I think this is a good start
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grapeocean/black-geyser-couriers-of-darkness

Already backed and about to back Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen but I was thinking more about indie devs that had previously made and continued to make western style cRPGs. Too many end up being one hit wonders if even that after many years of work.

Like Piranha Bytes. Unfortunately their latest creations have been kinda meh and that's saying it politely.

Probably you're right, but we don't know how the publisher agreements are constructed here. Maybe they are made only for a limited time or for a limited amount of sold copies? If so, anything may happen when they expire.

There's even a higher risk in this case.

Only by clueless people or marketing execs. Developers should know better, but I hear this even from developers sometimes. That was surprises me more.

Aaaaargh my eyes bleed. All "fans" of Microsoft are specifically fans of that one cat picture.

Mostly this (although my list of good RPG-likes would be somewhat different). I do think the classic number-polishing RPG (Infinity-style or otherwise) is dead as a genre in $current_year and should be buried without fanfare. 40 year old tabletop RPG mechanics are way past due, get in the way of gameplay, and smell. Actually delivering emergent unscripted mechanical choices and consequences within that framework is far beyond a typical writer's ability - no one in professional RPG design can math, especially writers.

Tyranny was good, though, despite its failure of form.

Sad news, indeed. No more DRM-free versions of their games, no more Linux versions, no more compatible to Windows 7 versions, and no more selling on GOG or even Steam.

"Exclusive" games is something that i hate. Sony does it for PS exclusive games forcing devs to not release also on PC or develop a port. MS is doing this for XBox, Win 10 and MS Store. Some others make also "exclusive" virtual items for pre-orders or "elite" expensive Editions that have impact on the game and are not merely cosmetic. I tremble each time i read something about "exclusive" in this context.

So RIP Obsidian, RIP InXile and RIP every developer consumed by the giants that want it all to offer then to you in their "exclusive" conditions (if they don't end up closing the studios, ofc)

I'm not going to turn into a loyal XBox fan, nor i am going to let Windows 10 tell me how and when to use my computer.

Very sad and just 1 thing to add, a plea for developers like Larian, or CD Projekt or any dev independent: please, don't do the same and continue making games in the same way as you did as long as you can.

"This is for the players"...yes, of course, i already know that song :P

Well, RIP Obsidian and RIP InXile

But in the horizon there are many new "classic" CRPGs to come from other new developers:

- Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
- The Waylanders
- Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen
- etc.

Un saludo.

No more crowd sourced games from either dev in the future either (so much for going that way so they could retain creative control away from publishers...)

I can't say it surprises me as the folks who own those studios are all older looking to cash out and open their breweries or what not.

I hope the devs who will be leaving those studios over the course of the next 5 years or so will think of founding their studios as Dev owned so that we can hopefully have mid size dev studios that don't just look to cash out at an opportune moment and persist beyond their founders retirement.

Whatever the case MS will get not a penny from me for their exclusives, its bad enough when its console exclusives but locking things to their store is just ugh. Hopefully the money they pour into their exclusives will result only in some very wealthy sewer rats and the whole MS game division will be washed down the drain in the deluge.

For DRM-free users this is equivalent of those studios going bust to begin with. So I don't see it as "the only bad thing". It's the bad thing.

I meant it in a way that everything else seems good for the 2 companies. Being saved from closing down, future financial security, ability to focus on games and not bills etc. If their style changes/goes to shit based on some Microsoft dictate remains to be seen and we can only speculate as of yet. If it was EA, I would have already given my condolences. Microsoft is somewhat of a wildcard.

Paradoxically, DRM is the only thing that makes me pirate games :P. If some game is available only through some DRM infested hellhole with no other option, and it is a game I really want to play/try out, I have no hard feelings about pirating it.

Not a fan of this piece of news. Brian Fargo is, and has been, my favorite dev, regardless of public opinions of the games his studios have launched. The work he did while heading Interplay, and how he helped catapult gaming into the mainstream, he should be in the gaming hall of fame.

We shall see what MS does with these companies, but I would expect all future games from both of them to be centered around the XBox game pass program, and Xbox/win 10 exclusives.

In essence, that means inclusion of DRM, because Win 10 is itself DRM. As I said, I am not a fan of this news.

Well, those companies are now out of business and finished.

MS will show off a couple of games, outright kill one of the projects and will get one game out from one of the two studios that will be available through the MS store only, it will be generic and average, won't sell enough and MS will close the studios.

Obisdian and inXile can join Lionhead and Ensemble. Neither has near the clout or financial capabilities to walk away like Epic and Bungie did.

This, pretty much. Also, after Chris Avellone's expose on Obsidian management, it was starting to become clear that a lot of talented people were already leaving, or had already left, the company.