By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Ryuu96 on 18 November 2022
Edit Thread
shikamaru317 said:
Ryuu96 said:

Reminder at what Josh said in the interview.

-

Role at Obsidian: He's Studio Design Director so he will at least go back to giving feedback on different projects. When desired he can come onto a team if he has the time, to either work out a system to help lead a sub-team. He will probably be doing some of that in the short-term future because that has always been a part of his job.

Future Ideas: No idea if he can do them but he has had one idea for a while of a "Bike Shop Simulator" where you run a bicycle sale and repair ship, as he's really into cycling. He also thinks it would be cool to make an SRPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting, sort of like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem.

He's only thinking about small to medium sized projects right now, big projects he doesn't know because he has been in small project mode for so long that it's hard for him to think about things at a large scale, but he says we'll see and he wouldn't say that he would not work on a big project again, it just hasn't been where his mindset has been the past few years.

On Fallout: "I love Fallout, I love the setting, I could see myself working on it again, but we'll see where the future takes me".

-

His response to Fallout simply leaves the door open but it's a fairly boilerplate response, based on his other comments it's obvious that we won't get a Sawyer Fallout anytime soon. Which, I think leaves Tim Cain/Leonard Boyarsky or Feargus himself to lead the team. Unless Tim/Leonard leave ToW2 before release, I think it only leaves Feargus to lead a small Fallout team in pre-production until some staff are freed up.

Avowed is early 2024 Imo but I also don't think that Obsidian will move Avowed's team over to a Fallout, think about it, if Avowed is more successful than The Outer Worlds, which it likely will be, I don't see them moving that team over to Fallout, I see them getting Avowed 2 into production ASAP. This is Obsidian's big project and their own creation, and I don't really see much overlap with Avowed team to Fallout.

Take for example, Carrie, the Director of Avowed, she was also the Lead Writer of Pillars of Eternity, but she has no connection to Fallout. Tim Cain and Leonard though? Even Feargus, have a large connection to Fallout. I think if Fallout at Obsidian happens, it won't be at the cost of Avowed, it'll more likely be alongside Avowed 2 and The Outer Worlds will be shelved as a result (unless they staff up a lot).

I don't think they will abandon Avowed if it is a success, but I could see them postponing a sequel until after Fallout personally. Xbox knows the Fallout fans badly want a Fallout game this generation, and no matter how successful Avowed is, it will alot less popular than the ~14m lifetime selling Fallout: New Vegas. Xbox surely knows that it will take pretty much the whole of Obsidian working to get a Fallout out this generation. I could definitely see them postponing Avowed 2 and a potential Outer Worlds 3 in favor of doing a new AAA Fallout game from Obsidian first. 

The other option though would be for the Avowed team to immediately move to both Avowed DLC and an Avowed sequel, and then once Outer Worlds 2 ships, have the larger portion of the Outer Worlds 2 team move to Fallout and the smaller portion move to Outer Worlds 2 DLC. Then Xbox could get some of the Bethesda support studios in Montreal, Dallas, or Austin, to assist Obsidian's smaller Fallout team. Or they could get some other support studio/studios to assist them.

I don't see it, Obsidian has far too many directors to focus the entire studio onto one project, it may cause people to leave, if there is a desire for Fallout from Obsidian it likely comes from the guys who actually have a connection to Fallout, those are Sawyer, Feargus, Tim and Leonard. Sawyer won't be thinking about AAA's anytime soon from his own words and Tim/Leonard are busy with The Outer Worlds 2, so it has to be Feargus to lead that team.

But if Avowed is a bigger success than The Outer Worlds, I really don't see them shelving it for Fallout instead of The Outer Worlds, which actually has Fallout developers on it and is far closer to Fallout in both tone and gameplay than Avowed will be.

Xbox may know that Fallout fans want a Fallout, but they aren't going to force Obsidian to do anything they don't want to, and Obsidian has rarely been a studio that hedged its entire bets on one title, even now they under the security of Xbox haven't focused on one or two projects but instead doubled down on multiple projects at once.

What I see happening if there's a desire for Fallout at Obsidian is your last paragraph, Avowed's team will remain intact if Avowed is a success and move onto Avowed DLC (as The Outer Worlds did) until Avowed 2 is out of the concept phase and then the team will get to work on Avowed 2. Since The Outer Worlds 2 is far closer to Fallout in every way possible, even having Fallout leaders on it, I think it makes far more sense to wait until that team is freed up.