source is an interview with obsidian ceo feargus about survival, success and independence

"feargus: ...We've thought a lot about what it takes to make a big game, and what's the reward we get for making a big game. At some point we have to look at ourselves as a business, so it's our job to make money. For me to go off and do - and we're not doing this, but let's just say - Knights of the Old Republic 3, and it's going to cost $50 million, and I'll make $7.5 million on milestones and then maybe I'll make another $5 million in royalties. That's pretty good for an independent developer on a project. But, y'know, I can make more profit from two Pillars of Eternitys than I can from one of those games. And then on top of that, if it's a smaller game and it's successful, I'll own it. I'm not gonna own Star Wars."

i'd recommend to read the full interview, cause it gives an interresting, but ugly and sad view on the whole publisher, developer thing and game development business.

also this is interesting:

"feargus: ... We can keep doing great stuff with Eternity. I'd love to turn Eternity into more like a Skyrim product. ..."

balls
i understand where he is coming from
but shit that doesnt mean i have to like it

They're just pissed that SW:OR failed so miserably and now they're taking it out on the community.

I guess in this day and age we're most likely to get Star Wars Go and catch some midichlorians.

obsidian had nothing to do with sw the old republic that was all bioware and lucasarts
obsidian was responsible for kotor II

I'd actually rather see more of PoE than KotOR, if I had a choice.

Who cares Stars Wars is overrated garbage, just let Obs make their own games in their own universe where they get most of the profit, better than working for scumbag publishers who probably give the devs practically nothing while pocketing every last cent of profit.

:( One of my my favorite gaming moments was stepping out onto the desert sands on Tatooine for the first time and seeing the sand crawler in the distance.

I don't know but couldn't they just make it for less than 50 millions? If they are able to make other games cheaper why make this one so expensive?

which is for a great deal Bioware's fault and the way they + EA use and enforce their EULA

Milestones. They have to produce a certain aesthetic and content, relative to the wishes of the publisher. If they make anything less, they don't get paid, or rather don't even get on board.

This sorta makes me curious about how I should feel. So...

The Kotor games feel and look a lot like the Jade Empire game (at least to me) even Kotor 2.

Kotor is heavily D20 based

Kotor is heavily limited by the terminology and the lore of StarWars, which in my opinion isn't really all that good.

Kotor is a pain to replay because there's only the 'evil' or 'good' sides to be on. All the quests are effectively the same.

Can't say for Pillars of Eternity, but I'll get to it sooner or later when I can afford it, and allow myself to spend 100 hours playing it.

Yeah, all in all I sorta agree with Obsidian. Haven't read the full interview (not in the mood to) but it's how things are, I can agree not wanting to have to fork over a huge amount to be able to use the Starwars license, as well as only getting a portion of it's value afterwards. To think they might have had a different stance of the playerbase who bought EA Battlefront then the profits would be high enough that they'd do it anyways.

I'd also imagine the freedom factor plays in.
They make a Star Wars game and they have Disney breathing down their throats making sure its "Star Wars" enough. I really doubt Disney would take a hands off approach to its IP.
It'd be the same with any other big IP. The owners would be breathing down their necks making sure they were within the bounds of what they feel the IP is.

On the other hand if they make an IP that they own? They only have to answer to themselves. (And what they think the market will buy of course.)

And for those of you that really really want another KOTOR? If they wanted one made, one would get made. Wouldn't be too hard to find some up and coming developer that would be willing to deal with the headaches of working under someone else's IP in exchange for the chance to get some name recognition, or to just make it in house at some EA studio.

As much as I personally enjoyed the KOTOR games when they were new, given the current triple A industry.. I'd rather do without. It'd be full of microtransactions, and shitty DLC that lack in content.

Well it doesn't say nobody can't do KOTOR3... maybe some big publisher with lots of money and huge ad campaign, someday...

I find that I agree with everything Urquhart says there. I mean the quotations in the beginning of this thread were said after reflections on bad stuff that happened, like THQ going under while making the South Park game.

Also, finding this interesting, "Then we have a few people working on something new. We hired Leonard Boyarsky recently, who's one of the co-creators of the original Fallout."

Thanks for the interview!!