Obsidian boss says Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 had disappointing sales, but Grounded 2 was a hit
Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart spoke candidly about the state of his studio in a recent Bloomberg interview.
Coming off a year in which the studio shipped three games, Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart spoke to Bloomberg about game development, the state of his studio, and what they learned from last year’s accomplishments.
During Urquhart’s discussion with Bloomberg, he admitted that both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2, the two RPGs that the studio launched in 2025, disappointed sales-wise. “They’re not disasters,” he clarified. “I’m not going to say this was a kick in the teeth. It was more like: ‘That sucks. What are we learning?’”
Grounded 2 ended up being the most successful game of Obsidian’s trio of 2025 releases, relative to its production cost. The interview revealed that the game was made on a timeline of less than three years, going into production after a pitch from Eidos Interactive in 2023. While Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 both took roughly six years to make, Urquhart hopes to lessen that time to three years for future titles.
Source: Xbox Game Studios
The report also claims that Xbox has placed a 30 percent profit-margin goal on many of its internal studios. It’s this decision that has led to the release of first-party Xbox games on the rival PS5 console.
Moving forward, Obsidian Entertainment plans to continue making games both large and small in scope, but will take lessons from 2025 to shorten development cycles and production costs. No upcoming games from the studio have been announced, but the studio is reportedly planning additional content for The Outer Worlds 2 and Grounded 2.
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