Obsidian Might Not Be In Charge Of The Next 'South Park' Game
One of the most influential TV shows of all time is the animated series South Park. Starting in 1999, it became famous for its irreverent humor, its willingness to make fun of everyone and everything, regardless of how the people being portrayed felt (see episodes 200 and 201), and the surprisingly deep social and political commentary that some of the episodes can have.
And killing Kenny.
The show is at 23 seasons and a COVID-19 pandemic special for good measure, with a vaccination special set for 3/10/21. South Park is a beloved show, and so far, it's still kicking. As long as people are crazy, South Park will never run out of material.
There has been media outside of the show, of course. It got a movie release in 1999 to critical and audience acclaim, with the film even garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. It lost, however, to "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan. Yeah, Phil Collins has an Oscar. If "Blame Canada" had won, then Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of South Park) would have the legendary distinction of being EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winners.
In any case, outside of the show, the most popular media in the last few years have been the two video games, The Stick of Truth (2014) and its follow-up The Fractured But Whole (2017). Both games received near universal acclaim for everything from the story, to the writing, to the animation that flawlessly mimicked the actual show, making it seem like you were actually playing through an episode of the show. South Park video games have been around since the N64, but these two games pulled out all of the stops.
As with any popular media, the talks of sequels are always there. With the success of The Fractured But Whole, people began questioning whether or not we'd get a third game. So far, nothing concrete has been announced, but news seems to indicate that if it does happen, then the original production company, Obsidian, won't be the ones behind it all. Obsidian was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, and as such, it now has a lot more on its plate, especially given its recent successes with games such as Outer Worlds and Grounded. It has several large games coming up such as Avowed.
That's not to say that Obsidian would not still possibly develop the third South Park game, but a lot of that depends on where both they and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are. Without Trey and Matt, there is no South Park. They voice almost every single male character in the show, and it would have to be written by them as well. A voice actor mimicking Parker and Stone's performances would be painfully obvious, no matter how good it was, and that would break a lot of the immersion.
For a recent example, compare Troy Baker's performance as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins vs Mark Hamill's in the other Arkham games. Baker is great, and he's almost there, but he's no Hamill.
That also depends on whether or not there is a third game at all. The question of who would actually make it is moot if there are no plans to make one at all. And for now, that seems to be the case. There haven't really been any concrete announcements regarding our return to the quiet little mountain town. A small game was made for Android, Phone Destroyer, but it obviously isn't the same as the sprawling, detailed world of the main games.
For now, all we can do is hope. Maybe we'll see a third game, or maybe South Park will join the pantheon of masterpiece games like Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half Life, and Knights of the Old Republic as a mere pair of games. We'll have to wait and see.
Source(s): Screen Rant