History Creator / ObsidianEntertainment

** When developing ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords'', {{LucasArts}} told them that they were going to delay the delay the release until a bit into 2005. Obsidian decided to use the extra time to expand on the game, before [=LucasArts=] suddenly decided to revert back to the original Christmas 2004 release date. Since the delay at this point had been a spoken agreement and not a signed contract yet, Obisidian had no choice but to rush the game out of the gate, meaning that several quests and mechanics, including much of the ending sequence, were left incomplete or broken. And when Obsidian offered to put out a free patch fixing most of these issues, [=LucasArts=] denied them permission to do it, leaving the fans to try and pick up the pieces with mods. The point may have been academic; the game sold most of its copies on the XBox, and wasn't enabled for Xbox Live, meaning it couldn't be patched.

One thing to note about Obsidian is their business model. Obsidian is hired by publishers for fixed amounts of money, rather than being an internal studio or making a game then looking for a publisher to publish it. This results in Obsidian not bearing the financial cost or gain of the failure/success of any game they make beyond reputation or future deals. This mercenary model is responsible for their buggy reputation, as the release schedule or budget is not as negotiable once the deal is made. Also note that quality assurance is often performed by the publisher, rather than an independent developer such as Obsidian. This came back to bite them in the ass with ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''; their contract with {{Creator/Bethesda}} specified a tiered bonus based upon the game's Metacritic score. They missed the bonus by ''one point'', which a more polished game almost certainly would have picked up. They have since decided to get serious about QA work; in [[http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knights-of-new-vegas-how-obsidian-survived-countless-catastrophes-and-made-some-of-the-coolest-role+playing-games-ever an interview with Kotaku,]] CEO Feargus Urquhart said, "We as a company got into a big room and we said, 'We are not gonna make buggy games anymore.'"

* ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}} 2'' (in co-operation with [=InXile=] Entertainment)

In the year 2003, following long-standing disagreements with Creator/BlackIsleStudios (''VideoGame/IcewindDale'', ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''), its parent company Interplay laid off most of its staff. Most of the former Black Isle developers, including its founder Feargus Urquhart and writer/designer Creator/ChrisAvellone, moved on to found a new game development company: '''Obsidian Entertainment'''.

!!Games developed by Black Isle:

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' (1998)
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' (1999)
* ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' (2000)
** ''Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter'' (2001)
** ''Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter -- Trials of the Luremaster'' (2001)
* ''Icewind Dale II'' (2002)
* ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGateDarkAlliance Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II]]'' (2004)

!!Games developed by Obsidian:

In the year 2003, following long-standing disagreements with '''Black Isle Studios''' (''IcewindDale, VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}, PlanescapeTorment''), its parent company Interplay laid off most of its staff. Most of the former Black Isle developers, including its founder Feargus Urquhart and writer/designer Creator/ChrisAvellone, moved on to found a new game development company: '''Obsidian Entertainment'''.

One thing to note about Obsidian is their business model. Obsidian is hired by publishers for fixed amounts of money, rather than being an internal studio or making a game then looking for a publisher to publish it. This results in Obsidian not bearing the financial cost or gain of the failure/success of any game they make beyond reputation or future deals. This mercenary model is responsible for their buggy reputation, as the release schedule or budget is not as negotiable once the deal is made. This came back to bite them in the ass with ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''; their contract with {{Creator/Bethesda}} specified a tiered bonus based upon the game's Metacritic score. They missed the bonus by ''one point'', which a more polished game almost certainly would have picked up. They have since decided to get serious about QA work; in [[http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knights-of-new-vegas-how-obsidian-survived-countless-catastrophes-and-made-some-of-the-coolest-role+playing-games-ever an interview with Kotaku,]] CEO Feargus Urquhart said, "We as a company got into a big room and we said, 'We are not gonna make buggy games anymore.'"

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The entire management team of [[MegaCorp Czerka Corporation]], Leland in ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', and Mr. House in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Pretty much all their games lean towards or are knee-deep in the latter.

** When developing ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords'', {{LucasArts}} told them that they were going to delay the delay the release until a bit into 2005. Obsidian decided to use the extra time to expand on the game, before [=LucasArts=] suddenly decided to revert back to the original Christmas 2004 release date. Since the delay at this point a spoken agreement and not a signed contract yet, Obisidian had no choice but to rush the game out of the gate, meaning that several quests and mechanics, including much of the ending sequence, were left incomplete or broken. And when Obsidian offered to put out a free patch fixing most of these issues, [=LucasArts=] denied them permission to do it, leaving the fans to try and pick up the pieces with mods. The point may have been academic; the game sold most of its copies on the XBox, and wasn't enabled for Xbox Live, meaning it couldn't be patched.

* DarkerAndGrittier: Most of their games (except perhaps ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' as it isn't a sequel to anything but still plays SpyFiction as pretty dark and gritty martini.) can be considered this. This is most notable in ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights Of The Old Republic II]]'', which is not only much darker and grittier than its predecessor but also than the majority of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse (and that's saying something). One possible exception that is a sequel is ''Storm of Zehir'', which is essentially a LighterAndFluffier version of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''.

* DarkerAndGrittier: Most of their games (except perhaps ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' as it isn't a sequel to anything) can be considered this. This is most notable in ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights Of The Old Republic II]]'', which is not only much darker and grittier than its predecessor but also than the majority of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse (and that's saying something). One possible exception that is a sequel is ''Storm of Zehir'', which is essentially a LighterAndFluffier version of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''.

* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol''
* ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege 3''
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''
* ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords]]''
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''
** ''Mask of the Betrayer''
** ''Storm of Zehir''

* BlackHumor: The jewel in their crown is either ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Torment'' or ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas''.

** ''Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter--Trials of the Luremaster'' (2001)

!!List of tropes persistent in Black Isle / Obsidian {{RPG}}s:
* AntiVillain: Many of their villains, though not all of them, are portrayed sympathetically even as its clearly laid out why they must be stopped. This includes [[spoiler:Kreia]] from ''[[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights Of The Old Republic II]]'', [[spoiler:Ammon Jerro]] in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', [[spoiler:Akachi]] (posthumously) in ''Mask of the Betrayer'', and Benny in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.

* TheArtifact: The "influence" system used in most of their games was [[spoiler:part of the Exile's special bonding ability]] in The Sith Lords. The system still works without the story connection though.
* BlackHumor

* GrayAndGreyMorality: The exact grayness of a particular game's morality is variable, but generally Obsidian stays pretty close to this trope. Villains will usually have sympathetic or at least understandable motives and goals, heroes are frequently ruthless or given to vices or pettiness, and moral choices are sometimes pretty ambiguous. There are usually a few exceptions that are clear VideoGame/BlackAndWhite morality within a game, but the tone as a whole is this.

* HideYourGays: Obsidian has been accused of this due to the lack of homosexuality in the majority of their titles (though they have a low number of ''heterosexual'' options as well, due to their dislike of RomanceSidequest). However, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope completely, as it allows player characters to be homosexual or bisexual via specific perks. Similarly, a male StraightGay doctor and a LipstickLesbian Brotherhood Scribe are available as party members, but their sexual orientations are only revealed in certain dialogue options. It is also worth noticing that the prostitutes in New Vegas services both sexes equally.

* KarmaMeter: Present in every Obsidan game except for ''AlphaProtocol'' but it's actually very rarely used in a way that matters. Instead, Obsidian seems to much prefer the various variations of its "influence" meter, a mechanic that is omnipresent in their games and [[TropeCodifier codified]] by them and which often fulfills a similar purpose story-wise that the KarmaMeter does in other [=RPGs=].

* OptionalSexualEncounter: Notable in that ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', the only Obsidian RPG besides ''Storm of Zehir'' to not have a romance, plays this trope straightest.

** Despite all that, Sawyer and ChrisAvellone also said a romance was planned for New Vegas involving Cass where she and the Courier would get hammered and wake up in Vegas married by The King, but it was scrapped due to time.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: If you have a party in an Obsidian, they are ''very'' unlikely to get along. Not in a harmless, sibling-ish bickering way, either. They will genuinely ''despise'' each other - manipulating, tormenting, injuring, and ''murdering'' rivals if they can get away with it.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork

* RomanceSidequest: Present in most Obsidian games but the company as a whole appears uncomfortable with this trope and outright avert it in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. JESawyer (lead designer of said game) in particular has been quoted as having a rather derisive opinion of the subject.
** That said, Sawyer and ChrisAvellone also said a romance was planned for New Vegas involving Cass where she and the Courier would get hammered and wake up in Vegas married by The King, but was scrapped due to time.

One thing to note about Obsidian is their business model. Obsidian is hired by publishers for fixed amounts of money, rather than being an internal studio or making a game then looking for a publisher to publish it. This results in Obsidian not bearing the financial cost or gain of the failure/success of any game they make beyond reputation or future deals. This mercenary model is responsible for their buggy reputation, as the release schedule or budget is not as negotiable once the deal is made. This came back to bite them in the ass with ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''; their contract with {{Creator/Bethesda}} specified a tiered bonus based upon the game's Metacritic score. They missed the bonus by ''one point'', which a more polished game almost certainly would have picked up.

Recently, they've greenlit a Kickstarted project that will be free of ExecutiveMeddling. Needless to say, fans were rather pleased.

* ''Franchise/StarWars: [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords]]''

In the year 2003, following long-standing disagreements with '''Black Isle Studios''' (''IcewindDale, VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}, PlanescapeTorment''), its parent company {{Creator/Interplay}} laid off most of its staff. Most of the former Black Isle developers, including its founder Feargus Urquhart and writer/designer Creator/ChrisAvellone, moved on to found a new game development company: '''Obsidian Entertainment'''.

Since then, Obsidian has formed strangely fond relations with fellow RPG company {{Creator/BioWare}}, to the point that its first two titles were sequels to [=BioWare=] games using modified versions of the originals' Aurora engine. This happened because by that point [=BioWare=] switched from producing licensed games based on established franchises (''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' and ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'') to their own original universes, and in case of ''KOTOR'', recommended Obsidian to Creator/LucasArts as an alternate developer for the sequel.

* ''Star Wars: [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords]]''

* HideYourGays: Obsidian has been accused of this due to the lack of homosexuality in the majority of their titles (though they have a low number of ''heterosexual'' options due to the above mentioned dislike of RomanceSidequest). However, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope completely, as it allows player characters to be homosexual or bisexual via specific perks. Similarly, a male StraightGay doctor and a LipstickLesbian Brotherhood Scribe are available as party members, but their sexual orientations are only revealed in certain dialogue options. It is also worth noticing that the prostitutes in New Vegas services both sexes equally.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The company has been on the receiving end of this too many times.
** They were given an unrealistic short development time of 13 months for ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords'' as {{LucasArts}} wanted it ready for a Christmas release, meaning that a lot of quests and mechanics, including much of the ending sequence, were left incomplete or broken. And when Obsidian offered to put out a free patch fixing most of these issues, [=LucasArts=] denied them permission to do it, leaving the fans to try and pick up the pieces with mods. The point may have been academic; the game sold most of its copies on the XBox, and wasn't enabled for Xbox Live, meaning it couldn't be patched.

** Their contract with Besthesda for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' paid them a bonus commission if the game received an 85 or higher on Metacritic. However, Obsidian was confined to work with the extremely buggy Gamebryo engine and was forced to cut development short in order to meet Bethesda's deadlines. Bethesda performed a minimal quality testing job, resulting in the launch version of the game shipping with numerous bugs and glitches. ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' ended up missing the Metacritic goal by a single point.

** Their contract with Besthesda for FalloutNewVegas paid them a bonus commission if the game received an 85 or higher on Metacritic. However, Obsidian was confined to work with the extremely buggy Gamebryo engine and was forced to cut development short in order to meet Bethesda's deadlines. Bethesda performed a minimal quality testing job, resulting in the launch version of the game shipping with numerous bugs and glitches. FalloutNewVegas ended up missing the Metacritic goal by a single point.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The company has been on the receiving end of this a couple of times.

* ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth''

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout2}}'' (1998)

* ''StarWars[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic : Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords]]''
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''
** ''Mask of the Betrayer''
** ''Storm of Zehir''

* ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege 3''

* ''Project Eternity'' (working title), Obsidian's first solo project, financed through {{Kickstarter}}.

** They were given an unrealistic short development time of 13 months for ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords'' as {{LucasArts}} wanted it ready for a Christmas release, meaning that a lot of quests and mechanics, including much of the ending sequence, were left incomplete or broken. And when Obsidian offered to put out a free patch fixing most of these issues, [=LucasArts=] denied them permission to do it, leaving the fans to try and pick up the pieces with mods.
** When ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' was nearing completion, SEGA said they weren't too happy with the current state of the game, and announced they would push the release date back a couple of months. Obsidian hoped that this would leave them with more time to give the game some much needed polish, the logical thing to assume since the game was delayed anyway, but when they appealed to SEGA for more development time in the delay period, SEGA flat out refused to greenlight it.