Changes Afoot

In case you ever wondered how long it would take for games from other Microsoft game studios to appear on Battle.net, here you go:

The Doom prequel appeared first, and given that it's a Bethesda game I guess it's a no-brainer. But this one just appeared a day or three ago, which did cause me to sit up and take notice:

Given that I watch Tim Cain's YouTube videos, I was surprised to see The Outer Worlds 2 show up on the Battle.net front page.

That immediately got me to hop over to Steam just to check to see if both games were able to be purchased over there --they were-- and then I began wondering just where this will end. You don't see any non-Call of Duty Activision games on Battle.net, but if these two end up on BNet, does that mean more will follow? And what about the backlog of titles from these and other Microsoft studios? Will we see Minecraft show up soon? Or will we actually see a purchasable skin for Minecraft of various Blizzard properties?

Maybe there are some things that man was not meant to know...

More Consolidation is in Order

In other CRPG news, Obsidian Entertainment agreed to be bought out by Microsoft.

I'm not sure what to think of this. On one hand, it's nice from Obsidian's standpoint to not have to worry about where the next set of paychecks is coming from, but I do wonder at the cost to independence and culture.

Obsidian's forte is the CRPG, having been involved with the genre for 20+ years*, so I'm not sure what Microsoft is expecting out of Obsidian, given that the XBoxOne's (and PS4's) forte is more heavily graphically oriented than what Obsidian works with. Don't get me wrong, an isometric CRPG can work well in a console format**, but that's more the exception than the rule for console games. And, truth be told, console gamers aren't exactly clamoring for a CRPG design style that dates back to 1998 and Baldur's Gate with the original Bioware Infinity Engine.

Still, what CRPGs like Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny have is story, and if Microsoft wants to take Obsidian's world building and storytelling, throw in some current-gen console magic, and whip up a new CRPG franchise, that's fine with me.

All I ask of Microsoft is to let Obsidian do what Obsidian wants to do also, because that independence will reap dividends in the long run. Yes, yes, I know Microsoft says that they will, and I'm sure that they'll try to at first, but the thing is that very few companies retain that independence over the long haul. By giving Obsidian the chance to fail without fear, Microsoft will be giving a software studio a chance to dare to reach even higher.

And who knows, maybe that'll provide Microsoft with the next Dragon Age or Witcher franchise.





*Obsidian was formed by former members of Black Isle, who'd created Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Fallout 1 and 2.

**Just look at Blizzard's D3 port to consoles for an example.


EtA: Fixed a confusing grammar error.