Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment have officially joined Microsoft

Already knew about Obsidian that was annouced a few weeks back but damn, i know i am in a minority but this year we have only had 1 triple a game come to linux and had four high profile studios get bought out. Plus a number of promised ports have been cancelled recently its concerning has proton already made devs shrug and say why bother they ll buy it anyway. Yeah i know its a fairly negative mindset but to be honest this is worrying are the triple a linux games coming to an end. I know indie studios still keep supporting linux but that is never going to grow the install base.

You mean above the usual 1-1.5% ? You piqued my curiosity. :)

I have the feeling that Linux gamer are more core PC gamer than console gamer. So they tend to play more to niche PC games than mainstream one. It's just a feeling through, maybe Liam have the numbers on it

I'm wishing I hadn't watched Brian Lunduke's most recent 'Linux Sucks' now. I'd have probably taken this news a little better if not. I really really hope that the days of 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish' are over, but having MS saying they love Linux isn't really enough to put that to bed.
On the bright side, MS money put into these developers could be good for story-rich rpg gaming.

Which you wont get to play because MS wants exclusives, for its console and windows app store.

I don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

With Proton there is just a few games / developers behind walled gardens. The boundaries become more and more not technical.

One thing is not overly clear to me: do they own Neverwinter Nights too ?

Nope, Neverwinter Nights was developed by Bioware / Published by "Atari" and now being done by Beamdog (Enhanced Edition). Obsidian did the 2nd one. Just like they did the 2nd Knights of the Old Repulic.

I feel saddest for Brian Fargo. He started inXile after Interplay went bust so that he could make his own games again. Granted I am sure MS gave him a hefty paycheck, so I don't feel too bad for the guy...

Who do you think negotiated the deal it was Brian Fargo getting paid

This is a strange move, these companies predominantly make PC games that simply wouldn't work as well on console, they can't be buying them to make xbox exclusives, asking them to make xbox exclusives would be like asking a man to dance on one leg. These companies also only make games that wouldn't benefit at all from using apis like dx12 or vulkan, they're just not that graphically intense.

I'm not seeing their plan here, I'm not seeing a lot of their plans these days and it makes me a little nervous.

Pure speculation ahead: If I had about infinite resources and wanted to rival Bethesda, but CDPR isn't for sale, I'd buy some third person 3D company(s) and some RPG company(s), dumb down the RPG part to the max, and voilà... an exclusive DX12 3D RPG - and great RPG developer talents wasted to the max.

I don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

With Proton there is just a few games / developers behind walled gardens. The boundaries become more and more not technical.

Well yes and no not having native ports is a big problem because its valve they get white knighted and true they have helped linux because it helps them have an alternative to windows if MS decide to make it difficult to work on windows. Proton is funded by valve and valve does have a patience meter just look at steam machines gone no marketing no mention of them on steam store anymore steam link failed barely mentioned and sold for under a pound last two steam sales. Valve have money and resources but they seem to have a very limited amount of patience.

So much for wasteland 3.
Be curious to see if their comments on keeping their Kick starter commitments will be honored when it is all said and done.

Wasteland 3 will get made it will now be a fps with multiplayer and battle royale mode with moba dlc because thats the new hotness Ms will end up chasing trends just like Activision blizzard and EA

And we still have no way to run UWP apps without Windows …

Bad news indeed.

It's really a shame — no strike that — it's actually just sad the way these large companies go around buying out all the smaller studios, only to ruin them with Big Gaming's sole focus on chasing the current fad to milk the hype. If their new Overlords don't destroy the games outright with ingame currencies (fee2pay) and all the other en vogue "features", I see it as 99% certain that Pillars of Eternity 3 will be a Windows Store Exclusive, and certainly riddled with DX12.

As long as both studios retain a certain amount of freedom, I think we should be okay for future titles.

I suspect they retain their freedom under Microsoft, just like Bioware retained freedom under EA ;)


Again, I would be happy to be proven wrong in my cynicism.


Last edited by Appelsin on 12 November 2018 at 11:31 am UTC

I don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

With Proton there is just a few games / developers behind walled gardens. The boundaries become more and more not technical.

Well yes and no not having native ports is a big problem because its valve they get white knighted and true they have helped linux because it helps them have an alternative to windows if MS decide to make it difficult to work on windows. Proton is funded by valve and valve does have a patience meter just look at steam machines gone no marketing no mention of them on steam store anymore steam link failed barely mentioned and sold for under a pound last two steam sales. Valve have money and resources but they seem to have a very limited amount of patience.

By closing down Windows MS threatens Valves busyness foundations. So there is two possible ways for Valve to act:
1. Become part of the MS store.
2. Find another open OS base.

I think what Valve does, and did for the past few years, is a very long term enterprise. They never shifted from it, as we can see when we look at Proton. They need Linux, and I think they understood Linux needs more users to be attractive to developers. With the visibility of their strategie they naturally reinforced MS on their strategy. So I guess it's no wonder we see a lot of movement these days:

- Proton makes games playable we never dreamed of.
- Proton makes developers ditch native versions.
- Linux userbase might (hopefully) rise because people that wanted to change to Linux get to play more of their Steam libs on Linux.
- MS might try to deny more games on Linux.
- MS suddenly loves Linux (where it's useful to them).

What we won't see, I think, is Valve stopping what they do.

So from my perspective: F*ck inXile and Obsidian and move on.


Last edited by Nevertheless on 11 November 2018 at 11:20 am UTC

I don't get all these doomsday attitudes. We probably won't see any more games from these developers on our platform (which certainly makes me sad as a fan), but that's all this means.

With Larian not Porting Divinity 2, that's basically a whole genre (classic CRPGs) gone, no?

Hey, there is Pathfinder: Kingmaker! It really feels great! I'm just waiting for the 1.1 version to start over.

At the end, i wonder, who between Disney and Microsoft will by the other one ?

I'd like to prepare, should i wear squares or circles, with my forced smile ?

Gaming on Linux (not this website, the act of gaming...) is a "small issue" for me, the big one being that more and more giants are eating the smaller people.

EMBRACE. EXTEND. EXTINGUISH.

While talking about this in relation to another recent well known multi billion dollar M$ acquisition, Bryan Lunduke explains this specific M$ agenda to a point.
Watch this vid... laugh, cry, view the whole vid, then cry again.

"Linux Sucks. Forever. - Filmed live at Linux Fest NW - April 28, 2018"
https://youtu.be/TVHcdgrqbHE?t=685

This is a strange move, these companies predominantly make PC games that simply wouldn't work as well on console, they can't be buying them to make xbox exclusives, asking them to make xbox exclusives would be like asking a man to dance on one leg. These companies also only make games that wouldn't benefit at all from using apis like dx12 or vulkan, they're just not that graphically intense.

I'm not seeing their plan here, I'm not seeing a lot of their plans these days and it makes me a little nervous.

It looks to me like they are going for the "throw stuff on the wall to see what sticks" method: buy lots of studios in the hopes a few of them will produce console sellers. For that, it doesn't really matter that these companies' current games don't really fit consoles; the same could be said for fpses (control scheme) back when Microsoft acquired Bungie, after all.

I expect some major pruning in a few years, with most of these acquisitions getting axed, leaving the few success stories in place as producers of console exclusives.


Last edited by emphy on 11 November 2018 at 11:46 am UTC

I think we should be okay for future titles. Microsoft loves Linux after all…right?

MS loves Linux wherever it makes them money, which is in the cloud. Video games on the other hand, not so much. With video games they want walled garden. The reason they are buying up all these game studios (13 now I think) is because Sony has been having some great exclusives which has helped them gain a majority of the console market. This is MS trying to catch up with that and this means they will play by Sony's rules, which means exclusives, which means Windows Store + Xbox only. I do hope I'm wrong, but it's looking very grim.

It's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

Well, in the bright side remember that Chris Avellone is now on techland working on dying light 2 as narrative designer.

It's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

I cannot speak for the others but i am well aware boycotts do not work. In my case, i just do not want to contribute to Microsoft's coffers.

Plus game wise i am not very optimistic. But even if the next Obisidian inXile game was interesting to me, i still wouldn't give a dime to M$

I too think it might be more helpful to give the money to a developer who offers at least a chance of more Linux titles.

It's funny how some people reacts to this news: "I planned to buy their games but as Linux support might be dropped, I won't.". This way you reduce the Linux market share and you give another excuse to drop it.

My view is to buy the games now if you intended to, so Linux market share cannot be neglicted.

Maybe I'm wrong as we won't weight enough anyway, but the boycott now is not helpful.

I cannot speak for the others but i am well aware boycotts do not work. In my case, i just do not want to contribute to Microsoft's coffers.

Plus game wise i am not very optimistic. But even if the next Obisidian inXile game was interesting to me, i still wouldn't give a dime to M$

I too think it might be more helpful to give the money to a developer who offers at least a chance of more Linux titles.

Even if I can understand you point of view, just picture it in a capitalistic world: would you help or provide a service to a community hostile in paying you for that ? Obviously no.

We should be inspired by South Africa and forgive. MS is not the old ennemy it was, and whatever you think they have made some great products and major contributions to Linux and PC world.

If the Linux users' mentality do not change, why MS would ?