Though Obsidian Entertainment is now known for their shoot-the-moon success with Pillars of Eternity when the studio was at a low point, there was a time when a smart, nostalgic Kickstarter by a known company wasn't the guaranteed smash-hit success everyone assumes it would be now... and that was the era of uncertainty that Pillars of Eternity was pitched in.
In Issue 404 of Edge Magazine, Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer noted that he thought the idea of a successful throwback CRPG was a good one, but couldn't guarantee its success. Though Feargus Urquhart, Obsidian's owner at the time and CEO to this day, was wary of crowdfunding, Sawyer said he "was actually ready to leave [the studio] to do it."
Despite that confidence, Sawyer still "thought there was a 50/50 chance that we would get funded in a month," and that "the fact that it was funded in 27 hours blew us away."
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Of course, Pillars is now an obvious success story for its clear final concept: "To blend the best things from the different Infinity Engine games into our own thing," as Sawyer put it.
They figured at the time that after Double Fine's success at reviving the classic adventure game someone would, eventually, cash in on the potential nostalgia that people had for isometric CRPGs.
"Other people at the studio were also like 'are we really not going to do this? If we don't do it, there's going to be another studio that [does]'," Sawyer told Edge.
It's interesting to see Sawyer's comments today in comparison to what he had to say back in July 2012, as documented in the Pillars of Eternity making-of documentary The Road to Eternity.
"It reached a certain point where I said to the owners 'If I can't be involved in it that's fine but we—we—should do it.'," says Sawyer near the start of the documentary.
You can also feel an echo of his disbelief, even after success, in what he says about the day the Kickstarter was launched.
"You know that morning, it was, I was hopeful but kind of skeptical, and when it launched and it started getting money I was like 'oh okay cool people are looking at it and they're giving money' but I didn't, like I didn't really perceive the rate that it was going up," he said. It's clear that, at the time, he wasn't ready to get attached to something that might not happen. Except then... it funded... and kept going.
"Once we passed 2 million dollars I said, okay, we're really making this game, and it's really gonna be pretty big," said Sawyer.
Still, saying that you were ready to stake your livelihood on something you figured was only a 50/50 shot at success? That's serious stuff and a great sign at how, in our young medium of video games, even the truly experienced can't predict what'll be a commercial success.
