Obsidian Entertainment
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This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (September 2012) |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive entertainment Computer and video games |
| Founded | Santa Ana, California (2003) |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California[1] |
| Key people | Feargus Urquhart, CEO Chris Parker, COO Darren Monahan, CIO Chris Avellone, CCO Chris Jones, CTO |
| Products | Star Wars: KotOR II, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas (See complete products listing) |
| Employees | 135 (2008) |
| Website | www.obsidianent.com |
Obsidian Entertainment is an American role-playing video game developer founded in 2003 after the disestablishment of Interplay Productions' Black Isle Studios. Although it has created original intellectual property, Obsidian has mostly developed sequels to existing games, and many of their games are based on licensed properties. Obsidian continues to operate under the management of its founding officers: Feargus Urquhart (CEO), Chris Parker (COO), Darren Monahan (CIO), Chris Avellone (CCO) and Chris Jones (CTO).
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History [edit]
On March 23, 2006, Obsidian and SEGA announced that they would co-develop a role-playing game based on a new franchise.[2] It was revealed to be Alpha Protocol, an RPG set in a modern-day spy adventure setting, which was released on June 1, 2010.[3]
On December 13, 2006, SEGA officially announced that Obsidian Entertainment had been signed to develop a role-playing game based on the Aliens film franchise.[4] However, it has since been canceled for unknown reasons.[5][6] Another game called Seven Dwarves (working title) was also canceled.[7][8]
On April 20, 2009, Bethesda Softworks announced that a new game in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas would be developed by Obsidian. It was released in October 2010. Of note is the fact that many Obsidian designers formerly belonged to Black Isle Studios, which produced Fallout 2, as well as most of the series' lore.[9]
On February 11, 2010, Red Eagle Games and Obsidian announced that they would co-develop game(s) based on the Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels by author Robert Jordan.[10]
At E3 2010 it was announced that Obsidian would be developing Dungeon Siege III for Square Enix; the game was released in 2011.[11] On September 1, 2011, Square Enix announced that the Treasures of the Sun DLC for Dungeon Siege III was forthcoming, with an anticipated release in October 2011.[12]
Obsidian Entertainment revealed that they are pitching an unknown original IP to several publishers and are getting very good results.[13]
On December 1, 2011, South Park: The Stick of Truth was announced being developed by Obsidian. On March 14, 2012, Obsidian cancelled a "future next gen project", resulting in the layoff of approximately 20-30 employees both from that project and the upcoming South Park: The Game team.[14]
Project Eternity was announced on September 14, 2012. The title is the first from Obsidian to employ a crowd-funded model of financing, utilizing the popular website Kickstarter to acquire funds.[15] The funding ended successfully on 16 October 2012 having gathered $3,986,929, which beat the record amount for video games funded via Kickstarter previously held by Double Fine Adventure.[16]
Games [edit]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Mac | PS3 | Win | Xbox | X360 | ||
| 2004 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2006 | Neverwinter Nights 2 | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| 2007 | Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| 2008 | Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| 2010 | Alpha Protocol | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2010 | Fallout: New Vegas | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2011 | Dungeon Siege III | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2013 | South Park: The Stick of Truth | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| TBA | The Wheel of Time[17] | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2014 | Project Eternity | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Mueller, Mark (2008-08-11). "Game Companies Taking Office Space at Faster Clip". Orange County Business Journal. p. 82.
- ^ "SEGA Partners with Obsidian Entertainment to Create Original Content for Next Generation Consoles". BusinessWire. 2006-03-23. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
- ^ "SEGA And Obsidian Set To Redefine The RPG Genre With Alpha Protocol". SEGA News. SEGA Corporation. 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
- ^ "SEGA Signs Obsidian Entertainment To Develop Alien Title For Next-generation Systems". SEGA News. SEGA Corporation. 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
- ^ "Obsidian's Aliens RPG Officially Finished". Giant Bomb. 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
- ^ "Alien RPG canceled". Retrieved 26 July 2011.
- ^ "Former Obsidian artist Ian Ameling's resume".
- ^ Massey, Dana (2007-06-29). "Dev Profile Q&A: Kevin Saunders, Lead Designer on NWN2: MotB". Warcry Network. Themis Media. Retrieved 2007-05-30. "I was the lead designer on project "New Jersey," which was never announced, and then helped with finishing up NWN2 over its last six months or so."
- ^ "Fallout: New Vegas unveiled". Ellie Gibson. Eurogamer. 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ "Red Eagle Games partners with Obsidian". Dragonmount. 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
- ^ Remo, Chris (2010-06-16). "E3: Square Enix Owns Dungeon Siege IP, Moves Into Western RPG Market". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
- ^ "Treasures of the Sun DLC Press Release". 2011-09-26.
- ^ "Obsidian's unknown IP". Retrieved 26 July 2011.
- ^ "Obsidian Entertainment Layoffs, Project North Carolina Cancelled". Gamebanshee.com. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ Schreier, Jason (14 September 2012). "The People Behind Fallout And Planescape Are Making My Dream RPG". Kotaku. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
- ^ Tach, Dave (2012-10-15). "'Project Eternity' surpasses 'Double Fine Adventure' to become Kickstarter's most-funded video game". The Verge. Retrieved 2012-10-16.
- ^ "Obsidian riding Wheel of Time". Red Eagle Entertainment. February 12, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
External links [edit]
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