So much for that commitment to axing bureaucracy, eh? ‘In our relentless commitment to cutting layers of management, we are inserting a new layer of management between ourselves and Obsidian,’ says Microsoft.
Does it make sense to bring Obsidian under Bethesda? Not a lick. At least, not if you know anything about the videogame studios Bethesda Softworks and Obsidian Entertainment, which is not something I’m currently willing to credit Microsoft’s executive staff with.
Bethesda and Obsidian are not the same. They might both make things we call RPGs and they might both be making a Fallout, but these are two studios with different interests, outlooks, and philosophies. I am genuinely rather baffled that Microsoft has lashed them together like they’re similar-enough colours you’re throwing in the washing machine. What a staggering disregard for the legacies and developers of the studios you voluntarily went out and spent billions to acquire. None of this had to happen, Microsoft. None of this was forced on you.
Reader, if nothing else, let this disabuse you of any notion that our betters are any smarter than the likes of you and me. Microsoft’s gleeful gutting of half the western games industry (though, fair’s fair, it did give obliterating Japan’s Tango Gameworks the old college try) seems to have been driven, primarily, by a profound inability to get its own shit together, like a deadbeat cousin who somehow became responsible for tens of thousands of livelihoods.
I suppose I’ll meet you back here when it reveals the next phase of its masterplan.
