Microsoft Purchases Obsidian and inXile

We learned early last month that Microsoft was in the process of finalizing the purchase of RPG juggernaut Obsidian, which would make them the sixth studio to join the Microsoft team since the start of the year. Microsoft didn’t respond to the news when it first came out, but there was very little doubt it was happening: and now, over the weekend, Microsoft came forward and told the world the news: they had, indeed, purchased Obsidian… as well as inXile, a studio we had no idea was on Microsoft’s menu, and the group behind The Bard's Tale, Torment: Tides of Numenera, as well as Wasteland 2 and 3.
 

 


The news, which was announced at a special Xbox-themed Livestream that seemed more than a little inspired by Nintendo’s routine press releases, was followed by the assurance that both studios would be more-or-left alone so they could make great RPGs for Microsoft and their systems – being PC and Xbox One. Which, to be fair, is probably a bigger deal for Obsidian than inXile, although both studios technically have a history of releasing games on Sony’s console.

It was also followed by Microsoft Studios Matt Booty saying that the acquisition was largely to deliver more value to owners of the Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s attempt to transition people to a subscription model for video games. If this means their old games will be made available via the Games Pass, or if future titles would wind up there, has yet to be seen… but it would be a reasonable thing to expect.

In any case. Both studios had videos explaining what this means for them, which I’ve embedded above. Hopefully, nothing but good news will come from this partnership, but it’s too early to make that call from where we’re sitting. We’ll just have to hope, as I’m so fond of saying.