{"id":67383,"date":"2026-07-09T17:53:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67383"},"modified":"2026-07-09T17:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:53:59","slug":"microsoft-reportedly-cancels-avowed-sequel-as-obsidian-focuses-on-a-fallout-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67383","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Reportedly Cancels Avowed Sequel As Obsidian Focuses On A Fallout Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/microsoft-reportedly-cancels-avowed-sequel-as-obsidian-focuses-on-a-fallout-game\/l-intro-1783541838.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subtitle\">The Fallout: New Vegas developer has not escaped Microsoft&#8217;s Xbox layoffs unscathed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Obsidian Entertainment, the developer behind the Pillars of Eternity series, <em>The Outer Worlds<\/em> and <em>Fallout: New Vegas<\/em>, is being reshuffled as part of Xbox&#8217;s larger reset and mass layoffs across Microsoft&#8217;s gaming business.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Bloomberg<\/em> reports that multiple of the studio&#8217;s projects have been cancelled \u2014 including a sequel to <em>Avowed<\/em> \u2014 and Obsidian will now focus on a new Fallout game.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Josh Sawyer, the director of <em>Fallout: New Vegas<\/em> and the Medieval adventure game <em>Pentiment<\/em>, is reportedly leading development of the new game. <em>Bloomberg<\/em> previously reported that Microsoft wants to focus its studios on successful franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein and Fallout. Getting a new Fallout game out is particularly relevant given that <em>Fallout 76<\/em>, a multiplayer survival game from 2018, is technically the most recent release and Fallout has now been adapted into a successful streaming series on Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This change in studio direction is also being paired with layoffs. <em>Bloomberg<\/em> reports that Obsidian is laying off around a quarter of its workforce. Based on WARN layoff notices, <em>Game File<\/em> writes that the studio is specifically cutting 52 employees, 43 who work in-office in Irvine, California, and nine in-state remote employees. Sister Xbox studio and Doom developer id Software is reportedly laying off around half of its staff, more than 90 employees, according to <em>Game File<\/em>. Outside its gaming division, Microsoft is also eliminating another 3,200 jobs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Microsoft acquired Obsidian Entertainment in 2018, a few years before the company&#8217;s massive purchase of Activision Blizzard King in 2022. Ongoing layoffs at Xbox and its studios are part of new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma&#8217;s attempt to fix Microsoft&#8217;s troubled gaming business, though it&#8217;s hard to see mass layoffs as anything other than a further obstacle to creating good games.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2210958\/microsoft-reportedly-cancels-avowed-sequel-as-obsidian-focuses-on-a-fallout-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fallout: New Vegas developer has not escaped Microsoft&#8217;s Xbox layoffs unscathed. Obsidian Entertainment, the developer behind the Pillars of Eternity series, The Outer Worlds&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15592,8271,3122,18541,258,3576,5506,3465,2506],"class_list":["post-67383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-avowed","tag-cancels","tag-fallout","tag-focuses","tag-game","tag-microsoft","tag-obsidian","tag-reportedly","tag-sequel","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}