Up to 30 jobs lost at Obsidian - report
UPDATE: New Vegas devs denied bonus over Metacritic score
Update
An Obsidian developer has revealed he was denied a bonus for Fallout: New Vegas after it missed its Metacritic target by a single point.
"FNV was a straight payment, no royalties, only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn't," tweeted Obsidian designer Chris Avellone.
The game actually achieved a Metacritic of 84.
Original story
Fallout New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment has let go a number of development staff echoing a similar move last April.
According to a tipster taking to Joystiq, those affected included staff working on the forthcoming South Park MMO for publisher THQ and a others on a potential next-gen project.
"Another project cancelled, this time for a future next-gen project and the layoffs impacted that team, plus the existing South Park team," said the source.
"Approximately 20-30 people from all disciplines, including one person who started yesterday, as well as one who started last week."
A number of staff have taken to Twitter to confirm the layoffs.
I feel sorry for Obsidian, being held to ransom by bloody Metcritic of all things! And it's a bit shit really, given that from the reviews I read a lot of the main criticism seemed to be on the technical side, and they had to work with Gamebryo despite its much-documented existing issues.
I feel that Obsidian - as well as Digital Extremes - could produce some really good games, if they were afforded creative freedom and a lot of financial backing. But, I guess after Alpha Protocol and in this safe-sequel sphere big-budget gaming generally inhabits these days, that's probably pretty unlikely.
Posted:A year ago