Since its foundation in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment has worked with seven different publishers. Commencing with LucasArts on Knights of the Old Republic II, Obsidian has since signed contracts with Atari, SEGA, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft and most recently, Paradox Interactive. In fact, up until Pillars of Eternity [official site], every single game Obsidian had made was funded and distributed by a different publisher.
This is a highly unusual state of affairs, and has proved precarious more than once in the company's history. But it has also provided Obsidian with a unique insight into how the world of publishing works, and how the relationship between developer and publisher has changed in the last couple of decades. This topic is especially pertinent today, as new methods of funding and distributing games have seen a significant shift in the power dynamic between developers and publishers.
I spoke to CEO Feargus Urquhart about how it all works (and doesn't).
]]>South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] isn't just content to offer up another round of hilarious role-playing, it will also be improving on the fundamentals of The Stick of Truth—including some pretty epic farts that can tear a hole in the time-space continuum. In a recently released developer diary, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk about their lessons learned and detail some improvements made to South Park's turn-based combat.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I don't watch South Park anymore. I bought the first few 'volumes' on VHS back in my teenage years but I fell out of the habit of watching shortly after seeing the film at the cinema. It's not that I have anything against the show - I don't even keep up with the controversies or conversation around it so I have no idea if it's still to my taste - I just haven't made time for it in my life for a long time.
Obsidian's game, though? I made time for that and I'm glad I did.
]]>"Day 4. I've looked everywhere, but I can't find anything to eat or a clue to get me off the ship. Just... more audiologs! They're everywhere! For some reason I keep listening to every minute of every one thinking there'll be some useful information but... they're just filler! Filler that's driving me to madness!" - South Park: The Stick Of Truth
It's hard to argue. They're kinda dumb. But I'm still fond of this stupid little trope.
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 7 of the sale.
]]>Is there going to be a spring Steam sale? Or has Valve finally elected to give its wearied money counters - their abacuses gnarled and gnawed on, fear and desperation write large on waxen wood - a brief respite? I'm not entirely sure it matters now, though, as Humble has elected to fire the first shot with a sale of its own, and it's off to a damn impressive start. Check it out for deep discounts on games like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Batman: Arkham Origins, Broken Age, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Thief. Tons more below.
]]>Here's a very odd thing. South Park: The Stick Of Truth will not be available in Germany or Austria on Friday after all. Because Ubisoft left the swastikas in. A note on the German Steam page for the game states, "The Stick of Truth contains an unconstitutional symbol which means that we are unfortunately not able to release the game on the German and Austrian market at this time." Which is all the more odd, since Ubi told VG247 last week that they were already on top of this.
]]>Almost two years late, and following a publisher change and multiple slips, Obsidian's South Park: The Stick Of Truth is finally out this week. (Today in the States, Australia tomorrow, and Europe on Friday, because, sigh.) But has it been worth the wait? As ever, it's complicated. Here's wot I think:
]]>Edit: According to Get Games, Ubisoft have comfirmed that the PC version will be censored in Germany, Austria, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong & Taiwan. Elsewhere, it will be unaffected.
South Park is a series known for its ability to get away with quite a lot, but not everything. Add South Park: The Stick of Truth to the raucously raunchy series' short list of consolations, as it's had a few scenes nipped and tucked in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. You might feel inclined to curse up a storm, make a steaming pile of poop jokes, and then somehow come around to making a worthwhile point in response, but take a deep breath: the PC version is unaffected.
]]>The hour of South Park: The Stick of Truth's arrival is nearly upon us - you know, after being nearly upon us, like, three different times before delays rudely shoved it out of the limelight. But now it's (probably) happening for real this time, and Ubisoft has gameplay to prove it. 13 minutes of gameplay, to be precise. Why, that's the entire... er, tutorial. OK, so maybe it's not the most exciting bit, but there are still some hearty chuckles to be had. Well, if you think Cartman is the almighty wizard god emperor of humor, anyway.
]]>It is the near future, the year 2014. We are approaching The Ascension. It has long been foretold that this time would come, and that South Park: The Stick Of Truth would come out. The runes are now glowing, high on Mount Youtube, to be seen far and wide. A harbinger of things to come. This ungodly glow brings with it news of How The Game Was Made to all the subjects of the land. Soon, everyone shall know of the farts and the animation, and the existential horror of seeing a child's voice coming out the face of a grown man. Gaze ye upon it, and prepare for the incoming storm.
]]>I love the way South Park: The Stick of Truth looks just like the TV Show. I know the show has been animated on computers for years, but imitating its 2D animation so perfectly is a greater magic trick than anything performed by Battlefield 4.
Speaking of magic tricks. Come watch this latest trailer about how to cup and throw one in the other new Obsidian RPG.
]]>Along with Watch_Dogs and The Crew, now South Park: The Stick Of Truth has fallen into next year. The game already slipped and slid when it was THQ's property, and it doesn't seem to be getting a grip on the town's famously snowy streets under its new rulership. Having previously been given the 10th December for console (although PC was conspicuously never announced, and naturally Ubisoft ignored all our enquiries as to why), it's now three months further on, on the 7th March 2014. Ubi are hoping a genuinely good video will make us calm. It's less likely to work on their shareholders, who are already throwing their stakes out of the window and running screaming into the hills.
]]>Once upon a time, South Park: The Stick of Truth was all set to come out and be playable and have violence and swear words and do all that good stuff games have been known to do. Then THQ kerploded into a thunderous rain of burning dollars, and the Uncertain Times began. Ubisoft pulled Obsidian's off-the-wall RPG from the wreckage, sure, but it flung the game into release limbo in the process. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And-- oh hey, now we're done waiting! South Park's finally within spitting/mouth-shitting distance of the finish line, and it'll be available to all come December 10th.
]]>Obsidian's a company that's always stricken me as bizarrely restless. Despite its near-legendary Black Isle legacy, the Project Eternity and South Park developer's rarely had an easy time finding a comfortable place in the industry. But then, when you think about it, that's not entirely surprising. Both RPGs and storytelling in games - Obsidian's wheelhouses - have spent countless years in constant flux. And though recent times and a massively successful Kickstarter have given the developer some solid ground to stand on, the eager hands of change are once again threatening to yank the rug out from under it. Uncertainty's permeated the entire industry as of late, but Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart has no intention of blindly following the future. His plan? To redefine the whole RPG genre. During the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas, he and I chatted about that.
]]>Update: Helpfully, reader and probable Prince of Handsomeness The JG Man dug up the court form outlining details (including amounts, back-up bidders, etc) of each sale. You can peruse that here.
Original: Well, I suppose it was inevitable. After THQ's attempt at averting a Humpty Dumpty sales situation failed miserably, the writing was pretty much on the wall. So now the grim reaper's scythe has hacked the once-gargantuan publisher into itsy-bitsy pieces and scattered any remaining ashes to the winds. On the upside, pretty much every major THQ franchise and developer (minus Darksiders dev Vigil, sadly) landed safely in less-likely-to-kerplode homes. Also, Relic and Creative Assembly live under the same roof now. Can Company of Shoguns: Total Homeworld or some other dream team RTS be far off? Probably. It's still kind of a silver lining, though, and anyway SHUT UP I'M SAD.
]]>OK, hold onto the floppier parts of your brain, because this is about to get a bit complicated. So remember how THQ went bankrupt and fell into bed with "stalking horse bidder" Clearlake Capital? Well, the primary intent of all that was to keep THQ in one piece while dealing with that nasty little "having basically no money" thing, but - at the 11th hour - there was a twist. Creditors decided THQ's all-or-nothing sales approach wasn't fair to them (it'd probably pull in less money, after all), and a US bankruptcy court judge agreed. So now THQ's gone from monolithic one-gulp meal to easily chopped up buffet, and rumor has it that a number of major players are interested in various series, games, and franchises.
]]>Ah, South Park. When it's got a good head of steam going, it's marvelously spot-on, but when it steps over the line, it ends up miles off the mark. So naturally, I'm approaching South Park: The Stick of Truth with some trepidation, because it looks exactly like an episode of the show. Granted, with Obsidian at the wheel and years' worth of development time to make sure every joke lands just so, this one certainly has a far better chance of being consistently strong than an average drop in the series' ridiculously large bucket. But yes, new footage! There's cursing and Kenny jokes and Cartman being Cartman and all that good stuff. Go watch.
]]>Troubled THQ, as they must be sick of being called, have more bad news. Three of their biggest games have take a slip on this unseasonably early Wintry weather, with South Park, Metro: Last Light, and Company Of Heroes 2 all being announced as falling into the farther reaches of the future. But in better news - as Polygon spotted - it's confirmed that a new Saints Row is definitely happening, along with the mysterious game from Turtle Rock, and a Homefront 2 for some reason.
]]>Obsidian's South Park RPG is now known as South Park: The Stick Of Truth. It has a trailer, and it sure does look and sound a hell of a lot like South Park. As in, it looks almost exactly like an episode of South Park, which is a fantastically ringing endorsement for the ongoing power and versatility of 2D art as opposed to its theoretically more high-tech 3D cousin.
Includes faux-melodrama, Jesus with a machinegun, quasi-ironic antisemitism, a fire-breathing bear, a man touching his own penis, farting and the stinky-cheese tagline that is "an epic quest to become... cool."
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