Opinion - Microsoft Should Fund Pillars of Eternity 3

[Couchpotato]

True Legends of the Sword Coast ended up being s huge dissapointment. It was hyped as the first CRPG in decades from WoTc after they went the MMO route.

Even had some well known developer's as well.

Also yeah BG 3 has earned the top spot in the 2023 vote. Followed by Starfield. The third spot will be a hard choice given all the smaller RPGs released this year as well.

 

[Greygore]

I would love a new Pillars or Tyranny for that matter. Either would be a day one purchase for me (As long as it's not released before I've had time to finish BG3)

 

[Vaelith]

True Legends of the Sword Coast ended up being s huge dissapointment. It was hyped as the first CRPG in decades from WoTc after they went the MMO route.

Even had some well known developer's as well.

Also yeah BG 3 has earned the top spot in the 2023 vote. Followed by Starfield. The third spot will be a hard choice given all the smaller RPGs released this year as well.

I won't participate in the voting because I find it to be a waste of time and a pointless exercise on a site like this, but that sounds like a sensible top 3.

 

[JDR13]

By stating D&D is average, are you implying Pillar's is above average? Or just different and somehow different = better? I feel sure different can still = worse?

Planescape Torment is D&D, so surely it's average by your standards?

Pillars had dragons and "all that shit".

As such, I'm not sure what your point here is.

He said the system not the games. I'm not sure why you're equating them to mean the same thing. A game can be based on an average system and still be above average because of other aspects. For example, most people would say PS:T was great because of the writing and characters.

 

[lackblogger]

He said the system not the games. I'm not sure why you're equating them to mean the same thing. A game can be based on an average system and still be above average because of other aspects. For example, most people would say PS:T was great because of the writing and characters.

Writing and characters inspired by D&D.

And yes, they mentioned systems, but then went on about dragons "and all that shit" being the actual thing that was 'boring', hence the confusion, because dragons and "all that shit" has nothing to do with systems.

Would PST have been just as 'good' a game with a different system? We don't know, but we do know it was D&D, through and through.

Saying D&D is 'average' as a system is about as pointlessly subjective and reductive as you can get. Especially if you actually care about writing and characters so much above systems. You don't need any system at all just to crate words and characters.

I mean, if we actually want to discuss the topic that was risen here as a discussion point, then, by all means, let's have some actual reasons why D&D is 'average', or shall we all just sit here and bow down to someone who "has probably played more D&D than anyone here" (LOL) as if their word is somehow the infallible truth?

I think the PoE setting is better than, say, Dragon Age, which has almost no creative inspiration not borrowed from other sources. They did try to do something a bit different with 2, and it sold like crap.

Because it was crap. And, no, the setting wasn't 'something different'. Or no different to anything else that's slightly different to something else [basically everything].

 

[lackblogger]

I won't participate in the voting because I find it to be a waste of time and a pointless exercise on a site like this, but that sounds like a sensible top 3.

Insults. Gotta love the relentless insults.

 

[bjon045]

I think if Avowed is very successful then it could be a possibility. I am unconvinced Avowed will be a big success yet though as I think it will need universally great reviews.

 

[JDR13]

I think if Avowed is very successful then it could be a possibility. I am unconvinced Avowed will be a big success yet though as I think it will need universally great reviews.

I think Avowed being a big success only increases the likelihood of an Avowed 2. It's not going to convince Microsoft to fund an isometric party-based game.

 

[Stingray]

I can't think of a single decently budgeted cRPG that I'd consider to be a failure.

Bard's Tale IV was legit bad. Only thing that comes to mind from recent years.

 

[Carnifex]

Oh I dunno about that, unless you are straight up going to compare the fourth game to any of the first three. Taken by itself I thought it wasn't bad for recent releases yet yeah, if you're going to rank it against the original three, it would fail spectacularly. I love em all, yet I'd rank the fourth far behind any of the first three.

 

[Stingray]

I think it's bad even just taken by itself. I know the mainstream reviewer scores aren't completely terrible, but I think by the standards of traditional CRPG'ers, it was pretty garbage. The RPGWatch review of it (from forgottenlor) was probably one of the most negative RPGWatch reviews ever posted, if not the most negative.

 

[JDR13]

I could name quite a few decently budgeted crpgs that are bad, but then it'll only restart the debate about what qualifies as a crpg...

 

[Pessimeister]

To contrast the naysayers, I'd just like to say that I really enjoyed Pillars of Eternity a lot and finished it on Path of the Damned over multiple playthroughs which I completed. I posted most of my impressions here at the 'Watch as I was playing and wrote a mini review. The game was legitimately fun to plan parties for and has some fantastic memorable encounters. It's a pity that content was front end loaded somewhat as many players ran out of steam by the time they got to Twin Elms. The White March expansion was excellent; quite possibly my favorite DLC for both Pillars games.

As far as PoE III goes though, I'm skeptical as I feel as if that particular generation and chapter of Obsidian game design appears somewhat in the past now that they're owned by Microsoft. I also can't see it happening after the failures of the sequel financially. If it were to happen in the light of BG3's success, I certainly hope that they don't take the worst mainstream aspects of that game and corrupt it with modern nonsense. I'd love to be surprised however and if Microsoft would fund a genuine sequel true to the original games I'd definitely support it.

 

[bjon045]

I would be one of the biggest BT1-3 fans in existance and I quite enjoyed BT4. I thought it did a great job of modernising the formula. Having said that there were plenty of ways it could of been improved.

 

[bjon045]

I also can't see it happening after the failures of the sequel financially.

Where are you getting this from? You are the second person who has said this in the thread. As of last year it has made a tiny profit! I would have made a higher return if I had of just put the into a safe investment like a bank deposit though!!!!!

 

[Drithius]

Josh has stated that Pillars 2 did pretty poorly initially, but became profitable later on.

...after I shipped dead fire, I was pretty burned out. [...] Initially it sold very poorly. It reviewed very well, but it sold very poorly. And I was really burned out about it. Over time, it actually sold quite well. And it is it is it is very profitable.

Playing devil's advocate, it's pretty hard NOT to be profitable given the fact that both titles received fairly substantial crowdsourcing from Kickstarter and Fig.

In any case, if this site is to be believed, the first game has sold nearly 3x as many copies as Deadfire. Although the sequel has better combat mechanics, a lot of people simply got turned off entirely by the first's metric fuckton of bugs on release. Latecomers to the series may not experience these now thankfully patched bugs but the ship combat and piecemeal island exploration is starkly different from the more typical overland exploration of the first.

 

[Redglyph]

In any case, if this site is to be believed

I'm very wary of those guessing websites. This one claims GTA V sold 25 million units (instead of 185 million), for example

 

[Pessimeister]

Where are you getting this from? You are the second person who has said this in the thread. As of last year it has made a tiny profit! I would have made a higher return if I had of just put the into a safe investment like a bank deposit though!!!!!

Yeah I think Drithius pretty much said what I would have said - I thought it was relatively well known that the game didn't do so well early on. I'd also qualify my statement with the logical argument that if it had sold exceedingly well early, we'd potentially already be playing PoE 3 not just talking about it in theory. Also, we'll have to agree to disagree on BT4 as that was a major disappointment to me.

 

[Arkadia7]

Meh, I doubt it would sell. I thought the first game was kinda boring, to be honest. Granted - I didn't play it that long, but it didn't grab me. The RPG system in Pillars of Eternity WAS strange too, so I felt that was a valid complaint many were making about it. That J Sawyer guy was way too much obsessed by his ideas (which seemed to border on fanatical at times, I was active in that developer's forums at the time) about "balance" in a game. I would much prefer a new game set in the Pathfinder universe, Obsidian could do that game well, I feel.

 

[bjon045]

I would much prefer a new game set in the Pathfinder universe, Obsidian could do that game well, I feel.

Yep. It would be good if they stuck to the AP and didn't expand the story too much like what Owlcat does (and bloating the playtime). A 50-60 hour adventure of high quality would be enough for me and would cost significantly less to make.