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Obsidian and Square Enix announce Dungeon Siege 3, will include co-op

by Griffin McElroy on Jun 7th 2010 12:30PM

It's been almost two years to the day since we last heard any updates on Dungeon Siege 3, which led us to the fairly understandable conclusion that Uwe Boll may have murdered the franchise with his Statham-fronted film adaptation. Apparently, those fears were unfounded -- Square Enix just announced it will publish the series' third installment, which will be developed by Obsidian Entertainment under the supervision of Dungeon Siege forefather, Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor.

The threequel, which is set for release on 360, PS3 and PC, will remain true to the series' roots, giving players access to a catalog of highly customizable RPG archetypes that will participate in some action-oriented ... dungeon sieging. Players will also have access to an "all-new co-op multiplayer mode," though the particulars of this mode weren't specified by the game's press release announcement. We'll try to divine a few more details at E3.

Source

Tags: Chris-Taylor, Dungeon-Siege, dungeon-siege-3, microsoft, Obsidian, pc, playstation, ps3, Square-Enix, xbox, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (34)

And Obsidian will screw it up royally.

Not much to screw up. The first two, and even Space Siege, were pretty uninspired. They still made decent coop games though. Wonder if they're comfortable knowing they will be working in Diablo 3's shadow.

I really wish they weren't getting this reputation as a sequel studio that puts out technically flawed and unfinished games. Not that it's undeserved, but they have some amazing storytelling talent on staff, and there are so few developers who value that kind of ability.

This path of working on other companies' IP—particularly with the probable marketplace failure of Alpha Protocol—doesn't bode well for their future. I've heard some vague rumors of mismanagement on podcasts, but I have no way of verifying that stuff.

Question is, will Obsidian screw up New Vegas?

Obsidian really hasn't proven themselves to be worthy yet. They've pretty much only made sequels to hit games, and it's hard to mess something up when you just copy what already works.

Their big test was Alpha Protocol, and they messed that one up pretty badly, so I think it's fair for people to be concerned.

Quite surprised the first two comments echo my train of thought already.
First I was "Look, another franchise for Obsidian that will get canned or released unfinished, what a shame".
Then I realized I didn't enjoy the original (nor the Space Siege) game enough to actually play them.

Just wonder how much Chris Taylor will supervise Obsidian on this one. I still believe they need someone to help them to actually get a finished, polished game out of the door for once that will expand their audience beyond the loyal Obsidian fans and people who can overlook a lot of problems for some tasty morsels here and there.

And if they screw up New Vegas, there will be blood.

(But again, all they do is copy, so i'm expecting F:NV to play exactly like Fallout 3 did plus a few extras to make it seem like they tried)

@ESC

I am kind of feeling the same way. Definitely not as excited as I was moving from D1 to D2. D3 looks great and all, but it's just not gripping me like it use to. I really won't know the enjoyment until I play it though.

"Am I the only one who thinks Diablo 3 is going to be disappointing? It just looks like Diablo 2 with a new hat."

Probably not, but I'm still hoping it will be great. I still enjoy loot whore games and Diablo is still the best IMO. Even as much as I enjoyed Borderlands, it's a far cry from Diablo's league.

Alpha Protocol was a much better RPG than Mass Effect 2 though. It just had some gameplay flaws and rough patches.

Obsidian gets too bad a rap. They should just hire some more Quality Assurance people.

I know I have played 1 and 2 in co-op over a LAN.

What do they mean first in franchise history? Do they mean on the same screen similar to gauntlet?

Yeah the biggest thing about these games was the co-op play.

squarenix are the japanese EA nowadays; all about sloppy sequels and money

While their entire log isn't pure golden goose eggs, Square Enix is far from sloppy. They have a slew of amazing games. If you think the new Deus Ex will be sloppy too, then that's just sad.

I wouldn't call Square Enix a sloppy EA. They have has some hits and misses but that is a regular thing for publishers. I also look at EA in a different light in these last past few years. They have published and developed some quality games here recently and seemed to step up their game.

I remember a time during the Snes/Genesis days when EA was a the top of my gaming list. Hopefully they can strive to reach that point again. A new Desert Strike or Road Rash would help that's for sure.

Hopefully they've ditched the idea of getting rid of parties that they were talking about last time.

If they do that, DS3 will literally be Diablo with extra fail.

So glad this game will remain true to its roots...
Diablo and Diablo 2.

anyone else see Conan O'Brien in this picture?

I never had before but I do now...

Haha, yeah I hadn't before but now I can't help it. Go Team CoCo!

can't unsee

Didn't Uwe Boll kill the Dungeon Siege IP?

I found DS2 to be a weak clone....DS 1 was almost AWESOME.

I hope DS3 is a bit more like DS 1 and nothing like space siege.....*shudders*

Obsidian - We make sequels so you don't have to.

It wouldn't even be Dungeon Siege without co-op!

I remember back in college when two of my roomates and I made it our goal to get through DS1 playing co-op... Lots of bad guys were killed and lots of loot was stolen. It was good fun!

Damn, waited for this for so long.. and Obsidian is attached to it. :/

I - do not - approve!

I expect a thoroughly thought through but only good to mediocre implemented sequel. And bugs. As usual. But if they concentrate on their real strengths it could very well be the first Dungeon Siege to have real story.

I'm predicting the co-op will be online only. God forbid anyone have fun with "friends" in the "SAME ROOM" anymore!

Hopefully it will include LAN play.

Dungeon Siege was my first and only dungeon-crawler. It was incredibly enjoyable, and this is a must-buy for me, if only for the nostalgia factor.

Also, did ANYONE else have the loading problem where, after firing up the game 10-15 times, the game would freeze while loading, displaying only 10 white dots in the bottom left? For that reason I never actually finished the game.

To answer the questions in the comments:
No, Obsidian won't mess it up, as Chris Taylor is supervising.
Dungeon Siege 1 and 2 had amazing stories, but the storytelling itself was a bit lacking. Obsidian is going to bring the storytelling element into the next-gen.
Yes, I can see Coco on the DS1 box.
There won't be "LAN Play" per se, but the xbox version will include multiplayer co-op that very much resembles baulder's gate dark alliance 2.
The main problem with the first and the second games is that they were unstable.
Most of GPG's titles have been very unstable.

Hmm ... I'm a bit worried. I loved Dungeon Siege and knowing that Obsidian will be working on is like hearing your wife tell you that she's pregnant ... but not with your kid ... I think?

Ah I dunno lets just see where this goes mkay?

As if Obsidian has any goodwill left after AP...

Square-Enix SHOULD have more goodwill since they've put out a lot of NEW IP and new games this gen a couple of which were well received (TWEWY, Nier ). A lot of those new games didn't pan out though.

I am looking forward to this game for the PS3. Hack and slash RPG dungeon crawlers are sorely lacking this current generation of consoles. The last generation had all those great games from Snowblind and other developers. Now? I can only think of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2, Sacred 2, and the so-so (but still fun) launch title of Untold Legends. I am sure I am missing some. I hope this genre doesn't die out like adventure games and fighting games did for awhile.

Breaking News

Obsidian and Square Enix announce Dungeon Siege 3, will include co-op

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Jun 7th 2010 12:33PM FOI said

Posted: Jun 7th 2010 12:37PM SPARTAN VI said

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