Pillars Of Eternity Director Jorja Smith Jokes about Waiting For Xbox To Demand A High Budget Third Entry
As Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to draw much praise and draw players into its expansive and immersive RPG experience, many wonder whether its success may prompt gamers to explore classic titles in this genre such as Pillars of Eternity?
On Twitter (formerly known as micro.blog), this topic did raise an interest among its users, particularly Obsidian Entertainment Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer himself who commented jokingly about an expensive third installment for Pillars of Eternity series.
Will Pillars of Eternity 3 ever become reality?
Felipe Pepe’s original post as shared by Windows Central highlights their friends who enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3 would love to experience more creative insanity within other CRPGs, yet are put off due to their “old school presentation”, such as Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Obsidian Entertainment Director Josh Sawyer said they were expecting Xbox to call and request Pillars 3 with an estimated budget of $120M any day now, “Hopefully soon.
Though intended only as an ironic joke, many fans of the series would love for its third entry to become reality at some point in the near future.
Sawyer recently noted on Tumblr that, should Pillars of Eternity 3 happen, Obsidian would need to examine “the entire format” due to low sales for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
“We must trust that by recreating this style of game again, existing fans and newcomers alike will enjoy it; ex-fans from Pillars 1 or 2 who were disappointed will return; plus we should all feel enthusiastic about making it.” he wrote.
Even developers who had enjoyed working within the Pillars universe found themselves disillusioned after Deadfire finished development and went on to work on DLCs; their hard work left little excitement about making another sequel.”
An increased budget would likely enable a review of your series’ format while helping address presentation-related hurdles that prevent players from joining your project.
At present, this remains only wishful thinking. While Xbox executives have indicated an openness toward revisiting old IP, its uncertain whether such efforts would result in sufficient sales numbers and budget allocations for RPG titles (possibly top-down and rules-heavy).
Obsidian Entertainment may never provide us a chance to return to Eora via its series that first introduced it, but with Avowed they may allow us to explore its depths once more.
