Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

HISTORICAL FACTS: 3 | History Defined

RPG devs stopped making games like Baldur's Gate 'because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them', says New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer

The Infinity Engine wasn't quite so infinite, in the end.

PC Gamer

It's literally impossible to pick the 'real' murderer in Pentiment because Obsidian never considered having one: 'You're not a detective, you're a f***ing artist'

But it was obviously Ferenc.

PC Gamer

10 years ago, Obsidian made the only D&D-style Monk I've ever really loved⁠—all it took was grounding him in harsh asceticism, mortification of the flesh, Aztec history, and stoner comedies

Monks are often really lame in RPGs, but Zahua is not.

PC Gamer

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

"I want to support the sweaty boys!" — Fallout: New Vegas director says it's a "mistake" to trade RPG crunch for "super accessible" gameplay, and he's right

Obsidian Entertainment's Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says it would be a "mistake" to get rid of RPG depth and "crunch" in pursuit of approachability.

Windows Central

Obsidian director Josh Sawyer says it's a 'mistake' for RPGs to sacrifice crunchy 'sweaty boy' systems in favour of a 'one size fits all' game, since easier difficulties aren't too hard to make

"With not a whole lot of effort, but just good planning, we can support a wide spectrum of players."

PC Gamer

Despite always preferring turn-based combat in RPGs, Pillars of Eternity designer Josh Sawyer thinks a lack of experience and opportunity meant the studio couldn't pull off a similar swing to Larian taking Baldur's Gate turn-based

"I guess we did South Park, but other than that, we hadn't done turn-based ever, really."

PC Gamer

New Vegas lead Josh Sawyer thinks turn-based combat fell off in the 2000s due to a lack of 'tactical variation': Even Fallout 1 would 'get to the point where you're always doing nut shots and eye shots'

Real time with pause won the 2000s, but turn-based won the war.

PC Gamer

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Fallout New Vegas designer and noted RPG romance cynic Josh Sawyer was sold on Cyberpunk 2077's love stories: "If I were gonna base romances on anything, I'd probably do something like that"

Josh Sawyer doesn't hate romance in games, he just doesn't like when it's party based

GamesRadar

‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Could Spark A Huge Change To Another Great RPG Series

The future of the Pillars of Eternity series could look very different after the success of 'Baldur's Gate 3' according to developer Obsidian's design director.

Inverse

Avowed isn't Pillars of Eternity 3, but if the third RPG ever happens director Josh Sawyer reckons it should move to a proper 3D environment "more like Baldur’s Gate 3"

"I think that a third game should be an isometric 3D with an environment more like Baldur’s Gate 3"

GamesRadar

Josh Sawyer says a hypothetical Pillars of Eternity 3 would be 3D, just like Baldur's Gate 3, with 'environmental mechanics, elevation hazards, and dynamic terrain'

"That could be super cool."

PC Gamer

"We're in a post Baldur's Gate 3 world": Indie publisher says Larian proved players "are not stupid" and want "50 million copies" of intense CRPGs

New Blood Interactive wants Pillars of Eternity 3 now

GamesRadar

Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'

Ah, Scheiße.

PC Gamer

The Decade’s Hardest-Working RPG Creator May Borrow From Final Fantasy

Obsidian wants to make a tactical RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, which is a risky but excellent idea.

Inverse

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

PC Gamer

There's hunger at Obsidian for a Pillars of Eternity Tactics game after Avowed, says studio design director Josh Sawyer, but it doesn't sound like it'd get that Baldur's Gate 3-size budget he was fantasizing about

Look, I'll just be happy to get another isometric game even half as good as Deadfire.

GamesRadar

Josh Sawyer says there's "a lot of people" at Obsidian who want to make a Pillars of Eternity Tactics game after Avowed, but the "fanbase is not humungous"

The Fallout: New Vegas director explains the difficulty in making a Pillars Tactics

PC Gamer

Fallout: New Vegas lead writer returns to Obsidian after leaving 14 years ago, but before you ask, no, 'It's not FNV2'

John Gonzalez is back.

GamesRadar

RPG veteran Josh Sawyer finally drops screenshots of a potential Pillars of Eternity TRPG rework

Josh Sawyer teases content for a rework of the Pillars of Eternity pen-and-paper TRPG

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

PC Gamer

Obsidian vet Josh Sawyer says that while 'it's not that important' if players never finish an RPG—after all, who finishes Skyrim—'we can kind of chill out' on size

It is, after all, how you use it.

GamesRadar

RPG veteran Josh Sawyer says Skyrim is the perfect example of why it doesn't matter if players finish games because "a lot of people never finish the crit path," but "they love it"

It's "just not true" to assume someone not finishing a game means they didn't like it

GamesRadar

Fallout and RPG veteran Josh Sawyer says most players don't want games "6 times bigger than Skyrim or 8 times bigger than The Witcher 3"

Sawyer says most players, including himself, aren't "concerned with finishing games" either

PC Gamer

Pillars of Eternity director thought it had a 50/50 shot before it crowdfunded in 27 hours

They were sure it was the right call, but weren't sure it would succeed.

GamesRadar

Obsidian's Josh Sawyer thought Pillars of Eternity's Kickstarter had a 50% chance of failing, only for the RPG to be fully funded within 27 hours

"Other people at the studio were also like 'are we really not going to do this?'"

PC Gamer

Even if Avowed does well, it doesn't sound like we'll get Pillars of Eternity 3, at least not from Josh Sawyer: 'I am more interested in doing original IP'

Pillars 2 really burned him out, and Avowed is now the future of the series.

GamesRadar

Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer is "helping on Avowed," but he's "more interested in doing original IP" when he directs his next game

"We'll see where the future takes me"

1 2 3 4 5

People

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Organisations

Obsidian Entertainment

New Blood Interactive

14 stories

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Topics

Places

Fourteen days free

Download the app

One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.