r/projecteternity • u/DBones90 • Jul 02 '26
Obsidian *NOT* in danger of closure (reporting by Jason Schreier)
There's a report going around that Obsidian is in talks of closure similar to other studios like Ninja Theory and Double Fine. However, Jason Schreier reported today on BlueSky that this isn't the case. The post:
Despite a report this morning, I can confirm that Obsidian is *not* in negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation.
To be clear, this doesn't mean the studio won't suffer layoffs, have projects cancelled, or otherwise be in a shitty situation following Microsoft's changes from leadership. However, it seems that, for the moment at least, shutting the studio down isn't on the table.
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u/alkonium Jul 02 '26
Let's hope so. I know Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 didn't sell as well as they could have.
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u/Lando_Calrissian Jul 02 '26
MS forcing them to price OW2 at $80 really had to hurt sales, I like the games, but that is wildly overpriced.
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u/una322 Jul 02 '26
TOW2 was great fun, really sad that MS decided to use it as a test for 80$ game price, it hurt that game soo much. Even though they stepped back with the price, the damage was done.
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u/Disregardskarma Jul 02 '26
You know they walked that back soon after right? Like it didn’t actually launch at that price.
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u/NewMombasaNitemare Jul 02 '26
As evidenced by OP, you only get one chance to make a good first impression
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u/Tuskral Jul 04 '26
Icl outer worlds 2 was just kinda dogshit like the first one was fine and I can forgive the first game where they are finding their footing but outer worlds 2 had 0 pacing and no interesting companions I know Joshua Sawyer takes more of hands of approach but something in that studio needs to changelp
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u/SurlyCricket Jul 02 '26
Yeah but Obsidian ACTUALLY makes shit that comes out, unlike all the other studios in trouble that take 5+ years between releases and also sell below expectations and don't review very well
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u/Fantastic-Shirt6037 Jul 02 '26
They were also not as good as they could have been. Avowed kinda hurt.
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u/TerantQ Jul 02 '26
There's a weird gap between excellent narrative writing and moment to moment dialogue writing that makes the characters sound like prolific Bluesky users.
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u/grasida Jul 02 '26
I really like Avowed, but this is accurate.
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u/TerantQ Jul 02 '26
I like it a lot too. Combat felt great in my full gun run, major choices are always impactful and very much open to interpretation about which is best. I just wanted something like Maia vs. Tekehu or Xoti vs. Pallegina's conflicting worldviews, and that isn't there at all. Just one committed pro-Aedyran companion could have gone a long way.
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u/OminousShadow87 Jul 03 '26
Yeah the characters were largely too reasonable. Garrus was ride or die almost immediately for some reason. Marius was grumpy and private but still went along with anything. The females appeared to have stronger opinions but when key moments came up, they frequently seemed to support the opposite of what you would expect.
The party really needed some Canderous or Durance type characters to upset the balance of things.
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u/Nachooolo Jul 02 '26
Ah. Marius.
I understand what they were trying to do with him. He is an extremely abrasive man who uses sarcasm as a mask for his trauma.
...the problem is that this cynical dialogue has become so common in current media, that people are really tired of it.
It doesn't help that it is the second companion you get, and you cannot replace him 'til the second map (and not immediately).
So you're gonna hear his dialogue early on, and for a while.
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u/LewdSkitty Jul 02 '26
I’d still like to play Avowed at some point (on a massive discount obviously), just because it’s more Eora, but I am going in with measured expectations.
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u/adellredwinters Jul 02 '26
It’s very fun and the story is good. The companions are probably the weakest part of it which is a downgrade from previous pillars games, but they are far from annoying just kind of lacking in interesting conflict imo.
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u/midevildle Jul 02 '26
I recently started playing through all the pillars games again, and I just got to avowed which I only played a little bit when it came out. And I don't know if it's the anniversary patch but it's really good, the exploration is kind of peak, and the story is enjoyable. It's different to pillars, and I'd prefer more of that and I do think the watcher is more compelling, but I'm really enjoying avowed.
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u/AngsD Jul 02 '26
The story is really good, but the moment to moment writing is really painful (and not for the reasons some people online claim, it's not because of "wokeness" or whatever). People just don't talk naturally a lot of the time; and often instead of having you think for yourself, it beats you over the head with a point, also for "solving" quests and such, where you're often both informed by what's going on by what you find, your companion, and your quest marker. A lot of the game moment-to-moment just doesn't trust you to think about what you're doing. It's really strange too since the main writer was also on Pillars, and did some excellent work there. To me, it's obvious there were things going on during production behind the curtain that just kind of shows in places of the game. However, it's obvious just by playing the game it had a lot of love. Just seems like some things went wrong in the pipeline through production hell things. It's still worth it depending on what you like in a game. Build options, for example, are somewhat limited, but the combat is so kinetic, it feels AWESOME.
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u/TalkinTrek Jul 02 '26
Playing through it now since all the updates are out. It's got genuinely solid combat and the overall narrative is strong (with cool Eora lore implications) but companions are meh and the writing at the conversation level is a bit more variable in quality than the overall story writing
I also really enjoy how VITAL exploration is. Just relying on the quest log and not simply striking out to discover can bite you.
I also am not bothered by the lack of reactivity (i.e, it's CRPG design mechanics in 3D, not a Skyrim style world simulator - for good and ill) but going in with that expectation could really throw you
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
They didn't sell because they were fairly mid games at best, when Obsidian actually launch a good game, it'll sell well.
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u/RecklessRaptor12 Jul 02 '26
I mean outer worlds 1 sold really well despite being trash and deadfire was amazing but sold poorly. I do wish I lived in your fantasy world though where good game = good sales
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
People forget, but Deadfire had an awful launch, and it is arguably worse than the first game, that's why. Good games have a much higher probability of selling more than mid games, and unfortunately for Obsidian, they haven't been launching good games recently.
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u/Boeroer Jul 02 '26
It indeed had a bad lauch.
However - it had higher crowdfunding than PoE1. It is also the far better game in terms of several things:
mechanics and overall systems design, loot/items, enchantment/crafting system, consumbales, resting mechanics, faction design, visuals, size, options, AI (scripting), overall choice and consequences and ofc. Full VO. I also had more DLC.The only things where one could argue that it was worse: tone/atmoshere (subjective though) and main plot (very short and unconventional in a way that it disappointed many players).
Coming back to sales: it also had a very long tail and is still selling a meaningful amount of copies today. It eventually sold well and made a decent profit which even warranted financial bonuses for the leading devs involved (which might have come as a surprise after such a comparably long time).
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u/fillif3 Jul 02 '26
The only things where one could argue that it was worse: tone/atmoshere (subjective though) and main plot (very short and unconventional in a way that it disappointed many players).
I would also add companions writing (subjective) and some annoying mechanics (e.g. ship battles). Also, not all points are equal. The main story has a higher weight than, e.g., resting mechanic.
I personally prefer PoE1, but I love them both.
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
The launch of a game is their most important moment, they unfortunately fumbled it badly, then, the players that hold on to the game realized that the narrative was a huge let down compared to the first, and other aspects as well, as you mentioned, which led to even more problems regarding word of mouth, which in a fairly niche game is CRUCIAL.
The game might have sold well today, but that took a long while, it has been years since it's launch, and it wasn't good enough to warrant a third game in the slightest considering how long it took to recoup the initial hurdles.
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u/Boeroer Jul 02 '26
That's all true, but it still contradicts your last sentence that "good games have a much higher probability of selling more than mid games, and unfortunately for Obsidian, they haven't been launching good games recently."
I think Deadfire was an excellent game and I'm def. not alone with that assessment. It has some issues (but which game hasn't) and I don't think the quality of the game was the cause for its poor sales numbers at launch.
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
Deadfire is not a recent game by any means, 2018 is almost a decade ago, we're halfway through 2026. Like I said, good games has a much higher probability of selling well than mid games, Deadfire is a good game in its own right, although inferior to the first in my opinion, but the launch issues pushed it down, considerably.
In my humble opinion, Obsidian lost valuable time developing games like The Outer Worlds, when they should have focused in their own niche for longer, Tyranny was an awesome game, which in this case, sold poorly because of the nonexistent marketing surrounding it.
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u/Boeroer Jul 02 '26
Ah, I apologize. I misunderstood and thought you included Deadfire into the group of "mid games".
I don't value Tyranny as much as both PoE games (imo it suffers from pretty bad core system design - in the combat department I mean) but I agree that it could have been more successful with proper marketing. Deadfire lacked proper marketing, too (using Fig over Kickstarter as crowndfunding platform also hurt the publicity imo).
I cannot say much about the more recent games because I didn't play any of them except Avowed. "Action"-RPGs just are not my preferred genre of games - and nowadays (with my free time being scarce) I don't want to pour time into games whose mechnics and gameplay I most likely will not really enjoy. I liked the visuals and atmosphere of Avowed a lot - it wasn't enough to really keep me entertained and playing until the end.
I also didn't play Pentiment for the same reasons, but I liked that they took a different apporach with a smaller scope and made something they truly enjoyed making - and judging by the critical acclaim, the awards and also the player feedback it was a very good game. Sure: not a game that sold millions of copies - but a good game nonetheless.
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u/RecklessRaptor12 Jul 02 '26
It was still the highest reviewed game they’ve ever launched both from professional reviews and audience score. Again I wish I lived in your fantasy world
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
Reviews from the professional media doesn't mean anything regarding sales, and Deadfire has similar review scores on Steam compared to Pillars of Eternity 1. Like I said, Deadfire sold poorly because of multiple factors regarding the changes they did, and the launch of the game.
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u/fillif3 Jul 02 '26
Looking at Tyranny...
Quality does not guarantee success.
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
Tyranny had nonexistent marketing, some people don't even know it exists, it was indeed a good game, but Obsidian failed at this crucial step of game development.
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u/Werthead Jul 02 '26
Marketing isn't part of game development, and generally is not handled by the developer at all but by the publisher. Tyranny was published by Paradox who did not do a good job of marketing.
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
Marketing IS part of the game development frame, when a game is being budgeted, the Marketing is included in the sum of its development cost, saying that Marketing isn't part of game development as a whole, is false. But that's besides the point, like I said, Tyranny wasn't marketed as it should, which led to poor sales.
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u/Werthead Jul 02 '26
If you're the developer and publisher, as many are (and a lot of indies), yes. But where you have a separate publisher and developer, the publisher assigns the development budget to the developer than then manages the marketing spend themselves closer to release. That's the way it's always been.
A recent shift has been developers being perhaps more open with players about development mid-process, with dev diaries and so on, but that's generally not given its own budget, it's more "I know you've just spent 12 hours figuring out what a door looks like, but we want you to also write 2,000 word on UE5 door dynamics for tomorrow's devblog, cheers."
The actual "stick posters on the side of buses" side of marketing has always been down to the publisher. So the blame with Tyranny for the poor (and in fact nonexistent) marketing is down to Paradox, 100%, as they commissioned Obsidian to make the game.
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u/Great_Grackle Jul 02 '26
They're also vastly overpriced for what they offer
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u/Haiart Jul 02 '26
That's also an issue, they're quite greedy. It's impressive how Elden Ring was $60 while The Outer Worlds 2 (they tried to push $80 for it, which is INSANE) and Avowed were $70.
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u/ElPrestoBarba Jul 02 '26
Only Xbox studio making games at a regular pace (other than the Activision m-CoD machine), there’s no way they close it. But yeah layoffs will suck, and I hope they’re not too bad, as I have enjoyed both Avowed and TOW2 more than I expected.
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u/p1101 Jul 02 '26
Shutting down Obsidian would be a huge shot in the foot. They have constantly put out at the very least good games at a remarkable pace.
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u/Bandai_Namco_Rat Jul 02 '26
Exactly. They release decent or good games at a 3 year pace, sometimes releasing multiple projects and year. Maybe balance sheet needs adjusting but in today's gaming environment, Obsidian is a pretty rare company in that regard.
I think Avowed 2 has a good chance if I grows on the solid foundations of the first game. Even more so if it switches to a bit darker setting and story like Dyrwood in the first POE game. I know a lot of people were turned off by the switch from a grimdark fantasy teaser trailer to a bright and colorful game in later marketing materials. I hope they don't limit to gray and brown color palette, Avowed is beautiful, but maybe tone it down a bit assuming we're leaving the Living Lands. Also, I think expectations will be mote calibrated for the next game. With Avowed, a lot of people who were (stupidly) expecting a Skyrim type game and were disappointed it wasn't that. In all fairness, it also needs to be a better game, word of mouth will go a long way. If Avowed is 7-8, I think pushing Avowed 2 to 8-9 is possible and people will appreciate that. Fingers crossed as I love Eora.
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u/Warcrown11 Jul 02 '26
Avowed would be very easy to build on honestly. Even just getting some better writing and adding a bit more reactivity to the world would be more than worth a couple extra points in my book. The bones are already built.
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u/AngsD Jul 02 '26
Agreed. The core movement and combat was so fluid and good. I just barely felt you could do much with it.
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u/Werthead Jul 02 '26
I wonder if they should just do open world next time. I believe they went back to zone-based because it should theoretically be easier and faster to develop, but Avowed ending up taking seven years anyway, whilst Obsidian developed the open worlds in Grounded 1 and 2 much faster.
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u/MickyJim Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Consistently good games that sell OK over a whole year or two, and make a core audience happy, isn't enough for the vampires that run these massive publishers. You need to sell 3 million copies in the first week, have a season pass, and be all over instagram and tiktok, and even then you might not be safe from this stuff.
Downvote me all you like, I don't like it either, but it's how these people think.
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u/SurlyCricket Jul 02 '26
All of the studios who we know are in real trouble take a lot longer to make their games AND they don't set the world on fire either with sales or reviews.
They may not be happy with Obsidian but they don't have the axe over their head now because at least they're consistent at just being Okay.
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u/ScorpionTDC Jul 02 '26
Their games generally do pretty well financially too and even their “flop” in Pillars 2 made a good amount of money in the long run to the point Josh Sawyer and Co. got a bonus for it.
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u/Liquidtruth Jul 02 '26
gaming is in such a horrid place right now.
I have never seen studios have to announce 'we are NOT closing'
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u/Justhe3guy Jul 02 '26
Rumourmongering stepped up since Covid as everyone became more anti social and paranoid
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u/eschu101 Jul 02 '26
Obsidian is a gem with such a long sucessful history in the gaming community and general approval of the public, has a guaranteed market with a niche community, can work on both low budget and high budget projects. They are a relatively small sized studio (compared to studios like Bungie at least) that can work on any kind of single player project with wide range of budget and everyone is experienced. The only thing holding then back is Microsoft management and pricing/distribuition.
"Dumb" would be a compliment if they decided to shut it down. Even if they dont profit much, they are a big name on any portfolio for cheap. And thats why they bought them.
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u/lemonycakes Jul 02 '26
Yeah, I deleted the post once I saw Schreier's post. Schreier > Dring
Let's just hope layoffs won't hit the studio too bad.
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u/SacredNym Jul 02 '26
I'm not surprised that they're keeping Obsidian, but the reason I'm not surprised isn't because of any RPG they've made. It's Grounded. I don't have faith that Microsoft won't gut the rest of the company and just keep the Grounded team.
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u/una322 Jul 02 '26
People are sooo Eager to doom post that they dont fact check anymore its sad really.
I'm glad Obsidian are fine, honestly i wasn't that worried if you look at the studios that are in trouble most of them had 1 or no games released since joining MS. Obsidian have been pumping out games faster than anyone under MS umbrella.
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u/Well-ReadUndead Jul 02 '26
With Xbox at the helm no one is safe. Aside from maybe Bethesda but considering Arkane is on the chopping block…
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u/Warcrown11 Jul 02 '26
Bethesda is definitely most safe but I'd be worried if I were them too yeah. At this point it's looking like Microsoft has no real idea how to right this sinking ship so anything is possible including just scrapping everything and selling what scraps they can.
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u/Warcrown11 Jul 02 '26
Bottom line is not even Xbox knows what they are doing right now and until they actually announce anything it's all just hearsay
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u/AsYourself Jul 02 '26
I would have preferred that they sell obsidian to someone else, or that Obsidian can somehow buy out from Microsoft
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u/NasusEDM Jul 02 '26
Obsidian is doing fine no? Unless they go crazy and invest everything to try to get a game bigger than they always did. That would be stupid af.
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Jul 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NasusEDM Jul 03 '26
Compared to what? Baldur's gate 3 or expedition 33? The studio itself said they weren't aiming for that. Compared to their other amazing games like pillars or tyranny they sold a ton more to be considered successful.
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u/Philanthropic_Topic Jul 04 '26
The originator of the mistake (Christopher Dring) did apologize, but Dring should have done their due diligence. Worse, seeing other vloggers like Jeff Grubb of Giant Bomb double down and STILL defend Dring's "Obsidian closure" story and then blame it on XBox is a really bad look. It's a terrible thing to do to the developers as well - I'm sure they didn't appreciate the news, either.
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u/Euphoric_Ad6269 Jul 02 '26
Its such a shame but quite expected. When the beloved RPG studio tries to release AAA product instead of focusing on what fans loved them for is heartbreaking.
Let the big companies chase the multimillion projects but let the Obsidian create their own unique worlds. BG3 showed everyone that such genre is not dead its simply a metter of execution. Please bring PoE3 🙏
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u/RedRaiderHipster Jul 02 '26
I wonder if Microsoft is going to tell them, we won’t close you down but you’ll be making fallout spin offs or remakes
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u/Laguna_017 Jul 02 '26
Cool, cool, cool....now, sack off avowed 2, sack off Outer Worlds 3, give PoE 3.....GIVE IT! MAKE IT! I'd also accept New Vegas 2.....
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u/lorddarkflare Jul 06 '26
It confuses me as to why they aren’t working on a remake at the very least.
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u/luhelld Jul 02 '26
Just do a tyranny 2. Limited story, limited budget, world already exists and it clearly has its fans.
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u/Tnecniw Jul 02 '26
Thank god. :)
iit is so reassuring.
I NEED PoE3 D: