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The full interview is actually with Josh Sawyer and Adam Brennecke.
- Adam says Grounded was in development before acquisition, it was something the studio wanted to do for a while (make a survival game) so there was already a lot of backing and easier to pass upper management, they did inform Xbox though and Xbox was very supportive, told them to just keep doing it.
It wasn't the same for Josh, he says he started thinking about Pentiment around the end of Deadfire, around the time Microsoft acquired them he thought this game would be very well suited to Game Pass. He asked Feargus if he could take the opportunity right when they were acquired and asked him to have faith and he would keep the scope very focused.
Xbox was aware that the project existed, but they didn't show anything to Xbox until after the vertical slice. When they showed the game and talked about it, Xbox was very enthusiastic and very supportive, at every stage they've been very supportive.
For Josh it's easier to pitch something now due to Game Pass, he is very glad for Game Pass but it's reasonable to look at the trade-offs. Adam doesn't think it will change anything for him.
Josh says he never would have proposed making Pentiment without Game Pass, he doesn't think it would have been possible, the old mentality of publishers and developers is generally focused on larger teams, larger investments for higher ROI. He talks about the fact that Obsidian is over 200 employees, he's the Studio Design Director, been at the company for over 15 years, asking to take some of their most experienced developers to work on a low investment project.
He says even if his boss was supportive, it would have been difficult to get a publisher to pick it up.
He has completely shifted his thinking for this title, it's for a small audience that as long as that small audience is into it, that is fine. There's a lot of relief being under Xbox and under the Game Pass model.
- Deadfire reviewed well, did not sell well which was devastating but he states it sold well in the long term.
- Adam says he thinks because they are under the Xbox family a lot of pressure to hit deadlines is gone. Xbox family gives them flexibility and time. He has been with Obsidian his entire career and says they try their best to never have any sort of crunch culture at the studio, it's something they've been strongly against and do their best to fix it but sometimes they can't because it's out of their hands but now they have a lot more room under Xbox.
- Loved Josh's comment that nobody is too valuable, he says he has never met a single person no matter how talented they are that they can get away with being abusive, he would rather not work with that person ever again than allow it to happen and there is a worshipful attitude towards the big figures in the industry.
Episode 523 - The Year of the Narrative Banger Continues with 'Pentiment' | Waypoint Radio on Acast
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 16 November 2022
