Obsidian Entertainment facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Obsidian Entertainment, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	June 12, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-06-12)
Founders	Feargus Urquhart Chris Parker Chris Avellone Darren Monahan Chris Jones
Headquarters	Irvine, California , US
Number of employees	285 (2025)
Parent	Xbox Game Studios (2018–present)

Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is a company in Irvine, California, that makes video games. It is now part of Xbox Game Studios. The company started in June 2003. It was founded by Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones. These founders used to work at another game company called Black Isle Studios.

Obsidian Entertainment has made many games. Some of their games are new stories they created themselves. Others are sequels, meaning they are based on existing popular stories or game series. Early games included Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2. These were sequels to games made by another company called BioWare.

In 2010, Obsidian released their first original game, Alpha Protocol. They also made other well-known games like Fallout: New Vegas, Dungeon Siege III, and South Park: The Stick of Truth. These were also based on existing stories.

Over the years, some of Obsidian's game projects were canceled. This caused the company to face serious money problems in 2012. To save the company, Obsidian decided to ask their fans for money to help make their next game. This was called "crowdfunding." The game was Pillars of Eternity, a role-playing game. It was a big success and helped the company avoid closing down. After this, Obsidian started focusing more on making their own original games, like Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, which is a sequel to Pillars of Eternity.

In November 2018, Microsoft bought Obsidian Entertainment. The company became part of Microsoft Studios, which is now called Xbox Game Studios. Obsidian's recent games include the adventure game Pentiment and the action role-playing game Avowed. The studio is currently working on Grounded 2 and The Outer Worlds 2.

History of Obsidian Entertainment

Chris Avellone (top) and Feargus Urquhart (bottom), two of the five founders of Obsidian

How Obsidian Entertainment Started

Obsidian Entertainment was founded on June 12, 2003. The five founders were Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones. Before starting Obsidian, they worked at a company called Black Isle Studios. There, they helped create popular role-playing games like Icewind Dale and Fallout 2. They also worked with BioWare on games like Neverwinter Nights.

Many of these games were very successful. However, their old company, Interplay Entertainment, was having financial problems. They lost the right to make games based on Dungeons & Dragons. This led to a game called Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound being canceled. The founders were upset because they had worked on the game for a long time. Feargus Urquhart decided it was time to leave and start a new company.

When Obsidian Entertainment first started, there were seven employees. The five founders invested their own money to get the company going. They thought of different names for the company, like "Scorched Earth." They finally chose "Obsidian Entertainment" because it sounded strong and reminded them of their old studio, Black Isle.

To keep the company running, they needed more money from game publishers. They talked to companies like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, but these talks did not lead to new games. They also pitched a Fallout-style game called Futureblight, but it was never made.

Making Sequels to Popular Games (2003–2008)

In late 2003, a company called LucasArts asked Obsidian to make an action role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe. Obsidian suggested a game with lightsaber fights and famous characters like R2-D2. LucasArts liked the idea but asked Obsidian to make a sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Obsidian was familiar with the technology used in the first game.

Development for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords began in October 2003. Obsidian had only 15 months to make the game. The release date was moved up, which meant Obsidian did not have enough time to fix all the bugs. The game had some technical issues, but it was still well-liked by critics. Fans later fixed many of the cut features and bugs.

Obsidian wanted to work on many projects at once, so the company grew quickly. By July 2004, they had 27 employees. Many came from Black Isle, and others from different game companies.

Before The Sith Lords was released, another company, Atari, asked Obsidian to make a sequel to Neverwinter Nights. This became Neverwinter Nights 2. Development started in July 2005 with a small team. Obsidian was the main developer, and BioWare helped with technical parts. The team grew to about 50 people. Atari gave them enough time, and the game was released in October 2006. Neverwinter Nights 2 was also well-received. Two expansion packs, Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir, were released in 2007 and 2008.

During this time, Obsidian also worked on a game for Disney called Dwarfs. It was a prequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The team worked on it for about a year, but Disney changed its plans, and the game was canceled. This was a sad moment for the team.

New Ideas and Licensed Games (2009–2014)

As Neverwinter Nights 2 finished, Obsidian talked to other publishers. Sega wanted them to make an action role-playing game based on the Alien movies. This game was called Aliens: Crucible. Obsidian sent a test version to Sega in February 2009, but Sega canceled the game just three weeks later. Around the same time, Atari wanted Obsidian to bring back Baldur's Gate III, but the budget was too high, and the deal fell apart.

Even though Aliens: Crucible was canceled, Sega still wanted to work with Obsidian. They asked Obsidian to create a new game based on a brand-new idea. The team came up with a "spy RPG" game. Sega approved and helped fund the game, which became Alpha Protocol. The game's development was difficult. The team wasn't sure what kind of game it should be, and Sega also made slow decisions. This caused many delays, and the game took four years to make. It was finally released in June 2010.

Alpha Protocol received mixed reviews and did not sell well. Obsidian's CEO, Feargus Urquhart, admitted the game could have been better. Even so, many fans loved the game and wanted a sequel. However, Sega owned the rights, so Obsidian couldn't make a sequel on their own.

Obsidian also worked on Fallout: New Vegas at the same time. Bethesda Softworks, who owned the Fallout series, asked Obsidian to make a new game. Many of Obsidian's founders had worked on Fallout before. Obsidian listened to fan requests for New Vegas, like giving in-game groups a bigger role. Bethesda approved the idea, and New Vegas was released in October 2010. It received very good reviews, with some critics saying it was even better than Fallout 3.

Like The Sith Lords, New Vegas had some bugs and glitches when it first came out. These were later fixed. Obsidian learned a lot from this and worked to improve how they checked for bugs in future games. These improvements were used for Dungeon Siege III, a sequel published by Square Enix. This game was released in 2011 and had a much smoother launch. Dungeon Siege III was the first game to use Obsidian's own game engine, called Onyx.

In 2011, Obsidian started working on a big open-world game called Stormlands for the Xbox One. Microsoft Studios, the publisher, canceled the game in 2012. This led to Obsidian having to let go of some employees. Obsidian then tried to turn Stormlands into another game called Fallen, but no other publishers were interested. However, ideas from Fallen later helped create Obsidian's game Tyranny.

In 2009, Obsidian was asked by South Park Digital Studios to make a game based on the South Park TV show. The team met with the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. They all agreed the game needed to look just like the TV show. Viacom, the company that owns South Park, first funded the game. Later, THQ took over as publisher. But THQ faced financial problems and went bankrupt. Obsidian worried the game would be canceled, which would cause them serious money issues. Luckily, Ubisoft bought the game, and it was released as South Park: The Stick of Truth in March 2014.

Obsidian also worked with another game company called inXile Entertainment. They agreed to share their technology. Obsidian helped inXile with their game Wasteland 2, which was released in late 2014.

Financial Challenges and Pillars of Eternity (2014–2018)

Even after finishing South Park: The Stick of Truth, Obsidian was in a difficult financial situation. They lost a bonus for Fallout: New Vegas because the game's review score was just one point below what Bethesda required. The company was running out of money and risked going bankrupt.

At this time, crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter were becoming popular. Josh Sawyer, a game director at Obsidian, suggested they use Kickstarter to fund a game they had always wanted to make. Some team members were unsure, fearing they wouldn't raise enough money. But when another game, Double Fine Adventure, had huge success on Kickstarter, Obsidian decided to try it.

They decided to fund a game that would be like a new version of Baldur's Gate. The Kickstarter campaign for Pillars of Eternity started in September 2012. Obsidian asked for $1.1 million. They hoped that if it was successful, it could become a new game series.

Obsidian's campaign was a massive success, raising $4 million! This broke the previous record set by Double Fine Adventure. Pillars of Eternity was released in March 2015 and received great reviews. Paradox Interactive published the game. Obsidian also released an expansion pack called The White March, which came out in two parts in 2015 and 2016. A board game based on Pillars of Eternity was also funded through Kickstarter.

In June 2015, co-founder Chris Avellone left Obsidian. In August 2015, Obsidian joined with other companies to launch a new funding website called Fig. This platform focuses only on video games and allows fans to invest in games. Obsidian plans to use Fig for future crowdfunding.

In July 2015, it was announced that Obsidian was helping with the game Skyforge. In August 2014, Obsidian also announced they would make electronic games based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. A tablet version was released in April 2016. Feargus Urquhart has also said he would like to work with BioWare again on a new Star Wars game or another Fallout game.

On March 15, 2016, Obsidian announced a new project called Tyranny. It's an isometric role-playing game set in a world where evil has already won. The game was released in 2016 and published by Paradox Interactive. The idea for Tyranny came from earlier canceled projects like Fury and Defiance. In April 2016, Leonard Boyarsky, another famous game developer, joined Obsidian.

On January 27, 2017, Obsidian announced Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and launched a crowdfunding campaign on Fig. The project reached its funding goal in less than a day. The game was released in May 2018. In February 2017, Obsidian stopped working on Armored Warfare, leaving its development to the publisher.

Joining Microsoft (2018–Present)

On November 10, 2018, it was announced that Microsoft had bought Obsidian Entertainment. The studio became part of Microsoft Studios. After this announcement, in December 2018, Obsidian revealed a new game called The Outer Worlds. This is an action role-playing game set in a future where big companies are colonizing alien planets. The game was released on October 25, 2019, for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch version was released on June 5, 2020.

In November 2019, Obsidian announced their next game, Grounded. They described it as a "survival adventure where you're the size of an ant." On July 23, 2020, at the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian Entertainment announced a new role-playing game called Avowed. This game is for Windows and Xbox Series X. In 2021, another open-world project was found to be in development. This was later revealed to be The Outer Worlds 2 during the Xbox + Bethesda E3 2021 showcase.

In 2022, Obsidian revealed Pentiment, a story-driven adventure game for Windows, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. It was released in November 2022. The game director for Pentiment is Josh Sawyer, who also directed Fallout: New Vegas.

Obsidian's Approach to Games

Obsidian became known for making sequels to popular game series. These include Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Fallout, and Dungeon Siege. Feargus Urquhart has said that the company enjoys making sequels because they get to "play in someone else's world." They can explore and expand on the original game's ideas. The studio also felt that these licensed projects were easier to develop.

Obsidian saw making these sequels as a way to eventually create their own original games. Later, the studio did focus more on developing their own games. This allowed them more creative freedom and fewer rules from publishers. They also used crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter to see if players were interested in a certain game idea or type of game.

Before Microsoft bought them, Obsidian was an independent company. They believed they needed to adapt quickly to changes in the game market. While their main focus was still on making story-rich role-playing games, they were open to trying smaller projects in different game types. This is why they developed games like Armored Warfare.

The company even made a small game based on the story of its five founders. This game was in an arcade machine inside the Obsidian office.

Games Made by Obsidian Entertainment

Canceled Games