New details continue to emerge regarding the future of Obsidian Entertainment. Following reports of a major Xbox restructuring, it became known that the fate of Avowed 2 remains uncertain, however, contrary to recent publications, the game's development has not yet been definitively halted.
One of the first to report on the situation was the legendary screenwriter and game designer Chris Avellone, a former co-founder of Obsidian. As early as last November, he claimed that the studio planned to work on Avowed 2, abandoning further development of The Outer Worlds series.
The day before, this information was partially confirmed by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier. According to his data, as part of a large-scale Xbox reorganization under the leadership of new CEO Asha Sharma, it was decided to cancel the sequel to The Outer Worlds and greenlight the development of a new game in the Fallout universe.
However, Avellone clarified that reports of a complete cancellation of Avowed 2 are premature. According to him, Obsidian employees continue to work on the project and expect to present it to Xbox management again later. The reason for this decision was the large amount of preparatory work already completed.
According to Avellone, all other studio projects have been put on hold. Among them was an unannounced project led by John Gonzalez, which was allegedly being created under the Shadowrun license.
Obsidian employees were also informed that all current company projects had been re-evaluated. At the same time, Grounded will continue to develop – a significant part of the work on the game is being performed by Eidos-Montréal studio. In addition, plans to release add-ons for The Outer Worlds 2 are still in force: the first add-on is expected to be released in September.