The idea for a Pillars of Eternity: Tactics game has been floated at Obsidian, but it's still up in the air because 'the audience for them is not huge, typically, but very passionate'

Obsidian, as a studio, is both currently and understandably quite busy on Avowed—an RPG it's been very keen to remind you isn't Skyrim. It also made the Pillars of Eternity games (the world of which Avowed is set in), and while the second entry of the CRPG enjoyed critical success, it didn't sell as well as one might hope.

Josh Sawyer, studio design director at Obsidian, has gone on-record as wanting a Baldur's Gate 3-style budget if he was to ever make a third one—but what about a tactics game, as a treat?

See, in the general lore of videogame RPGs, tactics spin-offs have filled a fascinating little niche. While an RPG focuses on spinning a yarn, with combat filling but one of a few pillars of the experience—tactics games get down to the nitty-gritty of hitting folks with swords on a grid. It's sort of like the distinction between a TTRPG like D&D and a Wargame like Warhammer: 40k. That's not to say a tactics game can't have a story, the most recent one I played was stellar in that regard, it's just less of a focus.

As such, there's a substantial amount of cross-pollination. Games like Fallout and Final Fantasy have had tactics spin-offs, as have TTRPGs like D&D and, naturally, wargames have enjoyed plenty. It's not hard to see why—if you've a solid RPG system, then you've got plenty of raw materials already present sorted for a tactics game.

According to Sawyer, that's an idea Obsidian's certainly entertained, as per a recent interview with Limit Break Network: «I know there have been a number of people, actually, at the studio who have floated the idea of a Pillars: Tactics game.»

Despite the immediate, mighty hunger I feel upon receiving that information, Sawyer immediately tempers any expectations that might arise as a result: «Tactics games are very interesting to me, and they occupy a very interesting space in the marketplace, because the audience for them is not huge, typically, but very passionate … they'll play a lot of them, even if they're not that