Kickstarter Saved Fallout: New Vegas Studio From Tanking in 2012

The talented team at Obsidian Entertainment explains how the crowdfunding campaign for Pillars of Eternity helped save the company from the brink of financial ruin and closure.

For those who don't know, Obsidian Entertainment is known for developing South Park: The Stick of Truth, Wasteland 2, Dungeon Siege III, Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords. Obsidian released part one of a documentary telling the hard tale of the stresses that occur while trying to thrive in the video game industry, VG247 reports. This quality RPG studio faced tremendous financial woes back in 2012. Obsidian was working on a big project for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, likely intended to be a launch title for the systems, which was cancelled in the midst of development. The company ended up having to layoff staff members to stay afloat, and even then things were looking bleak.

That's when Obsidian saw the crowdfunding success of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Production's Double Fine Adventure was seen, making $3.3 million with an initial goal of $400,000. The project helped breath life back into the adventure game scene, and Obsidian wanted to tap into the same avenue of funding. Obsidian then started a Kickstarter for the project it was working on at the time. The Project Eternity campaign was funded in October of 2012, reaching $3.9 million in pledges with an initial goal of $1.1 million. The Kickstarter campaign of Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity was, at that time, the most successful project in the website's history.

Pillars of Eternity will be launching on March 26, and we can't wait.