The Expanse: Osiris Reborn - Announced

[HiddenX]

Owlcat Games announced the action RPG The Expanse: Osiris Reborn:

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Announcement Trailer

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a third-person Action RPG set in The Expanse universe. You’re no hero — just a merc caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to hold your crew together and keep the ship up and running. Your choices will shape your story.

Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[forgottenlor]

Well the trailer was well made and hooked me in. Count me as interested.

 

[rjshae]

It looks pretty good; quite the change from their previous fare. I'm glad to hear they aren't just going to re-create the original story.

 

[ChaosTheory]

While I kind of enjoyed the show, it seems like it would be a pretty boring setting for a game. Cyberpunk has better tech and it isn't even in space.

 

[screeg]

No matter how many times I apply those &^*$ at Owlcat just won't hire me!

 

[Darkheart]

Looks promising and was quite the surprise from Owlcat. The hard-scifi gravity stuff could be cool... or super annoying in a game. I will have to see.

 

[Andrew23]

This looks good. And while Im interested to play it (if its good), Im also afraid they will depart from cRPG genre for good. But well, thats life I suppose ...

 

[Morrandir]

Perhaps they're now big enough to do both?

 

[bjon045]

Perhaps they're now big enough to do both?

Yes, but it rarely works out that way, historically at least. When you make a title that sells 5-10 million copies and the other sells 1-3 million then the suits quickly get it in their head that they would rather just make 2 of the former. The reality is that the action games will always be more popular than more complex games with a difficult control scheme and a high learning curve - I am mostly talking about consoles here of course. I can't even imagine how painful it must have been navigating through all those menus in WotR using a gamepad for 200-300 hours!!

But who knows? Owlcat do seem to have a formula that they like. At least for now.

 

[Stingray]

Yes, but it rarely works out that way, historically at least. When you make a title that sells 5-10 million copies and the other sells 1-3 million then the suits quickly get it in their head that they would rather just make 2 of the former.

Yeah, exactly. Obviously Owlcat would be far from the first company to "bootstrap" itself by appealing mostly to CRPG audiences, then switching over to higher-revenue mass-appeal action games later on once the company is big and known. Multiple companies discussed here regularly have done that.

I think they're hoping they can raise the sales numbers of their old-school CRPG line. For example, they said Dark Heresy will be fully voiced. BG3 proved that a complicated'ish turn-based game, with high enough production values, can still outsell dumb action games, so I'm sure they're trying to get a piece of that.

 

[Dolby]

half of the skills - passives and abilities wont work at launch lol

 

[gabrielarantest]

BG3 proved that a complicated'ish turn-based game, with high enough production values, can still outsell dumb action games, so I'm sure they're trying to get a piece of that.

That's my hope for the future.

The Owlcat Community Liaison specifically said this on Reddit:

We're not planning to quit. We've got tons of experience and expertise in the genre, and there are plans for further CRPGs down the line for the nearest years.

So maybe we have nothing to worry about. But yeah, of course they would say something like that.

 

[Farflame]

Obviously Owlcat would be far from the first company to "bootstrap" itself by appealing mostly to CRPG audiences, then switching over to higher-revenue mass-appeal action games later on once the company is big and known. Multiple companies discussed here regularly have done that.

When you make a title that sells 5-10 million copies and the other sells 1-3 million then the suits quickly get it in their head that they would rather just make 2 of the former. The reality is that the action games will always be more popular than more complex games

I see your concerns, but it also depends how the studio is structured and if the team still has passion to do some dream projects. For example, Expanse was pitched by a group of friends in the studio and studio leads liked that. So they refined the pitch and now they are making it. Its not common thing. Owlcat are hardcore fans of different IPs so they often work on their passion projects.
The companies that you talk about were usually in different situation - they were bought by some publisher (Bioware -> EA, Inxile -> MS), or they were too big and needed more profitable projects, or gets big investments and new managers who pushed for more action - which often means that original creative ppl leave (CDP). I dont think that Obsidian will return to CRPGs. From the bigger teams it seems that only Larian under Swen is doing well and Owlcat too. The other CRPG teams are much smaller if I dont forget about someone.

 

[JDR13]

half of the skills - passives and abilities wont work at launch lol

So, like 5 of them?