Avowed isn't even fully out yet, but developer Obsidian Entertainment has already set out its plans for the next near eight decades with the hopes of making it to its 100th birthday.
Obsidian isn't exactly a young studio – it'll be 22 years old in June. However, according to its vice president of operations, Marcus Morgan, and vice president of development, Justin Britch, who spoke at last week's D.I.C.E. Summit (thanks, PC Gamer), the plan is for it to just about quintuple this and keep on trucking until the year 2103.
This isn't just a joke or an optimistic exaggeration from the devs at Obsidian, as Morgan clarifies: "Are we serious? ... Yes." They're not embarking on this without a plan, either, as they outline the importance of staying "lean and invested" as a studio. The pair explain that the idea of Obsidian expanding beyond its California studio and opening a number of offices around the world had surfaced in recent years, but this was ultimately shut down in favor of partnering with existing studios instead so that the developer wouldn't get so big that it lost its own culture.
PC Gamer reports that Britch also points out the devs' tempered expectations of their own games when it comes to investment. Namely, it sounds like they try to stop themselves from being too optimistic about having a new best-selling RPG on their hands to the point that they overinvest. Instead, he explains, the team carefully weighs up how much to invest into something before even greenlighting it, while being under the assumption that it'll be "a mild success." It doesn't seem like this is planned to change going forward, either, as he clarifies the developer isn't attempting to "grow aggressively" or "make super profitable games."
Does Obsidian have what it takes to keep making games for a whole century? Well, it's certainly had a strong start when you consider its portfolio up to this point, with Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, The Outer Worlds, Avowed, and more. Admittedly, it's hard to compare when, generally speaking, most games companies are relatively young – Nintendo may have been around since 1889 when it produced hanafuda cards, but it didn't start making games for decades after that.
The year 2103 is so far in the future that unless we invent immortality at some point before then, many of us might not even see it if it does happen. Here's hoping the studio can make it though, and perhaps release the greatest RPG of the next century alongside GTA 10.
Be sure to check out our Avowed review to find out why it's one of the best new games of the year so far.
