Obsidian CEO: Likely Won't Make An MMO Again

In an interview with Eurogamer, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart assured fans that the company is doing just fine following the news it will no longer be developing Armored Warfare. He also made a number of interesting comments regarding MMOs, and the challenges of developing a large-scale project such as Armored Warfare.

"What we did learn is we might not tackle a game like this again. Large MMOs are really beyond the ability of an independent developer to manage unless that developer gets huge and brings in all the other aspects of the business: operations, customer service, live operations, etc.

"Those things all sound interesting, but what is more interesting to us, and to me personally, is focusing on the making of a game. When a studio begins to focus on all those other things, you are all suddenly in a lot of meetings every day that aren't to do with game development.

"So, the answer here is we love making games," he added, "but the challenge with making a large MMO is you can't [help] but get dragged away from the game-making part."

Obsidian was not known for developing MMOs; Armored Warfare was their first, and a learning experience. Urquhart's statements point to why so many studios are reluctant to invest their resources in the development and maintenance of MMOs. Obsidian is unlikely to tackle an MMO project again, at least not any time soon.

And don't worry, Pillars of Eternity 2 is likely fine, as well as the other unannounced Obsidian projects.