Although it was a complicated year for the game industry, 2020 still had a few pretty big game announcements. One of those announcements wasAvowed.It’s a new RPG in the works at Obsidian Entertainment, a studio famous for its contributions to the RPG genre.Avowedtakes place in the world ofPillars of Eternity,one of the RPGs that gave Obsidian its reputation, so fans already know they’re in for a treat. Even though Obsidian isn’t saying much aboutAvowed,fans have a lot of reasons to get excited, considering Obsidian’s consistent track record of delivering on IPs new and old.
Avowedfans have gone without updates long enough to accept that no news is good news. However, Obsidian isn’t staying completely quiet. At E3 2021, it appeared in Microsoft’s conference to revealThe Outer Worlds 2.Fans of Obsidian’s recent spacefaring RPG wanted a sequel, and now they’ve got it. As exciting as the game is for fans ofThe Outer Worlds,though, it raises questions about where Obsidian’s priorities lie. It doesn’t seem to be in a rush to getAvoweddone if it’s willing to also make something as important asanOuter Worldssequelin the meantime. Is Obsidian hurtingAvowedby puttingThe Outer Worlds 2in the spotlight?
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Obsidian Entertainment’s Projects
Avowedwas never the only game on Obsidian’s plate. In fact, it got announced back to back with Obsidian’s charming survival gameGrounded,where players take the roles of kids mysterious shrunken down to the size of an insect, forcing them to fight to survive in their own backyards.Groundedis doing well for itselfso far, earning fans in early access while receiving regular updates from Obsidian. While it’s a charming project that could go far,Groundeddoesn’t seem nearly as ambitious asAvowedcould be,so it never really seemed like an obstacle toAvowed’s development.
The Outer Worlds 2, in contrast, throws everything up in the air. The firstOuter Worldswas already a bold RPG. Obsidian set out to craft a world with almost no essential NPCs, giving players an incredible level of liberty in how they played the game. It also worked hard toestablishThe Outer Worlds' companions as beloved charactersand to flesh out a totally unique solar system serving as the game’s setting. Obsidian earned quite a few awards for its efforts onThe Outer Worlds,so it’s no surprise that it wants to make a sequel.
The problem with the sequel’s confirmation is the context ofAvowed.The Outer Worlds 2will surely be of the same detailed scope as the first game, if not even more intensely detailed. Obsidian now hasan enthusiasticOuter Worldsfanbasethat wants to see one game blossom into a franchise. With that in mind, how does Obsidian plan on distributing its resources between these two games while also continuing to account forGrounded? What does Obsidian’s timeline for development look like with so many influential and hotly demanded games on its hands?
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Avowed’s Position is Precarious
Obsidian’s decision to move forward withThe Outer Worlds 2withAvowedalready in the workssuggests a few possibilities. One is thatAvowedis even farther away than fans expect. With no release date on either of the two games, it’s a little hard to say which is supposed to release first. One might expect it to beAvowed,but that’s not necessarily true.Avowedhas a lot more adapting from its source material to do thanThe Outer Worlds 2does. WhereasAvowedis takingPillars of Eternityinto a different RPG style,The Outer Worlds 2is almost certainly just a direct follow-up to the first game. Obsidian’s plan might be to quickly getOuter Worlds 2out beforeAvowed,which seems like it could lead to development conflicts and inefficiency.
Alternatively,The Outer Worlds 2might be very far away, scheduled to release somewhere afterAvowed.Obsidian is no stranger to the industry trend of announcing games well before launch, asAvoweditself proves. Even if that’s the case, it could still slow downAvowedbecause it doesn’t seem to be near completion.Avowedcould be the first to suffer if Obsidian starts shuffling around developers and resources while getting ready forThe Outer Worlds 2well before that sequel plans to release.
The bottom line is that developing both of these RPGs at the same time puts Obsidian under a lot of duress. A lot of eyes are on bothAvowedandThe Outer Worlds 2.Obsidian may have put itself and its games in a dangerous position by trying to develop them simultaneously. Between the two,Avowedseems the most likely to suffer because it’s presumably been in the worlds for longer thanThe Outer Worlds 2.If the game is nearing the finish line, it’s at risk of stumbling during its crucial final development stepsbecause of Obsidian’s additional works.
Obsidian Entertainment Should Strike a Balance
What makes this situation particularly difficult to read into is how quiet Obsidian has been aboutAvowed.Fans were optimistic thatAvowedwould show up at Microsoft’s E3 2021 showcase since it’d been a full year since the game got revealed. On the contrary,The Outer Worlds 2was Obsidian’s big announcement, rather than a newAvowedtrailer giving fans a better picture of the game. Although there are some rumors thatAvowedis pretty nearly finished, its absence from Microsoft’s showcase doesn’t inspire much confidence that it’s coming out anytime soon.
The Outer Worlds 2is definitely a good thing. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Obsidian to keep perfecting the first game’s best elements while fixing criticisms toward character animation and combat. Hopefully, it doesn’t come at the cost ofAvowed’s development, though. After all, there’s plenty ofdemand and excitement forAvowedtoo. When it got announced, fans were looking forward to it as one of the Xbox Series X’s potential heavy-hitting exclusive games. It could and should still be that influential exclusive game that players expected, so long as Obsidian treads carefully aroundThe Outer Worlds 2’s development. Obsidian is a talented studio, but any person and any studio can get overambitious, so it had better be mindful of its plans.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
