Avowed Developer CEO Says Studio Has Grown Significantly Under Xbox

Summary

  • Obsidian Entertainment grew to over 280 staff after being acquired by Xbox Game Studios, expanding team to work on multiple projects.
  • Despite troubled development, Obsidian’s Avowed impressed with a polished experience and successful RPG release.
  • The acquisition by Xbox has allowed Obsidian to continue working independently, focusing on quality and longevity in the industry.

When a large company takes over a production studio, it often leads to concerns due to potential consequences such as cancelled projects, job losses, and so on.

Contrary to some scenarios, it isn’t true for the game developer Avowed, which is owned by Xbox Game Studios (having been purchased in 2018 by them), namely Obsidian Entertainment.

Obsidian Entertainment Balloons To Over 280 Staff Under Xbox

According to a conversation with IGN, reported by Windows Central, Obsidian Entertainment’s CEO, Feargus Urquhart, shared insights on personnel shifts within the company and the impact of Microsoft’s acquisition on their operations.

In 2018, our team was roughly 170-180 members when we launched XGS and Xbox. Over the past five to six years, not only has our studio expanded to around 285 employees, but we’ve also forged strong partnerships with studios like Heavy Iron and Beamdog. This is according to Urquhart’s statement.

With the new hires, Obsidian Entertainment was able to tackle several projects concurrently. As a significant segment of their development team focused on creating a AAA title like Avowed, another part of the studio successfully developed and released the survival game Grounded, as well as the dialogue-heavy game Pentiment.

In the unveiling of their latest project, Avowed, Obsidian Studio has disclosed that this role-playing game required six years to create and experienced several restarts during production. Despite these challenges in development, the action-RPG has managed to captivate both gamers and critics alike. Our assessment concludes, “Avowed demonstrates that size doesn’t always matter. Rather than focusing on creating a game that exceeds all others in terms of scale, Obsidian remained faithful to their creative vision and delivered a refined product that I became deeply fond of.

On occasion, a studio acquisition benefits both parties, but this isn’t a universal truth. Although Xbox possesses Obsidian, it appears their original parent company is content with the development team maintaining its autonomy. In a recent gaming industry dialogue, Obsidian executives discussed their avoidance of massive profits and desire to endure for a century as reasons for their success amidst the wave of layoffs and studio shutdowns plaguing the industry.

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2025-02-23 03:09

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