Obsidian Entertainment director Brandon Adler is tired of seeing “cold take artists” who are “running their mouths” about how the studio has changed following recent Xbox layoffs.
The developer responsible for directing The Outer Worlds 2, as well as a new unannounced project, made his feelings about the conversation surrounding Obsidian clear in a LinkedIn post (via Eurogamer). Noting that it’s been “an extremely difficult week” for the team, he spent time bidding farewell to those who were let go before addressing those who have been “coming out of the woodwork to talk about” what the studio “is or what it isn’t.”
“Another difficult aspect is having to see a bunch of cold take artists coming out of the woodwork to talk about what Obsidian is or what it isn’t,” Adler said. “The number of times I’ve seen people, with no understanding of who has worked on our previous games or what they contributed, talk about how Obsidian isn’t who they used to be… is staggering. Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation.”
Obsidian was one included in the laundry list of Xbox game developers caught in the line of fire when Microsoft announced widespread layoffs last week. At the time, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described the cuts as “the most significant restructure” the gaming company has ever seen, resulting in 1,600 staff losing their jobs immediately, while another 1,600 are still yet to come throughout the financial year.
It’s a restructure that saw studios Ninja Theory and Undead Labs enter terms with new ownership as Double Fine and Compulsion Games became independent. While the fate of Marvel’s Blade developer Arkane Studios remains unclear, developers like ZeniMax Online, id Software, and Obsidian are said to have lost large chunks of their teams.
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