LogInJosh Sawyer thinks he doesn't feel the CRPG audience.
Obsidian Entertainment
Josh Sawyer, a well-known game developer who has worked on such gems as Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and Pentiment, shared his views on the possible future of PoE in a recent Q&A session on his YouTube channel.
Will the game's fans ever see Pillars of Eternity 3? Not from Sawyer, most likely, but Obsidian discussed the possibility of the sequel after the success of Baldur's Gate 3, according to the designer. However, it seems it didn't find the answer or the budget.
"Money doesn't fix all your problems, but there are certain things you simply cannot do without money," he said. For example, animation, cinematics, and character models all require substantial investments.
But this is not the only thing that stops Sawyer from returning to the series. He wouldn't go back, partly because he doesn't "feel" the audience or just isn't that interested in its ideas.
"I feel like I don't have the pulse of that audience ... Whether I did 20 years ago or whether I do now, I don't think I got it now. Things that they like and don't like mechanically, story-wise, things like that. ... Or I do get it and I don't dig it. I feel like I'm kind of out of touch with that audience in a way that [if] you want to give me a pile of money to make a game, I'll make it. I don't necessarily think it's going to appeal to the same audience and make that money back."
Earlier, he did say he'd consider going back if he had the budget Larian Studios had with BG3, and he sticks to that statement. His reluctance to work on the sequel is understandable, as he was a "huge, awful asshole" during the Pillars of Eternity 2 development, experiencing serious burnout and unable to direct anything until Pentiment.
Now, the franchise continues in Avowed, set in the same universe. Sawyer doesn't care about Pillars of Eternity, which he helped create, moving to other developers, much like with Fallout. His reasoning is the same: "It's not mine."
"I know this will sound crazy to some people, but I don't care. It's not mine, it was never mine, my mentality with all of the stuff that I do [is] I don't have control over the intellectual property that I develop while working for another company."
He is willing to share his opinion, but in the end, it's out of his hands after he's done with it.
We will see what Obsidian does with this world, directed by Sawyer, in Avowed on on February 18, 2025, on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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