If they get the right offer, they will allow themselves to be acquired by a publisher.
In 2003, Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones founded Obsidian after leaving Black Isle. Since then, they made some outstanding games: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas… although Alpha Protocol is somewhat of an exception. Working together with publishers also brought results: South Park: The Stick of Truth (Ubisoft), Tyranny (Paradox).
Urquhart, the CEO, told Eurogamer how their situation is somewhat complicated: „We sign a contract, and we must hit that number, and it is the end of the earth if we [can’t]. We’ve had to sign away royalties, we’ve had to sign away ownership of IPs…Whereas internal studios, it’s just another month – they’re already paying the people, it’s already in the budget these people are going to be paid.”
He also revealed that they got multiple offers by publishers: „It’s not like we’re ‘indie for life,’ not like we bleed indie blood. We were an internal studio [as Black Isle] for a publisher for a long time, and we were successful. We just didn’t think the offers were commensurate to what we’re worth and then what we would get to do.” Chris Parker added: „If the right opportunity came up, it’s certainly something that we would do.”
However, which publisher would be fitting to them? How about SEGA?
Source: Eurogamer
