marketing, I'm actually upset they won't be working alongside Obsidian as Paradox are GREAT at behind the scenes mechanics.
 

Amaror

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Guys were talking about paradox. If there's one publisher were we can be sure they won't interfere with the creative process it's paradox, even if they would have the possibility to do so.
They have published tons of projects were they let the devs do what they want.
Sometimes it works out (Mount and Blade, Magica), sometimes it doesn't (Impire).
I see no way that this is a bad news.
 

DarkhoIlow

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I'm glad they decided to go with Paradox.

I've heard good things about that publisher. They tend to give total freedom to the developers so that's ok with me.

Now, if only we would get a release date that would be grand.
 

jklinders

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This deal makes a good amount of sense and actually goes back to what publishers are supposed to do. Provide marketing and support for a product rather than dictate and provide all funding for it. This looks like a pretty healthy arrangement here. Paradox will get the product on the shelves and set the advertizing for it, Obsidian will use the funds they raised to create it. As long as they stay out of each other's business that should be fine.

I just hope Obsidian does not bite off too much more than they can chew. A lot of their past troubles seemed to have been trying to do too much with too little, either money, time or a combination.

Looking forward to this. All of Obsidian's games to date have at the least been rough gems, a couple were truly excellent.