Anti-capitalist space exploration RPG The Outer Worlds 2 seems to have fallen victim to capitalism, as the studio confirms they have no plans to make a third title in the series. This was confirmed in a Bloomberg interview with developer Obsidian, who stated that the title underperformed and there were no plans to make another game under this banner.
During this interview, they also stated that the studio’s newest IP, Avowed, which was released earlier last year, also underperformed. Despite this, the studio does have plans to return to the world of Eora, which is shared between Avowed and their Pillars of Eternity franchise. Whether this means another Avowed title or we would see a new Pillars of Eternity game still remains to be seen.
More positively, Obsidian said that Grounded 2, released last year as well, was successful. In contrast, though, spent the least amount of time in development, so it most likely had the lowest cost of development of the three. Grounded 2 had been in full development for just over 2 years, compared to over six for both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.
Obsidian, since being acquired in 2018, continues to be involved in a multitude of projects, with the company at one point having six games in active development. In 2025 xbox started touting the studio would have three games they released in the course of 8 months, starting with Avowed in February, Grounded 2 following in early access in July, and The Outer Worlds 2 in October. Studio design director Josh Sawyer has now stated this was “the result of things going wrong,” with this series of events unlikely to be repeated.
He stated:
Spacing those releases helps the company manage its resources and not burn everybody out. It’s not good to release three games in the same year. It’s the result of things going wrong.
Avowed pretty publicly began its life as a multiplayer game, intending to be a hybrid of massive RPGs like The Elder Scrolls and Live-Service titles like Destiny. The multiplayer component was eventually stripped, resulting in an unstable development process until around three years into the project. The Outer Worlds 2 had its own struggles, though Bloomberg reports that a lot of this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Obsidian is now focused on developing games on shorter timelines with more spaced-out releases and more room for profits.
Referencing the high 30% profit margin expectations by Microsoft for Xbox Studio titles, Obsidian head Feargus Urquhart stated he hoped there was still room for the studio to take on riskier projects, accepting that “maybe where we are going to be from a profitability standpoint isn’t going to be 30%.”
As of now, we do not know what Obsidian Entertainment will tackle next, which is a rare occurrence, to be honest. Avowed is set to release on PlayStation 5 later this month, around a year after releasing on Xbox and PC. If nothing else, we are likely to get some glimpse into their next project later this year during the Xbox Games Showcase held in the summer, alongside the Summer Games Fest.
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