Obsidian reveals: “Publishers are more interested in RPGs now”

In a talk at Rezzed 2013, Obsidian Entertainment’s Creative Director Chris Avellone revealed that thanks to Project Eternity breaking Kickstarter records, certain publishers have since approached Obsidian regarding old-school RPGs.

“These Kickstarters for RPGs have been really successful, they have garnered more backer support and more funding than many had thought, and we have noticed that publishers have paid attention to that and they are aware of the success these projects have had.”

“We have actually had companies reach out to us and go ‘you know what, for that price point, which is a much smaller risk than a lot of our AAA titles where there’s a lot more at stake, that’s much less risk for us and we wouldn’t mind exploring the idea of doing old-school RPGs that are set up like this’. That totally floors me, I did not realise there would be that sort of sea change from publishers, but apparently there are a number of publishers that realise that doing an Eternity-style game is a good fit for them, and I am thankful for that.”

Originally, Kickstarter was Obsidian’s alternative to going through major publishers, as they thought most publishers wouldn’t be interested in what was before seen as a very niche audience.

Hopefully this means the RPG audience in the West shall finally receive regular old-school titles, which often tend to be few and far between.

Source.