Xbox Game Pass has changed the metric of success, says Obsidian boss

Love Obsidian and I'd love a new Alpha Protocol game.

Love their games and can't wait for OW2 and Avowed especially.
That said, the shift of metric to hours played is slightly concerning if it means they go the Ubisoft route and make content for content's sake

Forgot they were making Avowed...nice!

They are currently the best performing Xbox studio. Grounded was a hit, Pentiment a lovely indie game, and I very much enjoyed The Outer Worlds before that. Please keep working on Grounded, and bring us new original smaller projects as well!

"as a successful game is judged by how many millions of hours players have played the game"

Whoops. I don't contribute a lot of time to GP games.

Not owning them outright means I usually don't go further than the first achievement.

Someone mentioned GP ruined AAA games as they are cookie cutter now, I can't reply to it on FB, but my response to that is:

GTA, Far Cry, Assassins Creed, Halo.... you catch my drift.

Spirochaete said:Mind if I ask why? I've played probably a hundred games I wouldn't have otherwise played thanks to GP. Granted I don't download EVERY game, just those that look fun.

FalconRedux said:This indeed loved that game

Interesting discussion as to what a successful game is. In the past with traditional game distribution channels like physical retail or a digital store the game with the highest marketing costs and the highest number of sold units was the most successful. Now with free-to-play and game subscriptions games can be successful by being interesting and holding the players' attention.

Maybe that explains why so many GP games from Xbox studios ending up having super grindy achievements?

As a creator, your metric of success would obviously be how much your content has been enjoyed. We only measure it differently because of capitalism and greed, where it's just about how much money you rake in.

Game Pass is one of the few ways in which there's at least an attempt to comprise between these two ideas.

More importantly for me is that Obsidian have that freedom from MS. Studios that have high integration in to MS (343i, Coalition, Initiative) have suffered a lot compared to the studios that were at least a few degrees separated from them (Bungie, Epic).

Anti-EA is a solid business model; as an eternal achievement whore, very glad Xbox seems to be playing the long game, investing in consumer trust/a "good guy" persona to drive sustainable profits.

Since GP, a serious lack of Forzas. There could have been something if it was that easy to do to make games, even a mini game like Forza Street, instead of having no FM now for over a year in GP or to buy.

"Something for everyone" always scares me.

Leo Ascendent said:I was just saying, Game Pass has ignited my love for unique indie experiences!
I hate when people say 'ew bad graphics' or 'ew boring game'. Just because it isn't for you, doesn't mean it's bad game.
Also, with well made games that are a ton of fun (and fun is subjective), graphics don't matter too much. I've played enough games with incredible graphics that didn't do anything for me. I think people that say "why do they still make boring games like this" don't understand gaming culture at all, or they're just kids.

Spirochaete said:So you just start a bunch of GP games and leave them with one achievement unlocked? Seems odd lol.

Spirochaete said:Just curious but what’s the reason for starting so many games but not playing most of them ? I’ve seen a lot of people with thousands of games started but never understand what’s the reason ;,)

Leo Ascendent said:What since when was Xbox responsible for gta assassins creed and far cry they have they’re own devs hear forspoken is terrible and grand turismo is at its worst

JHSX231 said:I never said they were?

Its great to see Obsidian still kicking and better than ever it seems. I really look forward to seeing what they do now that they have all that Xbox money.