Obsidian Entertainment Boss Explains Why Stormlands Was Cancelled

Before the Xbox One’s launch, Obsidian Entertainment was working on an RPG for the console, called Stormlands. Obsidian Entertainment is also behind well-known titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic 2. However, Microsoft reportedly cancelled the game in 2012. Now, Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart shares his side of the story.

When he spoke to IGN, he said that the game’s budget and that no one at Microsoft “championed” it are the two major reasons why it was never released. “Why did Stormlands get canceled? Stormlands got canceled because we didn’t have an advocate [at Microsoft],” he explained.

Urquhart continued this thought, saying that big-budget games need to have “someone at the publisher” who can speak on the game’s behalf and convince upper branches of management that it is worth investing time or money into. For reasons that are unknown, Stormlands did not have this kind of support.

“For a game to truly be big, it often has to be pushed and it has to have ads and PR,” he explained. “It comes down to budget and it comes down to having a champion [at Microsoft].”

According to Kotaku, Microsoft cancelled Stormlands in March 2012 during the final meeting, right before it was going to be greenlit. A source told the site that Stormlands was aiming to be a “premiere RPG,” but there are not other details available about the game. Obsidian reportedly laid off 30 developers after the game was cancelled.

Obsidian is currently working on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. A crowdfunding campaign for the game started last week and has been a big hit, with people banding together and funding the game in less than one day. The campaign has currently raised over $2 million.