Microsoft is reportedly about to acquire Obsidian Entertainment

Several months ago, immediately following on from Microsoft’s big studio acquisition reveals at E3, rumours began swirling about other potential acquisitions in the works. Rumours on this front have been a bit all over the place, but the idea of Microsoft buying Obsidian Entertainment remained persistent. Now, it looks like this is all but confirmed, with sources coming forward to say the deal is “90 percent” finished.

Obsidian Entertainment is best known for games like Knights of the Old Republic II, Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Pillars of Eternity. Since being founded in 2003, the studio has remained independent, but this has made it difficult for the company to produce much ‘Triple A’ content over the last few years. Back in 2012, Obsidian almost went bankrupt after an Xbox One exclusive game was cancelled. The company was saved by turning to CRPGs and Kickstarter funding.

Now, according to several sources speaking with Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, Microsoft will be acquiring Obsidian Entertainment. One source said the deal was ’90 percent finished’, while another added that ‘its not a question of if, but when’.

Microsoft has been on a spending spree this year in an effort to completely overhaul its first-party studio efforts. So far, Microsoft has acquired Playground Games, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games. Microsoft also formed its own high-budget studio in Santa Monica called ‘The Initiative’. With Obsidian under its wing, the studio will have solid financial backing and will be able to get back to working on bigger projects.

Currently, it is believed that Microsoft may announce this acquisition at XO2018 in November. However, buyout talks have fallen apart at the 11th hour in the past, so nothing is set in stone just yet, although it seems like both parties are committed to making this happen.

KitGuru Says: I first heard the Obsidian rumour a few months back when a ‘letter of intent’ was reportedly signed. Unfortunately with little proof at the time, there was nothing for me to report on, but that appears to have changed today. Do you guys think Obsidian will be able to thrive with Microsoft’s backing? I’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing what the studio can come up with nowadays on a higher budget.

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