Obisidian Entertainment's Upcoming RPG Won't Have Microtransactions
At a time when in-game microtransactions are a hot topic, Obsidian Entertainment has announced that its upcoming role-playing game will not be featuring any microtransactions or loot boxes. This comes after the "Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire" developer entered a publishing deal with Take-Two Interactive, a company known for aggressively pushing the business model on their games.
"We're extremely excited about our upcoming RPG, and we know you are too. We wish we could tell you all about it right now... but we're going to hold off until the time is right," Obsidian explained in a recent statement. "What we did want to talk about was a question a lot of you have been raising: 'Will this upcoming game feature any loot boxes or other microtransactions?' "The answer is simply: 'no'. No microtransactions, of any kind, in our game."
The same sentiment was echoed by a video posted by Obsidian's public relations manager asking Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain if microtransactions will be coming to future titles. Their answer, unsurprisingly, was a resounding "no."
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Last week, Take-Two unveiled Private Division, a new label set to cater to indie titles on a much lower budget with Obsidian Entertainment being one of the developers joining the fold. However, unlike Take-Two, Private Division hasn't been too keen on pushing the microtransaction model on developers but have been incredibly supportive of their individual process, emphasizing their vision and creative freedom over anything else.
"They have been fantastic partners, and we are extremely excited to work with them through release, to put what we know is going to be an amazing game into as many hands as possible," Obsidian's statement said about their partnership.
The developer's statement comes at a time when the entire video game industry is under scrutiny not just from the community but also governments following the backlash from the "Star Wars: Battlefront 2" loot box system. With regulatory oversight among the most recent consequences dangling over another major microtransaction issue, developers and publishers are now cautious with regards to how they monetize their games.
So far, Obsidian has not revealed more details regarding its upcoming RPG. However, fans can now rest assured that their overall enjoyment will not be tarnished by the presence of any pay-to-win system.
