Obsidian Entertainment has been having financial issues for a while, but the company never went bankrupt. Now, that threat might prove to be further away if the rumours of Microsoft obtaining the developer studio turn out to be true.
Microsoft seems to be ready to throw down major buck in order to catch up with platform exclusives from Sony. Considering the massive success God of War and Spiderman for PS4, it is high time Microsoft stepped their game up. They seem to have been working on it behind the scenes as they are reportedly working on acquiring Obsidian Entertainment, who are famous for many classics in recent gaming history, but also suffered with financial issues over the years.
According to Kotaku's Jason Schreier, one of his sources that the acquisition is about 90 per cent complete, but neither Obsidian nor Microsoft are willing to officially confirm it yet. Another source "with knowledge of the deal", confirmed the story stating that "it's a matter of when, not if".
Obsidian has been independent for over 15 years now, but the talks of the acquisition have been intensifying over the past few months. Then again, several financial issues probably forced them into this decision, as they nearly collapsed due to a that Obsidian worked on with Microsoft.
A shift in leadership has occurred in Microsoft since then and the new strategy seems to focus on future exclusives, as the company has already announced acquisition of several studios during E3 2018. Acquiring Obsidian would be another huge step towards that goal, so it would be a win-win for both parties, at least short term.
Obsidian Entertainment
Financial issues have been even more evident ever since Pillars of Eternity's development started, as the company was forced to turn to crowdfunding on Kickstarter in order to get the assets for making the game come true. As we all know, it turned out to be a great success, just like its sequel did, but it remains to be seen whether being under Microsoft will prove to be a boon due to financial stability or a curse due to potential deadlines.
