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BioWare Teams Up With Ex-Black Isle Boss
Thanks to several readers for pointing out the Yahoo-hosted press release announcing a development relationship between BioWare Corp. and Obsidian Entertainment, notable because Obsidian is headed by Feargus Urquhart, ex-head of Interplay's Black Isle Studios, and someone who helped bring Icewind Dale and Planetscape:Torment to life, as well as working with BioWare to publish the Baldur's Gate series. Urquhart commented that "A collaboration with BioWare gives Obsidian the opportunity to explore development projects on established game franchises with proven technology and brand loyalty from the fan community."
Oh please God, let this be so! :) Well, since Cain isn't in the alliance, maybe they'll call it "Nuclear Aftermath" or "Post-Apoc" or something like that. Come ON, we've been dying for some RPGs that ain't fantasy-based!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
From what I understand, Obsidian is very strong on the dev and game design end of things. They are not, however, very strong in distribution, marketing and supply chain management. Bioware has partnered with the big boys (Microsoft et al) and has shown the ability to market and distribute its titles. The combination of these two companies should (hopefully) mean that we will get edgy, indy style games into a more mainstream distribution channel.
We are Pentium of Borg. Division is futile. You will be approximated.
You've heard about Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil, right? It's supposed to be using the 3.5 edition rules very faithfully. Faithfully as in being unapologetically turn-based, the way the D&D rules are meant to work, which is something of a rarity in 2003. More at Gamespot and IGN.
Disclaimer: I work at one of the companies involved, though my work isn't related to the project.