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Chris Avellone On Interplay, Obsidian, KOTOR2

Posted by simoniker on from the republic-positively-ancient dept.

Thanks to Winterwind Productions for its two-part interview with Chris Avellone, former RPG designer for Interplay's Black Isle division, discussing the continued turmoil at that company ("Projects getting cancelled just happens, but the reasons that projects were getting cancelled at Interplay never felt like good reasons"), his new home at Obsidian Entertainment ("I think our starting line of titles are going to be a good foundation to build Obsidian on... and should help when pitching new ideas to publishers"), and his work on Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2, including more specific endings compared to KOTOR ("The current game mechanic we're playing around for the endings with is something similar to Fallout, but it will be presented a little differently.")

2 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds Like.... by tprime · · Score: 4, Informative

    Honestly, this was the "rabid fans" the original Coward referred to. Trust me, in reading the Interplay forums AND nma-fallout.com, the original fans ARE nuts. But, then again, it is a rare game that can make so many people this crazy about ANY game. That 630,000 copies sold is mainly a total from the following:

    1. The original Fallout shelf game
    2. The Fallout2 shelf game
    3. The Fallout/Fallout2 discount combo pack
    In the grand scheme of things, Fallout Tactics sold very few games and FOBOS sold just as few (but not the minisucle amount that many of the Fallout fans claimed, it was picked up by many of the rental places where PC games cannot be)

    Back on the 630,000 copies sold number.... For a console game, that is only decent, but for PC games, that is considered a great seller. Many PC games do not even break the 50k copies mark. That is the difference that Interplay was banking on and reflects back on my original point.

    Yes it was a shame that the franchise possibly died with Herve's knife in the development teams' back, but it is certainly not worth starting a /. flame war over. BlackIsle will not be publishing the game, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it published under the Obsidean sticker. For as crazy, bitter and obsessive the fans of the original game are, the developers are even more nuts over their beloved franchise.

    Here's to hoping that their craze gets this game published.

    --
    http://www.tomandemily.com
  2. Re:Sounds Like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    A 50k PC game is a commercial failure today. A 200k PC game is commercial failure for an AA game. A 350k pc game is a commercial failure for an AAA game.

    Developing an AAA game costs *a lot of money* these days, up to a couple of millions a month (just wages + expenses for 100+ people teams)

    It is increasingly hard to get shelfspace for anything that isn't expected to bust the 800k mark (speaking of PC games).

    To give a perspective, the Baldurs Gate (I + II + Exp packs) saga sold more than 5.000.000 copies up to date.