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Josh Sawyer: "I am Studio Design Director at Obsidian" "I am directing my own project now (it's just not Avowed)"
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
Agree but we know Avowed is not a small project and has been taunted as AAA.
Yea that seems far out, I would assume it will be in pre-production with a smaller team working on it right now
Tyranny IP is owned by Paradox. If there ever will be a sequel, it will be done by either Paradox internal team or studio hired by them.
It definitely feels like MS is leaning hard into Obsidian, this could be amazing.
His credits include according to IMDB (I assume this is him?):
www.imdb.com
Director
2018 Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity: The White March (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity (Video Game)
2010 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game) (as J.E. Sawyer)
My guess is that he is directing Outer Worlds 2, and the game will go full AAA big budget open-world, and go full-tilt Fallout: New Vegas Spiritual successor. If Avowed is Obsidian's Skyrim, then it would make sense for them to make two similar games using the same tech/emgine.
His credits include according to IMDB (I assume this is him?):
Josh Sawyer | Director, Additional Crew, Writer
Known for: Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity
www.imdb.com
Director
2018 Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity: The White March (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity (Video Game)
2010 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game) (as J.E. Sawyer)
My guess is that he is directing Outer Worlds 2, and the game will go full AAA big budget open-world, and go full-tilt Fallout: New Vegas Spiritual successor. If Avowed is Obsidian's Skyrim, then it would make sense for them to make two similar games using the same tech/emgine.
How large a team are Obsidian then? They are churning out great games left right and centre.
I doubt that, with him only have a supervising/advicing role for Outer Worlds 2. I would expect him to direct a more personal project, rather then continue someone else's work.
Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky will be directing Outer Worlds 2It definitely feels like MS is leaning hard into Obsidian, this could be amazing.
His credits include according to IMDB (I assume this is him?):
Josh Sawyer | Director, Additional Crew, Writer
Known for: Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity
Director
2018 Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity: The White March (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity (Video Game)
2010 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game) (as J.E. Sawyer)
My guess, he is directing Outer Worlds 2, and the game will go full AAA big budget open-world.
Absolutely, though I don't think this investment is unique to Obsidian. Ninja Theory has 3 teams, Playground now has 2 (and may gear up to 3 this generation), Inexile have ~3 (though supposedly consolidating into 1 after Wasteland 3 releases), Doublefine have 2-3.It definitely feels like MS is leaning hard into Obsidian, this could be amazing.
His credits include according to IMDB (I assume this is him?):
Josh Sawyer | Director, Additional Crew, Writer
Known for: Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity
Director
2018 Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity: The White March (Video Game)
2015 Pillars of Eternity (Video Game)
2010 Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game) (as J.E. Sawyer)
My guess, he is directing Outer Worlds 2, and the game will go full AAA big budget open-world.
I believe there was a quote from Microsoft around the time the Outer Worlds released, that they think it can be a major franchise for them going forward.
So yeah, I think a big budget Outer Worlds sequel is a good bet. And honestly, I'd love to see it. Most of my issues around The Outer Worlds are related to things that were obviously budgetary in nature. I like the setting, like the characters, like the writing - wanted something bigger and more fleshed out.
Going to Halcyon only for virtually all of the buildings to be cordoned off, was depressing.
NGL, best news I've read all day.
I guess we'll have to wait for a few years to see Microsoft's money at work, but at least it looks like they are being afforded a ton of freedom. So far most of their recent output has been very obviously constrained by budget.
I guess we'll have to wait for a few years to see Microsoft's money at work, but at least it looks like they are being afforded a ton of freedom. So far most of their recent output has been very obviously constrained by budget.
I see, fair enough.
It would be nuts if they take on a fourth project. I suppose Grounded is smaller and could remain with a small support team.
The workload that project means should be dependent on the state and size of it. Based on what he has written on his blog, I wouldn't expect that his project have come that far yet, which right now could means different states of preproduction, made with a smaller team, or perhaps even just himself?
All your guesses are wrong.
He's working on a historical RPG.
Source: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143120816411/is-there-anything-stopping-you-from-doing
He's working on a historical RPG.
Source: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143120816411/is-there-anything-stopping-you-from-doing
Totally, this could be super early. Perhaps he's just working on game pitches.
Still, if avowed is still 2-3 years off, I expect Outer Worlds 2 to be 3-4+ years out, would this fourth project begin dev in the next year, and develop alongside the other two (to release 5+ years from now)? If MS wants Obsidian to release a game every 1.5 to 2 years, that's probably how you do it. I suppose I also wonder what the scope of this project would be. I would expect the Studio Design Director to helm the biggest project at the studio.
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Is that the right expecation? He writes in detail what the position entails, and with that in mind, I'm suprised that he even has an 'own' project on top of that workload.
That's true, he does sound swamped already, and it does make more sense for him to be doing something smaller. Although, it sounds like any project he'd work on would still be an RPG, and that would still be a ton of work.
From his work description, it does sound like he's making room to work on something outside of the project oversight tasks.
Im assuming Grounded team is expanding after it became a big hit on steam/xbox
Honestly, yeah. I hope they have enough or hire enough team members so they can start releasing Sea of Thieves tier updates, that would be amazing. It's certainly encouraging that their first update is already slated for this month.
Just so people know the scale, Josh's team has a size of roughly 5 people.
Grounded was 12 people.
Rest of Obsidian is working on Avowed and Outer Worlds DLC.
Grounded was 12 people.
Rest of Obsidian is working on Avowed and Outer Worlds DLC.
With such a small team size, I could see this being the game.
I think they are less than 300. This is definitely going to be MS strategy. Every year 10-15 AA games with some of them having service elements like Sea of Thieves & Grounded. Combined with 2-3 of major AAA release. Microsoft's strategy will be to have content which is engaging for longer period rather than something like Last of Us or Ghost of Tsushima which take 4-5 years to make and doesn't have that long term engagement. This types of games will come from 3rd parties. The opposite of what Sony is doing right now. Sony depends upon 3rd parties for those Destinies, call of duties, etc. This is why Sony is chasing them.
All your guesses are wrong.
He's working on a historical RPG.
Source: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143120816411/is-there-anything-stopping-you-from-doing
This guy is going to make something great in the future.
OP
OP
Its in full production now. 100 people working on it now and for a while. Will grow more.
I'm glad to see them return to AAA, but man I really hope his project isn't as "clone-y" as Avowed. Avowed looks kinda dope but it has "Microsoft's Skyrim!" written all over it in that trailer, which is cool because we know Obsidian does Fallout better than Bethesda (Outer Worlds) so Avowed will surely be the intellectual version of Skyrim too... but I wanna see them go nuts again with what they did with Alpha Protocol, but succeed with the mechanics this time. I really want to see some bold takes from them, now that they have the security of a publisher. And my reluctance stems from the notion that Microsoft might've said no to a lot of good ideas but not the one that looked like Skyrim, because that's typical Publisher mentality.
OP
OP
From the reports and interviews we got so far it doesnt seem MS is doing that.
Fargo from a interview last month
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