Well, to be an RPG maker you have to make RPGs, no?

;p

Maybe they're in need of some inspiration for producing a new Tyranny.

New Alpha Protocol on the way, built on the new Slipspace Engine.

That kind of rumors don't get out of nothing. Even if it's not true that Microsoft will get Obsidian maybe there are serious plans inside the company to sell it to some big publisher.

This was years ago. Maybe they received a generous offer? Who knows... Alliances can change quickly.

I wouldn't be that pessimistic, but everything is possible.

This actually would be great, but I'm afraid Alpha Protocol is not a powerful enough IP for Microsoft.

Good point, I guess they could pull a From Software on this one and create a "sequel" and simply give it a new name and slightly different setting to avoid legal complications. The real problem is, that companies like MS only care about profit first and foremost, not good games. Aside from making their games Xbox and MS store exclusive, they would also try to make them "mainstream compatible", so it would probably be a rather generic and shallow experience.

Anyhow, as far as I know those recent classic RPGs were quite successful, so you don't have to worry all that much. As long as there's a demand for a genre, developers will continue to make such games.

Right, it's good we have all this crowdfunding sites. The renaissance of classic RPG's began on Kickstarter. It wouldn't be possible without it. The crowdfunding campaigns showed that there's still demand for this type of games. Although the biggest boom for indie projects is gone, we can be certain that from time to time we'll see a quite loud RPG in the good old style.

i have trouble to see, what microsoft would gain from buying obsidian? do they want to get into the niche business of classic iso rpgs?

Doubt it. Their exclusives are generally optimized for their Xbox and gamepad controls, and this is a classic PC genre. If anything, they'd make them work on some dumbed down modern mainstream RPG, or an action game with RPG elements.

Tyranny is owned by Paradox from what I gather. Alpha Protocol by Sega, Pillars is the only original IP that Obsidian owns imo. And not really console friendly at that. So i wonder why would MS buy them.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is Ninja Theory, not Obsidian.

Does Obsidian have ANYTHING worth Microsoft's time?

Why do you keep mentioning Horizon Zero Dawn? Obsidian has nothing to do with it - it was developed by Guerilla Games. The studio developed the Killzone games before creating Horizon Zero Dawn, and the studio is owned by Sony.

That said, I hope Microsoft doesn't buy Obsidian. While I own both consoles, I like Obsidian doing their current style of games - and thet I can play them on my Mac.

God I hope not.
Obsidian make the best true rpg out there. I love PoE 1-2 and they are the only one that pay for italian translation of games (not the best translation but better than inxile that make fake promise and larian that wait for fans to make a translation for free).

They are the only one that I trusted for a crowdfunding (I usually only buy after the game release and everyting is ok: cross-platform support (linux), drm-free etc...).

If Microsoft buy them I will never be able to trust them again.
Microsoft is not EA of course and there are many great indie games published by Microsoft (like Cuphead if I remember right)...
But it would still be a terrible things for cross-platform support and I'm not sure we will be able to see PoE 3 and say "it's awesome" like PoE 1 and 2 are awesome.

And why Obsidian accept that? They created a great game and got a 400% crowdfunding on fig... it was a great success, I don't understand.
They should stay indie and make crowdfunding for their next game.

I did a search with Ecosia and you're right, Microsoft bought Ninja Theory. They hope games made by Ninja Theory (and 3 other studios they bought) will make their GamePass subscription service more attractive, by releasing those games on GamePass: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-08-23-why-xbox-bought-ninja-theory

So it's very likely future Ninja Theory games will be GamePass only (never heard of GamePass, but of course that's one of the reason MS wants to put more games there). What happens to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice remains to be seen. I didn't bought it last sale, as my current gpu can't run the game, but I might need to buy it anyway so I 'm rather safe than sorry. GOG's warnings something disappears from the store are a frighteningly close call often.

When in doubt, the answer is probably money. Them big ol' M$ dollars.

MS can afford to throw piles of cash left and right, and if the sum is big enough, pretty much any dev will agree to their contracts. Didn't they buy Minecraft for about a billion dollars?

... Nevermind, just looked it up: Apparently it was sold for 2.5 billion. Let that sink in for a moment.