Feargus Urquhart

 

DLC, Sequels, Updates, and Support in the World of Subscription Services

All our games can last longer than they ever have with our players, particularly when they are getting that game from a subscription service. But what is the right way to keep them engaged over the long term? Are there games where we give them ongoing small updates, others where we give them larger meatier updates? Are their times we move more quickly onto sequels, or other times (and games) where we never launch a sequel?

Bio:

As the Studio Head of Obsidian Entertainment, Feargus manages the development and business operations of the company. Prior to being one of the co-founders of Obsidian Entertainment in 2003, Feargus founded Black Isle Studios as an internal development studio of Interplay Entertainment in 1996 after working at Interplay Entertainment in various positions starting in 1991 as a playtester. Through the management of both externally and internally developed products, Black Isle Studios earned retail revenue in excess of $375M in his seven years of leading the division. Earlier in his career as a producer at Interplay, Feargus worked with several external developers including Silicon and Synapse (later known as Blizzard Entertainment) on a series of console titles such as Rock 'N Roll Racing (Sega Genesis), Lost Vikings 2 (SNES), and Blackthorne (Sega 32X), and BioWare on the Baldur's Gate series for the PC. He is responsible for naming "Baldur's Gate." 

During the past almost 20 years running Obsidian Entertainment, Feargus was primarily responsible for the operations and business development of the company leading to Obsidian's acquisition in early 2019 by Microsoft. From time to time, Feargus is able contribute to the development of projects directly including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and currently Avowed. On the business development side, Feargus has pitched almost every one of the major developers on games, helped run two successful crowdfunding campaigns, and worked directly with the creators of IP such as Dungeons & Dragons, South Park, and Star Wars.