Rumours have been going about that MS might be purchasing another studio in Obsidian Entertainment, If this turns out true, than this might be a Dev that will focus on the RPG side of games for Xbox/Windows. They are a talented company and it would be interesting to see where this rumour takes them.

https://gamestechica.com/2018/08/08/obsidian-entertainment-letter-of-intent-for-an-acquisition-by-microsoft-leaked/

"Obsidian Entertainment is a AA studio well known for RPG games. They have made Fallout New Vegas, Star Wars KOTOR 2 and the latest one being Pillars of Eternity 2."

"Microsoft has worked with them before on few projects in the past like KOTOR 2 which was released for OG XBOX."

Bloody hell, I hope not. The others I didn't care about but this would completely suck. If it's true, I hope it turns into a "original developers leave to form a new studio" situation, though losing the PoE IP would be kind of lame.

How is that a negative? Obviously if you dont own a Xbox or Windows 10 PC i can see the issues. 

Well its just a rumour so dont take it as a guarantee just yet.

For one, it's taking a popular IP away from fans who supported it.  How can that not be a negative?  Second, I don't trust Microsoft whatsoever.  Lionhead got axed after being forced to make a GaaS title when they had no experience in that field.  Wouldn't surprise me at all to see Obsidian used poorly.  Spencer hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire with his first-party decision making.

When a studio that's closely tied to a company gets absorbed, that's fine, but watching multiplatform studios get swallowed up does not sit well with me.

Also, I'm not buying anything from the Microsoft Store.  Are all Microsoft games on Steam?

I think this would be a win-win for both sides. Obsidian could use a much bigger budget to make more KOTOR 2/New Vegas type experiences, and Microsoft will get another weapon for their first-party arsenal.

That's the name of the game. I say go for it.

I'm gonna use this opportunity to say Alpha Protocol was a good fucking game. Its just fun god dammit!

Any who, I guess this means MS is interested in making some point and click games? Maybe they could work on the Fable IP.

That does not sound like it would go well...... Obsidian make very differnt games than what MS seeming is aiming for lately.

This would be like MS getting Rare, and setting them to make those silly connect games.
Its not a good match.

I have very mixed feelings about this,

On one hand, Obsidian is probably dev with most RPG experience under their collective belt right now, considering how many of them go all the way back to days of Black Isle and on how many games that are cult classics among CRPG/WRPG fans they worked on. So giving them high enough budget and letting them do their thing would be glorious.

On the other hand, I don't trust MS for a second not to meddle and royally fuck it up and eventually turn them into another studio that makes diluted mass market crap.

As long as they have creative freedom, sure.

I'd like to play a Pillars of Eternity game with no real budget constraints.