Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind award-winning role-playing games like Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the Kickstarter phenomenon Pillars of Eternity, has just announced its acquisition of the Pathfinder RPG intellectual property and license by entering into a long-term licensing partnership with Paizo Inc.
Obsidian’s first licensed product in the Pathfinder franchise will be a tablet game based on the highly successful Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, a co-op game for 1 to 4 players.
According to the press announcement, which they sent over to Gameranx, players each have a unique character composed of a deck of cards and a set of stats. Characters have classes such as fighter, rogue, wizard and cleric, as well as numbers that define attributes such as strength, wisdom and charisma etc. Players will be able to customize their deck to better suit each individual’s vision of their character.
"At Obsidian we have a long history of working with the greatest RPG franchises, and we're thrilled to get to play in the Pathfinder universe now," said CEO Feargus Urquhart. "We're huge fans and can't wait to bring what we do in the electronic gaming world to Pathfinder fans everywhere”.
For those not in the know, the world of Pathfinder sees players—taking on the roles of brave adventurers—survive in a world beset by magic and evil. The RPG is currently translated into multiple languages, and enjoys hundreds of thousands of players worldwide. The brand, being as popular as it is, has been licensed for comic books, plush toys, miniatures, and is even being developed into a massively mutliplayer RPG.
"Obsidian is a video game developer at the top of its game", said Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens. "Being able to bring that type of experience and passion to Pathfinder can only mean great things, both for our loyal Pathfinder community and for all fans of great CRPG's."
Obsidian is present at Gen Con 2014 showing off an early prototype of the digital Pathfinder Adventure Card Game in the Paizo booth (#203) and in their own booth (#2151) featuring the first consumer hands-on for Pillars of Eternity.