CEO: Obsidian Is "Doing Fine" Following Armored Warfare Loss, Likely Won't Develop Another MMO
Last weekend's announcement that Obsidian Entertainment would no longer be developing Armored Warfare came as a sudden surprise to many. Today, we have additional comments on the unexpected move from Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, who insists that the company is "doing fine" and doesn't have any layoffs planned.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Urquhart remains cordial in talking about My.com and Mail.ru and Obsidian's relationship with the Russian companies. He confirms that the Reddit post from a "consultant" citing tension between the two companies was from a community member, not employee, and that its allegations remain in the category of "supposition," as Eurogamer puts it.
As for the developer's future, Urquhart talks about several of the other projects his company is working on, including Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire -- well-funded by Pillars 1 and its own crowdfunding efforts -- card game Pathfinder Adventures, and "other unannounced projects." Even so, when I visited the studio, it employed a lot of people working exclusively on Armored Warfare. It's an open question as to whether those staff can be accommodated by Obsidian's other ventures.
One thing Obsidian probably won't be doing anytime soon is making its own massively multiplayer online game. Urquhart said that his company "love[s] making games," but dealing with all the other aspects of MMO development and maintenance -- "operations, customer service, live operations, etc." -- are "beyond the ability of an independent developer to manage unless that developer gets huge." While the company is listed as a co-developer on Skyforge, it might be assumed that most of the heavy lifting is done by Allods Team, with Obsidian just providing some localization and publication help.
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Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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