After nine years making computer games for other companies, Obsidian Entertainment will be making a role-playing game the Irvine company owns and sells itself.
The game developer ended its Kickstarter fundraising campaign Tuesday, raising more than $3.9 million from more than 72,000 fans to make "Project Eternity." The project raised the most money to date for a video game on the crowd-sourcing site and became the third-highest earning project in Kickstarter history.
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Top 10 Kickstarter Projects
1. $10.3 million Pebble E-Paper smart watch
2. $8.6 million OUYA Android-based game console
3. $3.9 million Project Eternity computer game (Irvine)
4. $3.4 million Bones miniature gaming models
5. $3.3 million Double Fine Adventure computer game
6. $2.9 million Wasteland 2 computer game (Newport Beach)
7. $2.5 million Homestuck computer game
8. $2.4 million Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset (Irvine)
9. $2.2 million Planetary Annihilation computer game
10. $1.8 million Shadowrun Returns computer game
Obsidian, which made games such as "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II" and "Fallout:New Vegas" for other publishers, turned to Kickstarter for its newest venture. The move to online fundraising gives the company the opportunity to pursue a game with a smaller budget but with complete creative freedom and ownership.
"After all these years of making games we're actually going to own something," said Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. "When we think about a game we think about the world of the game ... there's all this other potential: Novels. Pen-and-paper role playing games. Board games. Card games. We have this world that's ours now and we get to do all these things with it."
Kickstarter.com is a platform for artists and startups to bankroll creative projects by appealing directly to the people who would use the product.
In the case of video games, Obsidian followed a path blazed by Newport Beach-based Inxile Entertainment in April when the company raised $2.9 million using the site. Both companies offered their games for pre-order in downloadable format in exchange for the lowest levels of funding, between $20 and $30. Patrons who paid more would receive collector's editions with limited-edition goodies for support in the hundreds of dollars. At the top end, fans who contributed thousands of dollars have the opportunity to become part of the game, with areas designed or named after supporters.
For the first time since it was founded in 2003, Obsidian has complete control of a project and with that freedom the company is pursuing a video game that pays homage to well-loved, role-playing games from the '90s. Players will be able to make a hero, gather a party of companions and explore intricately designed landscapesand go on quests. With "Project: Eternity," Obsidian doesn't have to answer to publishers demanding the company make development milestones or implement changes, and there's no pressure to depend on retail locations to sell the game.
Instead, the developer forged a direct relationship with more than 72,000 fans who, in many cases, pre-ordered copies of the game by supporting the project on Kickstarter.
"Owning your own intellectual property is every developer's dream, and we have a lot of people at Obsidian who are excited by the prospect of working on something that's theirs as opposed to helping prop up someone else's franchise," said Chris Avellone, the studio creative director on "Project Eternity."
Three of the 10 highest-earning projects on Kickstarter are from Orange County. Obsidian joins Inxile Entertainment, which raised money to create a game called "Wasteland 2," and Oculus, which raised $2.4 million on the site in September to make a virtual reality headset specifically for video games. This week Oculus, founded in Long Beach, confirmed it signed a lease for 5,369 square feet of office space in Irvine and is hiring for 13 positions on its website.
Obsidian had layoffs earlier this year, but Urquhart declined to say how many. Today the company has about 80 staffers and is splitting its resources between two games. Obsidian has about 55 people working on a videogame version of the "South Park" cartoon, while 15 to 20 team members are working on the new "Project Eternity."
Video game industry experts said a major video game title could carry a budget of $20 million to $30 million. A game with a reduced feature set targeted for computers, like "Project Eternity," could cost far less to develop.
"It's going to be a while before you can gather enough people to raise $20 million for a true AAA title ... if ever; $3 million is not a lot of money," said Jesse Divnich, vice president in charge of analysis at the video game research firm EEDAR. "It's not going to change the way video games get funded."
Contact the writer: 949-229-2426 or ihamilton@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/game-374766-games-obsidian.html
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