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[L*][*N*K]

I'm honestly not really hyped for Avowed... i have a feeling this is going to be a small pet project like Pentiment or Grounded that will still probably score well but maybe not have a ton of meat on its bones. I'm not expecting this to be some multi hundred hour RPG like Skyrim.

But it is not, it is clearly not

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Saw this somewhere else. Sums up 50% of this interview

 

[bentanchorbolt]

But it is not, it is clearly not

I don't know shit about Avowed, but the vibes I'm getting thus far is something like Skyrim meets BOTW.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I don't know shit about Avowed, but the vibes I'm getting thus far is something like Skyrim meets BOTW.

Pretty much.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Interesting interview. Phil doesn't seem to own the Redfall debacle much, and I guess as someone who is very high level, I can understand that some of the failures might be below his pay grade, but it isn't fair to simply say Arkane didn't know how to execute or that more time wouldn't have made it a much better game.

It's true that the issue was not about whether or not to do another three month delay at the very end, as Phil says. A lot of the corners that were cut in this game were probably cut a year ago or more. But let's talk about why that is, because the scheduling was totally out of whack.

This game was supposed to come out a year ago. And it didn't, but the fact that they forced them to try means a lot of the teams's ambitions were scaled down in the months leading to the original deadline. You can't make decisions about when to release a game month-to-month until it's done. You have to have the vision to plan ahead for what a title really needs and it's clear they didn't.

Same thing worries me about Starfield. We saw a lot of this in the Psychonauts 2 documentary, the problem wasn't that they didn't get the time they needed, it's that it was delayed over and over and they were never sure they were going to get the time they needed. That game came out good in the end, but it seems like the process still really hurt the developers.

 

[Heisenberg007]

I'm honestly not really hyped for Avowed... i have a feeling this is going to be a small pet project like Pentiment or Grounded that will still probably score well but maybe not have a ton of meat on its bones. I'm not expecting this to be some multi hundred hour RPG like Skyrim.

I see it as the middle point between Pentiment and Skyrim. So more at a scale of The Outer Worlds (same team also, coincidentally).

 

[bentanchorbolt]

I see it as the middle point between Pentiment and Skyrim. So more at a scale of The Outer Worlds (same team also, coincidentally).

Avowed is the game Obsidian has always wanted to make but for whatever reason was not able to, and now being with MS and having access to more devs and time and freedom, Avowed by all accounts should be the developers magnum opus. It should be a very big game.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Avowed is the game Obsidian has always wanted to make but for whatever reason was not able to, and now being with MS and having access to more devs and time and freedom, Avowed by all accounts should be the developers magnum opus. It should be a very big game.

That was the original plan at least. Microsoft was so impressed by Obsidian's vision for Avowed that they bought the studio (Avowed was the main reason why MS bought Obsidian).

After the acquisition, though, Microsoft made Obsidian reboot Avowed -- so essentially changing the very game they first liked so much. lol.

Who knows what the "new rebooted Avowed" looks and plays like now. Or how ambitious it is now.

 

[Zuzu]

I’m not on board with Xbox’s direction which he explained at the end of the video. This is sad and I kinda regret getting a Series X and Series S. I want them to be like Nintendo and Playstation who focus on the consoles and first party exclusives.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

That was the original plan at least. Microsoft was so impressed by Obsidian's vision for Avowed that they bought the studio (Avowed was the main reason why MS bought Obsidian).

After the acquisition, though, Microsoft made Obsidian reboot Avowed -- so essentially changing the very changing they first liked so much. lol.

Who knows what the "new rebooted Avowed" looks and plays like now. Or how ambitious it is now.

It's tough to make headway on anything since all I heard about the reboot comes off like PR speak.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Interesting interview. Phil doesn't seem to own the Redfall debacle much, and I guess as someone who is very high level, I can understand that some of the failures might be below his pay grade, but it isn't fair to simply say Arkane didn't know how to execute or that more time wouldn't have made it a much better game.

It's true that the issue was not about whether or not to do another three month delay at the very end, as Phil says. A lot of the corners that were cut in this game were probably cut a year ago or more. But let's talk about why that is, because the scheduling was totally out of whack.

This game was supposed to come out a year ago. And it didn't, but the fact that they forced them to try means a lot of the teams's ambitions were scaled down in the months leading to the original deadline. You can't make decisions about when to release a game month-to-month until it's done. You have to have the vision to plan ahead for what a title really needs and it's clear they didn't.

Same thing worries me about Starfield. We saw a lot of this in the Psychonauts 2 documentary, the problem wasn't that they didn't get the time they needed, it's that it was delayed over and over and they were never sure they were going to get the time they needed. That game came out good in the end, but it seems like the process still really hurt the developers.

Part of the problem, according to Phil, was that taking care of a studio with a project already mid way is hard. If the plan is not good, a delay will not change things that are baked in like the engine used or the goal that the team had in mind at the beginning. Like Anthem. But Starfield had more time to cook. It should not be that bad. I hope so at least.

 

[TVexperto]

Well, well, well, look who's still apologizing five years later! I mean, kudos to Phil for keeping that guilt trip going strong, but at some point, you'd think he'd want to mix it up and try a new excuse.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Part of the problem, according to Phil, was that taking care of a studio with a project already mid way is hard. If the plan is not good, a delay will not change things that are baked in like the engine used or the goal that the team had in mind at the beginning. Like Anthem. But Starfield had more time to cook. It should not be that bad. I hope so at least.

This is hard to take at face value when you consider the timelines. Starfield was 6 years into development when the MS acquisition happened, and Redfall was less than 3 years in. So explain to me how that could even make sense?

I think the truth is maybe what he says later, that MS was simply more hands-off with Redfall, that they didn't offer the same level of support to help them scale the game up and make it what it should have been.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

This is hard to take at face value when you consider the timelines. Starfield was 6 years into development when the MS acquisition happened, and Redfall was less than 3 years in. So explain to me how that could even make sense?

I think the truth is maybe what he says later, that MS was simply more hands-off with Redfall, that they didn't offer the same level of support to help them scale the game up and make it what it should have been.

You said it yourself: Starfield had 6 years before the acquisition. So the game had more time to cook. If the game was still in development hell when Xbox got it then Starfield is doomed. Unlike Redfall who had a bad plan from the beginning if you see what I was saying. The help they can give is limited anyway as they do not have support studios like Sony got in for example Playstation Malaysia. So I hope that Starfield was not shit when they got it in 2021. Because same as Redfall a lot of the important decisions were made like the engine choice, gameplay loop... that can't be changed. So we will see that in the showcase. Hope that the game is good in the end.