New Vegas for 100 Years and Staying “lean and invested” Is the Key

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New Vegas for 100 Years and Staying “lean and invested” Is the Key

Avowed and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian seems to have planned for things to care of, way ahead in the future. It wants to scale at a slow and steady pace so that it reaches the 100-year mark eventually, outliving its employees. Obsidian was founded back in 2003 by ex-****** Isle Studios members who had worked on successful games like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.

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Obsidian Entertainment has big plans for the future. Image Credit: Obsidian Entertainment

Obsidian Entertainment is known for making mid-budget games with realistic sales expectations. The company wants to aim for mild success rather than chasing big numbers like some of the other developers in the market. By staying small and focused Obsidian maintains creative control. This approach also creates more room for innovation and risk-taking.

Obsidian takes a calculated approach to scaling

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Avowed is Obsidian’s latest release. Image Credit: Obsidian Entertainment

Some recent RPG titles coming into the market are backed by a massive budget, pressurizing the developer to achieve higher sales numbers. This approach has a high-risk high-reward ratio that is only sustainable for big developers. Even Obsidian’s latest release Avowed’s game size is significantly lower than other similar titles.

Smaller developers like Obsidian, however, take a different approach. It makes games at significantly lower budgets and aims for mild success rather than dominating the market. This enables it to set achievable targets that are easily met and in turn help in maintaining an environment where each employee feels valued, preserving the company culture.

Unlike some of the other massive developers, Obsidian was not subjected to mass layoffs since it was already comprised of a smaller team and currently seems to be thriving within its parent company.

Obsidian Entertainment VP of Operations Marcus Morgan and VP of Development Justin Britch talked about their 100-year plan during the recent D.I.C.E Summit. They stressed the fact that it is of utmost concern to them that their employees do not feel like a cog in the machine and that their two biggest pillars of strength rely upon staying lean and invested. Reflecting on the seriousness of their claims Morgan said (via

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Are we serious? … Yes. And why not? Nintendo was founded in 1889

Obsidian has turned 22 now and wants its recent titles including Avowed and Fallout: New Vegas to be there after 78 more years and it aims to do so by staying lean and invested without chasing big profits. Obsidian’s approach has always been on providing narrative depth and player freedom without focusing much on making its game hyper-realistic or stylized.

Obsidian is not into chasing big profit margins

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Obsidian takes a sustainable approach to game development. Image Credit: Obsidian Entertainment

Obsidian maintains a mild success graph by predetermining a reasonable budget for its games and then aims at achieving a realistic target that does not put much pressure on it. This approach has helped it to stay relevant and thrive in the market up to this point and if all goes well, it might just hit its 100-year mark.

Investing huge amounts of money in an RPG game does not always pay off, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the biggest example of it. It failed to perform well in the market leaving a huge hole in BioWare’s pockets, which resulted in layoffs.

However, there are also success stories like that of Baldur’s Gate 3 which exceeded Larian Studio’s expectations and did extremely well in the market. It too was a high-budget game. At the end of the day, it is a gamble, and the higher the budget the higher the stakes. Obsidian’s approach eliminates this risk. What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments below.

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#Vegas #Years #Staying #lean #invested #Key

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