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Q & A: Feargus Urquhart, CEO explains how Fallout: New Vegas developer stays afloat as an independent study, so that's going into social games, and how it keeps the players rent or sell their games.

Leadership Forum The International Game Developers Association, last week, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart reference to its affinity for working with licenses during a presentation on their independent study. Later, GameSpot sat down with Urquhart to explain more about your company's approach to industry and to survive as an independent in the busy - and expensive - the development of AAA games.

Fallout Obsidian supported:. New Vegas with four independent based on the history of accessories

During the conversation, Urquhart discussed a range of hot topics in the industry, explaining how it fits their study - or more precisely, there is no - the scene of the social game growing and how to avoid mobile and show their fan base when it comes to downloadable content and other tactics to increase revenues and reduce sales of second hand to play.

GameSpot

: Do you think it gets easier or harder to do as an independent studio these days?

Feargus Urquhart

: I think it depends on your perspective. I think initially it could be an independent developer and has not really been a businessman. And I would not say that I am a businessman, but I have some characteristics that agree with that. And I had to learn a lot about accounting and taxes, and other things to a point. I think in the past, it was possible to be effective without being really focused on the company because the teams were much smaller. If there were eight guys and I did a lot of money in your old product, you can stay six months without an agreement. Our burn rate is $ 1 million a month, so we must have games all the time. I am not independently wealthy, so I think many of them is more difficult now, if you do not understand that you really have to focus on the business side.

: I think I look like what is an anomaly and does not work. For example, Angry Birds. This is a model or an anomaly? Minecraft is a model or an anomaly? PC Data has been one of the original data services that would place information on the first five games last year and trying to figure out all the similarities between the versions, which could not reach a correlation of why strokes of success. What are the concerns of indie success, it is important that people understand there is an opportunity, people will have access. On the other hand, the reason that iPhone games are we all about the people and such, and we have to do a blow to make it interesting. But I'm a guy and a friend, and I have to sell 20,000 copies to make money, so it's great. Maybe you are is what defines the place where the opportunity is.

Our burn rate is $ 1 million a month, so we must have games all the time.

: a session of the conference was probably the first of this year, where the words "mobile", "social" and "microtransactions" haven "t come. The fact is that Obsidian is so great is that? So these options are not viable?

: It is our goal. I am not a believer in the death of the console. And because there is no way that 20 million people buy a Call of Duty: Black Ops, and that means that the console is dead. I understand the reasoning why people believe something will happen on consoles, but I still think it can be very useful if you know what you do. I think you can see with products like BioWare and Bethesda, and the types of products that are the building of the DLC. So I think what we're trying to do is to understand how explicitly the type of products we want to adapt to the market we serve. This means that we often find ways to play games not just the rent. And how to prevent re-sell it to GameStop. These are our issues to resolve. It is different from social and mobile markets. Their problem is how to achieve a fixed rate, ours is how to maintain our rate of fixation. There are thus two sides of the coin, but when it comes to us, at least for the great RPG, there are parallels with Hollywood. People will still see

Transformers . You can still make money with a film of 200 million. So I still think there is still a place for this kind of entertainment, and will continue.

With an RPG, it's the same. We find things that make players want to play. It has never been developed in this way, but it's funny to see how it became a way to do it. With a good track and evil as the Knights of the Old Republic II, who can play as a Jedi light or dark. I can play with light as a Jedi, but I know I can play through a dark Jedi. So I think, "I'll do that someday." Then put it back on my shelf and not have to go back to GameStop. If I play Fallout: New Vegas for 50 hours, but there are all these other missions, and there are all other areas that do not go online and there are people talking about all these things you could do all these different ways, I feel like "Wow, I could play again," because that's all I ever had. And knowing that, the publishers announce plans for DLC on the day the game launches. And now, as a player who has experienced everything, however, know that there are these news stories, and I will be able to level up my character and get something better, be more of a hero . The game will be back on my shelf, not GameStop.

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