South Park: The Stick of Truth is celebrated by many as the current peak of games based on licensed content. Obsidian, the development studio behind the game, worked closely with the creative minds behind South Park—the TV show the game was based on–Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which is largely why the game was so successful. While the franchise may have moved to Ubisoft for its sequel, Fractured But Whole, the high regard Obsidian’s version is held to will be hard to beat.
Obsidian may no longer have the South Park ball in their court, but the developers that worked on The Stick of Truth have their eyes set elsewhere. During PAX Prime, PC Gamer interviewed project director for Obsidian Josh Sawyer, who mentioned the idea to make an Archer game. Archer shares lot of important characteristics seen in Obsidian’s past work, Alpha Protocol, a spy game littered with tongue-in-cheek humor. According to Sawyer,
I don’t think people really thought about it, or at least not seriously, until after Alpha Protocol shipped, but it has come up actually several times of people saying, ‘yeah, that would be a good fit. Archer Protocol!’
The spy RPG may not have performed very well in the market following its 2010 launch, but the formula is a good match for Archer. In more of Sawyer’s own words,
Alpha Protocol has a very realistic look to it, but it’s also kind of silly and comical in a lot of ways. Obviously Archer is a great fit for that sort of stuff.
While nothing is set in stone, and the ball has not yet begun to roll, the idea is an exciting one for fans of The Stick of Truth, Obsidian, Alpha Protocol, and Archer alike. For those interested, Fractured But Whole is set for release sometime in 2016.