For a time this made Obsidian's position particularly precarious. Back in 2010 when Fallout: New Vegas got an 84 on Metacritic , Bethesda denied Obsidian a bonus contingent on the game receiving an 85 on the review aggregator. This led Obsidian CEO Francis Urquhart to announce the cancellation of a planned project codenamed "North Carolina." While bigger studios like Bethesda can weather less successful releases like Fallout 76 , for a time it seemed like Obsidian was just one flop away from falling ap

There is one small problem with The Outer Worlds , however, that could prove to be a far larger problem if not solved in time for Avowed . If Obsidian Entertainment is going to take on a giant like The Elder Scrolls series, fixing this issue will be an absolute necess

The dragons of Skyrim are described as making no distinction between debate and combat. Their language - practiced by Nords and the Dragonborn as "the Voice" - has inherent magical abilities. However, there was never a time where this description actually matched Skyrim 's dragon combat. Players never needed to respond to a dragon's shout with another shout, for example. All they had to do was hack and slash at the dragon until it died, using the power of the Thu'um like any other blunt weapon in their arse

Avowed has the potential to both benefit from and fall victim to close comparisons with other fantasy games. When the trailer for Obsidian's upcoming first-person RPG dropped, Bethesda fans were quick to notice surface-level similarities with The Elder Scrolls , with many hoping the game could fill the gap left by the long wait for The Elder Scrolls

With the release of Murder on Eridanos, Obsidian can move on and reassign its resources to the several other projects it has in the works, with at least one of them being large in scope. The Outer Worlds was a huge success for the company, and there is a chance that Obsidian will look to follow-up with a sequel at some po

One of the biggest missed opportunities in Skyrim is the lack of developed dragon lairs. While some dragons can be found sitting on top of Word Walls , there is never a sense that dragons have much of a relationship to their environment. There are no opportunities to discover dragons that have hoarded huge piles of treasure, have grown to great sizes, or have come to reflect their environment in any physical way. Mostly, Skyrim 's dragons serve as random encounters to allow players to unlock more shouts, while reminding the player that they are in fact the Dragonb

While Avowed is undoubtedly a huge undertaking, Obsidian Entertainment somehow has another project in the works that could be equal to the scale of Avowed, if not greater. Josh Sawyer, design director at Obsidian Entertainment, took to Twitter in August 2020 and noted in no uncertain terms that he's directing his own project and that the project isn't Avowed. Josh Sawyer worked on the Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights series early in his career. More recently, he was responsible for pitching Pillars of Eternity which saw the company get out of a tight financial spot, and went on to direct the two games in that series. He's perhaps most well-known for directing Fallout: New Vegas, a fan-favorite entry in the post-apocalyptic RPG ser

Obsidian has become an extremely productive developer with several projects in the pipeline at the moment. While some of these games are unlikely to be released for a few years, many fans are excited about what the studio has in store for the gaming industry. Since Microsoft bought Obsidian , it seems that the team has been ramping up development, and with Microsft behind them, it seems as though it has more resources accessible to them than ever bef

Obsidian is currently developing two major first-person RPGs, Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 . When looked at alongside smaller projects like Grounded , it certainly seems like the studio is busier than ever bef

Todd Howard recently announced that The Elder Scrolls 6 is still "in the design phase" over three years after its initial reveal, with the studio focusing primarily on Starfield , its first new IP in over 25 years. It's likely that, similar to Bethesda, most of Obsidian's resources are currently focused on Avowed . The Outer Worlds 2 's trailer may have poked fun at games announced long before their development had begun in earnest, but it's also likely a self-confessed culprit of exactly t

If Avowed guide wants to distinguish itself, players should be able to see the frontier's fragile communities rise and fall depending on their actions. Avowed 's setting may be more traditionally medieval than Pillars of Eternity , but by setting its upcoming game on a frontier Obsidian could have far more flexibility, telling a story far away from regions of Eora with more established lore and allowing the player to have a huge influence over the game's wo

Grounded stands out among the list of current projects at Obsidian Entertainment, as it has technically already been released but just in Early Access. It's a survival RPG where players embody a person who has been shrunk and must survive the terror of creatures like bees and spiders in a backyard. Grounded is in early access and has already seen several updates with new content, and this looks set to continue for some time. The unique game has resonated well with gamers and critics alike and will likely be a big focus for Obsidian going forward until and probably after it has received a full rele