Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

[Feb 08, 2013, 10:29 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Obsidian has pitched LucasArts on the prospect of creating another RPG based on Star Wars, following their work on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, a sequel to BioWare's prequel role-playing game. EA's use of The Old Republic setting seems an obstacle to revisiting that setting, but Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart tells Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "There’s a lot of different eras in Star Wars, and that’s what we would focus on." He goes on to describe the time period they envisioned when they pitched the game to LucasArts. "We pitched a between-Episode III and Episode IV game," he explains. "Because we think that timeframe is super interesting. It’s the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it’s Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few. So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story." A complication is that Disney's acquisition of LucasArts took place since that pitch, but Urquhart hopes this is all still in play, expressing confidence in what he calls one of the "top three pitches we’ve ever come up with," saying LucasArts was very enthusiastic, and that it's "something we’re still hoping for, even with the Disney/Lucas stuff going on."

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27.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 13:01

Bhruic

Ceribaen wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 10:05: Star Wars Galaxies initially actually was pretty good as a sandbox mmo with no force users. I didn't say it wasn't possible to create such a game, just that I'd have no interest in it. There's nothing special/exciting about the Star Wars universe besides the Jedi/Sith conflict, at least for me. Personally I think for any Star Wars MMO you pretty much have to go with no force users because otherwise you have a gazillion sith/jedi -- and that never existed in that time frame either. The bigger problem is that you can't balance them properly. That is, if the Jedi/Sith are balanced with the other classes, then they aren't really Jedi/Sith. But that's an MMO problem, and that's not what we are talking about here - it's a single player RPG. There's no problem having the main character (or group of characters, depending how they do it) being Force-users, as there aren't enough of them to dramatically upset the balance.

26.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 12:57

Bhruic

Blackhawk wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 10:57: Some of the fiction indicates that there are still a few Jedi who got the 'warning' and weren't wiped out, but that they're all in hiding. It wouldn't be hard to write one in as a character. Sure, that's fine, but the problem is that you know how it has to turn out. If you're playing a "Jedi in hiding", well, by the start of Ep IV, you're going to be dead. That seems like a substantial limiter in what they can accomplish with a story. I'd much rather them pick something like a post-MMO setting where they've already got the general situation set up, but there's no real limits on what direction they want to take the story. Other than movie character tie-ins, there's no advantage I see to setting it in the "modern" Star Wars era.

25.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 12:38

Cutter

Seeing as Disney is all jacked on getting Star Wars all pimped out and rolling out the door in a big way this probably has a better shot of succeeding now than if it had just been LA involved. Whilst I personally could care less - as I think Star Wars is tripe for the most part - I would still love to see two things down that could be ahhh-mazing

1. A game based on the Thrawn trilogy.
2. A game focused on Bounty Hunters - utilizing Tales of the Bounty Hunters

So much more interesting stuff than the constant focus on Jedi.




"Are you crazy? Is that your problem?" - Jack Burton

24.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:59

JediPunisher

Great! I was a big fan of the first two games. But, doesn't Chris Avellone (lead designer of KotOR II) have his hands full right now with Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity?

23.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:57

wtf_man

Yakubs wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:36: Starting to get desperate? They've always been desperate. They did a South Park cash-in game, for crying out loud. Their only attempts at original IP have always failed. While Alpha Protocol may have failed commercially... I enjoyed it (except for the dialog timer). A bit more polish and I think it would have done better than it did.

22.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:39

Redmask

Yakubs wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:36: Starting to get desperate? They've always been desperate. They did a South Park cash-in game, for crying out loud. Their only attempts at original IP have always failed. That South Park game looks really good though and every developer is pretty much one bad product away from bankruptcy, that's the nature of the industry. Everyone is 'desperate'.

21.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:36

Yakubs

Starting to get desperate? They've always been desperate. They did a South Park cash-in game, for crying out loud. Their only attempts at original IP have always failed.

20.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:24

RollinThundr

CJ_Parker wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:07: So the same Obsidian that's been whining about how the evil LucasArts corporate Sith Lords forced them to wrap up KotOR 2 unfinished are now begging to them on their knees for a bit of work? Patheticness has just reached a new all-time low... Really it's on both parties, Obsidian did sign a contract stating a game would be delivered in xx amount of time. 16-18 months to do an RPG isn't a ton of time and it really did seem like the scope of KOTOR II was far larger than the dev cycle they signed on for it. Though I can't really disagree with you, between Sega canning the Aliens RPG and the THQ fallout affecting the SouthPark title they're doing, I wonder if Obsidian is starting to get a little desperate for cash/projects.

19.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:11

deqer

CJ_Parker wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:07: So the same Obsidian that's been whining about how the evil LucasArts corporate Sith Lords forced them to wrap up KotOR 2 unfinished are now begging to them on their knees for a bit of work? Yes, money does strange things. It's all about money, not the users. But with all the marketing/advertising/hype, you'll probably eat it up anyways and purchase it.

18.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:10

Creston

Oh God, please please please please please please please YES. Creston

17.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:07

CJ_Parker

So the same Obsidian that's been whining about how the evil LucasArts corporate Sith Lords forced them to wrap up KotOR 2 unfinished are now begging to them on their knees for a bit of work? Patheticness has just reached a new all-time low...

16.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 11:03

deqer

Bhruic wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 09:39: And, frankly, I'd have no interest in a Star Wars RPG where I couldn't wield a lightsaber. A lightsaber that does nothing? Isn't it already a sad feeling it to be wield a fake lightsaber? Isn't a lightsaber supposed to cut through stuff? yah... You can't put a lightsaber in a game, so why try? it makes the make unrealistic and pathetic when you try to put a lightsaber in it as a weapon, and it doesn't act like a true lightsaber. "look at me, let me thwack this enemy 200 times before the lightsaber finally cuts through/kills him." lulz

15.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 10:57

Blackhawk

Bhruic wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 09:39: It's an odd time to pick. We know what the end result is going to be - no more Jedi (barring Obi-wan and Yoda). We know there's no other Sith. Some of the fiction indicates that there are still a few Jedi who got the 'warning' and weren't wiped out, but that they're all in hiding. It wouldn't be hard to write one in as a character. The real appeal of that period, for a developer, is that you've got all of the well-known, well-established Star Wars standards in place. You've got Vader, Stormroopers, rebels, the whole nine yards, but you don't have any canon materials covering the period so you can write whatever story you like without having to work around the films.

14.

Re: X WING SIM!!!

Feb 8, 2013, 10:55

Ceribaen

CutterZane wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 10:37: Agree with Wildone - we're LONG overdue for another Star Wars space sim. There's not been one since X-Wing Alliance in 1999. Instead we're getting rubbish like Star Wars Pinball I still say they should just take the exact scenarios/gameplay/design of XvT (and add in the original standalone XWing and TIE Fighter games), update the graphics and netcode -- and release. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

13.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 10:52

NegaDeath

As long as Lucasarts is hands off as much as possible go for it.

12.

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 10:37

dj LiTh

I'm in.

11.

Re: X WING SIM!!!

Feb 8, 2013, 10:37

CutterZane

Agree with Wildone - we're LONG overdue for another Star Wars space sim. There's not been one since X-Wing Alliance in 1999. Instead we're getting rubbish like Star Wars Pinball

10.

X WING SIM!!!

Feb 8, 2013, 10:32

Wildone

NOW! NOW! NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 10:32

nin

El Pit wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 09:37:
Yes, please! GIMME!

Agreed. Sounds great!




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

Re: Obsidian Pitching New Star Wars RPG

Feb 8, 2013, 10:05

Ceribaen

Bhruic wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 09:39: It's an odd time to pick. We know what the end result is going to be - no more Jedi (barring Obi-wan and Yoda). We know there's no other Sith. So unless they are going to do non-Force users, they'd be pretty limited in what they could put in. And, frankly, I'd have no interest in a Star Wars RPG where I couldn't wield a lightsaber. Star Wars Galaxies initially actually was pretty good as a sandbox mmo with no force users. Plenty of go about your business in a star wars setting. Personally I think for any Star Wars MMO you pretty much have to go with no force users because otherwise you have a gazillion sith/jedi -- and that never existed in that time frame either.

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