Obsidian Entertainment

Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 12, 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones. Although they have created original intellectual property, many of their games are sequels based on licensed properties. Early projects included 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. Other notable works from Obsidian include Fallout: New Vegas, Dungeon Siege III, and South Park: The Stick of Truth, all of which are also licensed properties. Throughout the studio's history, many projects—including Futureblight, Dwarfs, Aliens: Crucible, and Stormlands—were canceled. Due to having so many projects canceled, 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, including a sequel to Pillars of Eternity. In November 2018, it was announced that the studio had been acquired by Microsoft and become part of Microsoft Studios (now known as Xbox Game Studios). Their latest releases are the adventure survival game Grounded and RPG Pentiment. Obsidian Entertainment is currently developing Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.