WithThe Outer Worldsreleasing to a heap of critical success, Obsidian Entertainment, the team behind the new Sci-Fi game, has found itself in the spotlight. And whileThe Outer Worldsis one of, if not the, biggest releases the studio has been behind to date, the company’s history of making RPGs spans much further back, with the company being at least partly responsible for some of thebest role-playing gamesof the past two decades.
Obsidian’s history with RPGs began even before the studio did. Several founding members of the development company had worked at Black Isle Games, a studio founded by Feargus Urquhart, who also went on to help create Obsidian. Black Isle was responsible for someRPGs that defined role-playing in the ’90s, working on games like the originalFalloutsandIcewind Dale,among plenty of others. Black Isle helped lay the foundation that Obsidian’s games would later draw influence from, in a strange, circle of life kind of way.
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Obsidian itself was founded in 2003 by Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones. Soon after, the team began working onStar Wars Knights of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords.WhileKnights of The Old Republic 2lives somewhat in the shadow of the first game, it’s still hailed by many as one of thebestStar Warsgames ever made. From there, Obsidian went on to release two other games,Neverwinter Nights 2andAlpha Protocol,before moving onto what would become one of its most famous projects:Fallout: New Vegas.
A fan favorite of the franchise,Fallout: New Vegashas been fondly remembered by the online community. It gave players the opportunity to role-play in a way thatFallout 3hadn’t. And while the game did launch with a plethora of bugs, the team managed to pull off a minor miracle, as the game had only been given a development period of 18 months. After launch, Obsidian worked on patching the game, cleaning up many of the bugs thatNew Vegasreleased with. And then, one day, Obsidian got a phone call.
At first, the studio assumed it was a prank, but the company had been approached to makeSouth Park: The Stick of Truth,yet another RPG set in theSouth Parkuniverse. The game would go on to release in 2014, and while it was short, it received generally favorable reviews. Many compared it to watching an episode ofSouth Park, remaining very true to the show itself. Of course, it being a video game meant it could push the boundaries a little more than the show could, leading tothe game being censored in some areas.
But, the games industry is a tide of ups and downs, and Obsidian eventually found itself facing financial troubles. The company had missed a $1 million bonus from Bethesda becauseNew Vegasdidn’t earn an 85 on Metacritic, instead earning an 84. Plus, Microsoft had just canceledStormlands,which was intended to be a launch game for the Xbox One, putting the company in a fiscally and emotionally hard spot. Ultimately,Obsidian was forced to undergo a round of layoffs, an unfortunate reality of the game industry.
Eventually,Obisidian decided to fund their next project through Kickstarter, launching a smashingly successful campaign forPillars of Eternity,a traditional isometric RPG with heavyDungeons and Dragonsroots. It was the perfect project for a team of people that had helped lay the groundwork for that very genre.Pillars of Eternityfound both commercial and critical success when it launched, despite the genre falling out of mainstream popularity.
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Studio saved, Obsidian continued to create games. The team developed a licensedPathfindergame and another RPG dubbedTyranny.With a few more games shipped, Obsidian began developing a sequel toPillars of Eternity,Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.It built upon a lot of the base mechanics that appeared in the original but introduced a lot of nautical elements to the game. It also managed to find quite a bit of success, establishingPillars of Eternityas a full-fledged franchise.
Obsidian announced that it had been acquired by Microsofton November 10th, 2018. Shortly after, it revealedThe Outer Worlds,the space-faring RPG that seems to have captured the hearts of many gamers. With its big new release out in the wild, fans of the studio can only wonder what’s next. With the next generation of consoles on the horizon and the backing of Microsoft, who knows what the studio will be able to accomplish.
