video game development founded 2003 ; 13 years ago 2003 founders feargus urquhart chris parker chris avellone darren monahan chris jones headquarters irvine california united states 1 products video games interactive entertainment website www.obsidian.net obsidian entertainment inc. is an american video game developer whose corporate headquarters is located in irvine california . it was founded in 2003 by ex black isle employees feargus urquhart chris avellone chris parker darren monahan and chris jones after the closure of black isle studios . although they have created original intellectual property many of their games are sequels based on licensed properties . early projects include star wars knights of the old republic ii the sith lords and neverwinter nights 2 both sequels to bioware developed games . the team then developed their first original game alpha protocol in 2010 . it was met with generally mixed reviews . other notable works from obsidian include fallout new vegas dungeon siege iii and south park the stick of truth all also licensed properties . throughout the studio s history many projects including futureblight dwarves aliens crucible and stormlands were cancelled . due to having so many projects cancelled the company entered a severe financial crisis in 2012 . as a result obsidian decided to crowdfund their next game pillars of eternity a role playing game played from an isometric perspective which ultimately became a success and saved the studio from closure . the team s focus then changed from developing licensed titles to creating original games based on the studio s own intellectual property . obsidian has developed a close relationship with another studio that was founded by ex interplay entertainment employees inxile entertainment . the company is currently working on tyranny a role playing game set in a world where the war between good and evil has been fought with evil coming out on top and armored warfare a massively multiplayer online game with a focus on controlling tanks . contents 1 history 1.1 2003 founding 1.2 late 2003 08 the sith lords and neverwinter nights 2 1.3 2009 11 alpha protocol fallout new vegas and dungeon siege iii 1.4 2012 15 the stick of truth financial troubles and pillars of eternity 1.5 2016 tyranny armored warfare and pathfinder 2 games 3 philosophy 4 notes 5 references 6 external links history edit chris avellone top and feargus urquhart bottom are two of the five founders of the company . 2003 founding edit obsidian entertainment was founded by feargus urquhart chris avellone chris parker darren monahan and chris jones . prior to the establishment of obsidian they worked for interplay entertainment s subsidiary black isle studios . at black isle they created several role playing games including icewind dale planescape torment and fallout 2 and collaborated with bioware on neverwinter nights baldur s gate and baldur s gate ii . most of these games were critically and commercially successful but interplay s financial situation was poor and the studio lost its license to produce dungeons & dragons based games . a 2 this led to the cancellation of baldur s gate iii the black hound . 3 urquhart and most of the staff members were dissatisfied and frustrated with the cancellation as the game had already been under development for a year and a half . urquhart became convinced that staying in black isle was no longer a viable option for the team and decided to leave the company . he was in his early thirties at the time and thought that if he did not start a new company soon he may become too old to do so . 4 urquhart officially left interplay in 2003 with avellone parker monahan and jones and founded obsidian entertainment with them the same year . 5 at the time of the company s establishment there were seven employees including the company s five founders . parker urquhart and monahan invested 100 000 to 125 000 into their newly founded company . 2 when choosing the name of the company they had prepared a short list of names for them to choose . the list included scorched earth and three clown software . the team eventually chose obsidian entertainment which they thought was strong memorable and felt similar to name of their old studio black isle . 6 upon its establishment the studio needed more capital in order to keep its operation running and thus needed to gain support from publishers . they approached electronic arts but it did not result in a project . the studio also contacted ubisoft looking to make a might & magic game but ubisoft instead ended up contracting with arkane studios on that project which became dark messiah of might & magic . obsidian pitched a game to take two interactive called futureblight which was described as a fallout style game powered by the neverwinter nights engine . similar to the ea and ubisoft projects futureblight was never made . 4 late 2003 08 the sith lords and neverwinter nights 2 edit towards the end of 2003 the team was contacted by lucasarts president simon jeffrey who requested that obsidian make an action role playing game set in the star wars universe . the team suggested a game concept which featured first person lightsaber melee combat and that included established characters like r2 d2 . their idea was rejected and jeffrey instead asked obsidian to create a follow up to the bioware developed star wars knights of the old republic as the team at obsidian was familiar with the technology that the original game used . 4 the partnership between the two companies finalized in late 2003 and development of the game which became star wars knights of the old republic ii the sith lords began in october 2003 . 7 obsidian was given 15 months to develop the sith lords . originally set for a holiday 2004 release lucasarts gave the studio an extension into 2005 before shifting the release date back to holiday 2004 following the electronic entertainment expo . 7 while lucasarts did dispatch members of its own staff to help get the game out on time 8 a number of features wound up being cut due to time constraints . due to the moved deadline obsidian also did not have enough time to polish the game and the sith lords suffered from crashes and other technical issues . 4 9 despite its issues the sith lords was released to positive critical reception . 4 the cut features were eventually restored by modders who began their effort in 2009 and finished in 2012 . 10 from the beginning the studio s goal was to be able develop multiple projects simultaneously and the decision led the company to expand very quickly . 2 soon after the development of the sith lords began the team expanded to 20 employees . as of july 2004 it had expanded to 27 with 18 from black isle and others from blizzard entertainment electronic arts taldren totally games treyarch and troika . 11 prior to the launch of the sith lords obsidian was approached by atari . atari acquired the license to produce dungeons & dragons based games and wanted obsidian to create a sequel to neverwinter nights which became neverwinter nights 2 . development of the game began in july 2005 with team of ten people . 10 12 13 the development of the game was headed by monahan and avellone . obsidian became the game s lead developer while neverwinter nights creator bioware provided technical assistance . 14 while they were developing the game the team s size grew to about 50 people . 2 the team were given sufficient time for the game s development and atari was willing to delay the project s targeted release window from christmas 2005 to october 31 2006 . 12 neverwinter nights 2 received a generally positive critical reception . 15 two expansions mask of the betrayer and storm of zehir were released in 2007 and 2008 . 16 17 during neverwinter nights 2 s development the team approached other publishers to work on additional projects . disney interactive studios commissioned obsidian to develop a prequel to snow white and the seven dwarves called dwarves which was set to be a third person action game for the playstation 3 and xbox 360 . 18 the team developed a prototype and was a year into development when the ceo of disney was replaced . the change of ceo led disney to head in a completely different direction which made the snow white franchise untouchable and resulted in the cancellation of the project . 19 according to urquhart the team loved the game and its cancellation was a heartbreaking experience for them . 4 2009 11 alpha protocol fallout new vegas and dungeon siege iii edit with the development of neverwinter nights ii coming to an end obsidian was contacted by three different publishers . electronic arts wanted obsidian to develop a role playing game to compete with the elder scrolls iv oblivion and another publisher was also interested in having obsidian develop a fantasy rpg . 4 the third publisher was sega who wanted the studio to develop an action role playing game set within the alien franchise . the game titled aliens crucible was to feature base building dialogue choices and character customization . 18 20 in february 2009 obsidian sent a prototype to sega . sega decided to cancel the game three weeks later without inspecting the demo . 4 the cancellation was officially confirmed in june of that year . 21 at around the same time atari again approached obsidian this time to revive baldur s gate iii . 22 obsidian requested a large budget which atari could not afford and the deal between the two companies fell apart when atari europe was sold to namco bandai games . 23 despite the cancellation of aliens crucible sega was still interested in working with obsidian to develop another project . instead of developing a sequel they were asked to develop a role playing game based on a new intellectual property . the team came up with an idea of a spy rpg . 24 sega approved the idea and decided to help with the game s funding and serve as its publisher . the game would go on to become alpha protocol . the game s development was troubled ; the team did not have a precise vision for alpha protocol and struggled to settle on what gameplay elements to include and what the target audience should be . as a result it suffered from an identity crisis and featured elements from multiple genres . 25 sega for its part was also unable to make decisions quickly and the publisher cut features from the game after their completion . this resulted in numerous delays and excessively long production time ; alpha protocol took four years to develop . it was finally released in june 2010 . 4 their first original game alpha protocol received mostly mixed reviews from critics . it was also a commercial failure for sega which led to their decision to put any plans for a sequel on hold . 26 after the game s launch urquhart admitted that there was still room for improvements . 27 even though the game was a commercial failure it was well received by the community which has often demanded that obsidian make a sequel . urquhart responded by saying that the team hoped that they can develop alpha protocol 2 and do better with it . 28 avellone later added that they were unable to develop a sequel because the rights to the game were owned by sega and crowdfunding would not be a suitable option . 29 on february 11 2010 red eagle games and obsidian announced that they would co develop one or more games based on the wheel of time fantasy novel