The studio’s boss is hopeful that its next game will be nearly bug-free.
Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart says that he’s aware that his studio has a reputation for releasing bug-filled games, and that it is something that it needs to work on. So far, every game that Obsidian has released has been criticized for the number of glitches they contained, most recently – and most spectacularly in many cases – Fallout: New Vegas.
Urquhart felt that his company’s reputation as a “buggy” developer was fair, and said that while he was proud of what Obsidian had accomplished with New Vegas, he wished that it hadn’t been so glitchy when it came out. Just like designer Chris Avellone, he blamed the scale of New Vegas was the reason that so many bugs went unfixed before release, but said that excuses didn’t matter when someone had paid $60 for the game. He was a little put out, however, that bugs were what Obsidian was best known for, saying that people often praised its games in the same breath as it complained about the bugs.
He said that Obsidian was working very hard to ensure that its next game – Dungeon Siege 3 – wasn’t a repeat performance. “We’ve been playing and playing and playing and playing to ensure it’s of a high standard,” he said. “On top of this, this is the first time we’ve got to use our own technology on something, which means we know where to find the bad bugs from the start!”
Urquhart does have a point: Obsidian does tend to make good games, once the bugs are ironed out. Whether than fact really makes up for the catalogue of problems in games like New Vegas, however, is a matter of personal preference and patience.
Source: Now Gamer
Published: May 10, 2011 01:22 pm