Avowed Was Originally Multiplayer to Try to Sell to Publishers Before Microsoft Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 September 2023 / 4,409 Views
Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed is set to be one of the biggest exclusives on Xbox consoles next year. The studio speaking in its 20th anniversary documentary revealed the game was originally planned to be multiplayer as a way to sell to publishers, however, this change once the studio was acquired by Microsoft.
"When I look back at 20 years, there's decisions that of mine that I feel really good about, and there’s decisions that I feel not so good about," said Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart.
"One of the things where I really pushed was that Avowed was going to be multiplayer. And I kept on that for a long time. And I think in the end, not I think, I know, in the end it was the wrong decision to keep on pushing on it."
The reason for the push for multiplayer was the thought it would be more "interesting" to publishers. However, now that the studio is part of Xbox Game Studios they pivoted to what they are best at, which is single-player games
"Why I had done it was when we were still independent and we were selling it it was a more interesting game to publishers," said Urquhart. "And when you’re asking for 50, 60, 70, 80 million you got to have something interesting to talk about and multiplayer made it interesting. It was sort of this idea of it's almost like the peanut butter and chocolate putting it together and like wow it must be something that's good."
Head of development Justin Britch added, "We were too focused on co-op and we were too focused on changing the way our pipelines work and the way that we write conversations and the way we do quests and everything else.
"After working on it for a little bit, we realized that we weren’t focused on the things that we’re best at. And so we made a pivot on the game basically, to refocus really and make sure that it was, at the end of the day, an Obsidian game and not something different."
Avowed will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, and Game Pass in 2024.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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As cool as it could've been to have co-op, it definitely would've watered down the experience of what Obsidian always does incredibly well, which is companions. Now with the pivot to single-player, according to the Game Director, Carrie Patel, companions are now a centerpiece of the game.
So for me, this was the better move. I'm still not that keen on their only being 2 playable races though. Humans and Elves. Especially when compared to Pillars of Eternity, which had 6.
POE was great, gamer's have plenty of time to play it before avowed releases.
PoE is one of the most underrated series
Shew, thank god. Would not have bought if it was some soulless multiplayer garbage
Was really interested in this game when I heard it was the in Pillars universe. Haven't seen much since then that's kept my interest.
If true, then you will likely notice some elements in the game that reek of that former design choice.
I remember reading a year or two ago that development had been rebooted from scratch, so you would certainly think that any remnants of previous design choices will be gone, but we'll find out here soon enough.
All good if true then.
At the end of 2020, so it's been over 2 and a half years now. The game only has a general 2024 release. So it could end up being 4 years in development if it releases next holiday season. Which with the game no longer being Obsidian's take on an Elder Scrolls game anymore and have it closer in scale to The Outer Worlds with open hub areas, that timing would make sense.
If it doesn't get pushed into 2025 of course.
So Microsoft didn't want multiplayer games from Obsidian and then suddenly when they also acquired the Bethesda Zenimax family didn't get hands on and not tell Bethesda to not pushthru with Redfall where Arkane studios also only specializes on SP good grief
Totally different cases here. And everything of this sort is decided on a case by case basis.
It may well be the case that Obsidian did a better job convincing Microsoft that their game should be changed than Arcane did. Or, It may be that Microsoft needed different things at different times. Or, It may be some totally different factor that we have no knowledge of.
This is an apple to oranges comparison.
First of all, it was Obsidian's choice to make it single player with MS being supportive of the change. Xbox is the publisher for Avowed and has been there from practically the beginning of development. By the time MS acquired Zenimax, Redfall was much deeper in development and Zenimax still works mostly independent from Xbox. Zenimax and higher ups ar Arkane said the game is going well, when in fact it wasn't. Apples and oranges comparison.
Not shocked.
Obsidian are known for SP games
