With great talent retention and an impressive conveyor belt of games over recent years, Obsidian is widely regarded as a developer that has, for want of a better phrase, got its shit together. However, in a new interview, studio head Feargus Urquhart says that for a while after its acquisition by Microsoft, it was “a crappy developer” that was struggling to handle its multiple projects. He also says that Obsidian considered halting The Outer Worlds 2 to focus efforts on its fantasy RPG Avowed instead.
There aren’t too many developers that can say they have a better and more varied lineup of games than Obsidian. From its trademark open world RPGs like Fallout New Vegas, to surprise packages like Pentiment, it’s rare to see it miss the mark. However, during a fraught period after it was bought by Microsoft, things were getting rather difficult.
In an interview with The Limit Break podcast, Urquhart explains that on top of the pressures that came with the acquisition, and the Covid pandemic that arrived soon after, Obsidian was juggling releasing The Outer Worlds, making DLC for it, working on Pentiment, Grounded, and Avowed, and getting started on The Outer Worlds 2.
“There’s just all this stuff happening and to be honest, you know, we were kind of a crappy developer for about a year, year and a half,” Urquhart says. “There was talk of, you know, ‘do we stop work on The Outer Worlds 2 and just throw the whole team on Avowed?’ There was talk of ‘well, should you do that?’ because Grounded wasn’t in early access yet during these conversations.”
However, Urquhart praises the patience of Microsoft and Obsidian’s eventual decision to keep on developing all of these projects at the same time. “Grounded turned out awesome, Pentiment turned out awesome, Avowed is gonna be great, Outer Worlds 2 is looking incredible,” he says, reflecting on that past turmoil.
We now know that the Avowed release date is arriving in February next year after it was hit with another pushback for being in a crowded launch window, but sadly Urquhart couldn’t give a meaningful update on The Outer Worlds 2 release date. However, as mentioned in the previous quote, it apparently looks “incredible”, development is going “really well,” and he’s “really impressed with the team.”
Of course, the head of the studio is going to say that, but that isn’t stopping this particular Outer Worlds fan from getting a little flutter of excitement. The Outer Worlds 2 seems destined to be a hit if it delivers an experience as good as its predecessor, but there’s certainly more pressure on Avowed. Early looks at the game left many RPG fans, myself included, unconvinced, but more recent showcases have certainly filled me with a bit more confidence. However, to validate the decision to prioritize avowed and not deliver The Outer Worlds 2 sooner, it’s going to have to be another RPG epic from Obsidian.
For more games like Avowed and The Outer Worlds, check out our recommendations for the best open-world games and best single-player games.
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