This week, Xbox announced a sweeping overhaul of its business that will see the company cutting 3,200 total jobs by next summer. That decision has already led to catastrophic results for studios under Xbox that have reportedly been gutted, including Doom developer Id Software. Obsidian Entertainment especially took a hit as part of the first layoff wave, losing 25% of its staff amid a major shake-up in the studio\u2019s direction. According to a Bloomberg report, the remaining team has been tasked with making a new Fallout game as Xbox tightens its focus on its biggest IP. As a result, that directive reportedly means the team will be pushing aside some projects it was working on, including a sequel to 2025\u2019s Avowed<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As with everything surrounding Xbox at the moment, the details are hazy. Some reports note that the team intends to keep tinkering with <\/em>the project in the background with hopes of re-pitching it eventually, but all signs indicate that it\u2019s not a priority for Microsoft right now. It\u2019s disappointing to think that the team may not get a shot at Avowed 2<\/em> after building such a sturdy foundation that begged to be reinforced. Even more frustrating, though, is that Xbox seems all too ready to squander the world Avowed <\/em>is built on at the worst possible moment.<\/p>\n Though Avowed <\/em>was the start of a new series in 2025, the RPG actually exists within Obsidian\u2019s Pillars of Eternity universe. Introduced in 2015\u2019s Pillars of Eternity<\/em>, the series centers around the fictional world of Eora. In many ways, Eora is a standard high-fantasy realm, but one plagued with supernatural phenomena and religious conflict. The most fascinating detail of the universe is that it doesn\u2019t have true gods. Rather, it has artificial ones created by an ancient race to engineer a sense of moral order. That juicy idea sets it apart from your typical Dungeons and Dragons universe.<\/p>\n That premise made for a killer CRPG. Pillars of Eternity <\/em>launched to rave reviews in 2015. At the time, it felt like the start of a renaissance for the genre, calling back to classic PC RPGs like Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em>. Obsidian capitalized on that momentum in 2018 with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire<\/em>. Though it wasn\u2019t a financial hit out the gate, it found an audience that launched the series to cult status.<\/p>\n The series seemed to go quiet when Microsoft acquired Obsidian in 2018, as the studio worked on games like The Outer Worlds<\/em> and Grounded<\/em>. It finally reemerged in 2025 with Avowed<\/em>, which told a new story in Eora centered around a deadly plague. Though the RPG\u2019s compact scope was polarizing to those who were expecting a dizzyingly vast open world to rival Elder Scrolls, Avowed <\/em>served as an excellent introduction to an intimidating CRPG universe. It felt like Pillars of Eternity was poised for a mainstream moment that Xbox could build on. That no longer seems to be the plan, considering that Obsidian is now reportedly working on a new Fallout game.<\/p>\n There was a time when that decision would have seemed sensible, if not inevitable. CRPGs can be a niche genre for PC enthusiasts, not so much something built for Xbox Series X owners. On paper, it makes more business sense to pass a very popular IP to the team that arguably created the most-revered Fallout game, New Vegas<\/em>.<\/p>\n Xbox\u2019s timing feels entirely off, though. In 2023, with Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>, Larian Studios proved that there is still a major hunger for CRPGs. The award-winning game helped more players discover the joys of a dense, choice-driven adventure set in a fleshed-out fantasy universe. Few games have tried to capitalize on its success in the following years, but that\u2019s because few studios have the means to do so. (Even Hasbro, which controls the IP by way of Wizards of the Coast, is struggling to find a studio that is willing to make Baldur\u2019s Gate 4<\/em>.)<\/p>\n![\"Big](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-4.15.59\u202fPM.png?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
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