14 DAY TRIAL // Pillars of Eternity might be created using only resources that Obsidian has managed to secure from its fans, but the leader of the studio, Feargus Urquhart, believes that it will be hard to use the same funding model for other big role-playing game projects in the future.
This means that publishers, even if distrusted by some gamers and by some teams, remain crucial to the industry in the long term.
The developer tells CVG that “Right now, fewer major games are being worked on by independent developers than almost any time in the games industry. That's one of the challenges of being an independent developer right now. I would love to say that I could go up on Kickstarter and raise $15, $20, $30 million dollars to do our own big triple-A console game. But the reality is - minus Star Citizen - that's probably a little bit of a pipe dream.”
Initially, during the development process for Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian stated that it would remain independent but then announced a partnership with Paradox Interactive.
The company would handle marketing for the title and distribution of the retail copies of the game but would have no direct influence on the actual development process and on the final shape of the experience.
Urquhart adds, “It's a big apparatus to try to ship these big console RPGs. I think we'll always continue to talk to publishers, not just because of funding - although obviously that's a big part of it - but also just because of the realities of publishing big console projects.”
Obsidian has just launched South Park: The Stick of Truth earlier during the year to a positive reception from both fans and critics.
The project has been affected by the problems of first publisher THQ, which has created a distrust of publishers at Obsidian.
The company had nothing but positive feedback to offer about its relationship with Ubisoft, which picked up the project and offered support for launch.
At the moment, the studio is working on Pillars of Eternity, which is supposed to be launched before the end of the year on the PC, and it is offering the community regular updates about the state of the project.
The title will deliver a classic party-based role-playing experience with turn-based battles and a complex universe that uses classic fantasy elements but also has unique Obsidian ideas.