{"id":68277,"date":"2026-07-13T08:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68277"},"modified":"2026-07-13T08:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:32:03","slug":"obsidian-director-blasts-people-running-their-mouths-about-how-the-studio-has-changed-after-xbox-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68277","title":{"rendered":"Obsidian Director Blasts People Running Their Mouths About How the Studio Has Changed After Xbox Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Obsidian Entertainment director Brandon Adler is tired of seeing &#8220;cold take artists&#8221; who are &#8220;running their mouths&#8221; about how the studio has changed following recent Xbox layoffs.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">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 <u>Eurogamer<\/u>). Noting that it&#8217;s been &#8220;an extremely difficult week&#8221; for the team, he spent time bidding farewell to those who were let go before addressing those who have been &#8220;coming out of the woodwork to talk about&#8221; what the studio &#8220;is or what it isn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;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&#8217;t,&#8221; Adler said. &#8220;The number of times I&#8217;ve seen people, with no understanding of who has worked on our previous games or what they contributed, talk about how Obsidian isn&#8217;t who they used to be&#8230; is staggering. Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Obsidian was one included in the laundry list of Xbox game developers caught in the line of fire when Microsoft announced <u>widespread layoffs<\/u> last week. At the time, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described the cuts as &#8220;the most significant restructure&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It&#8217;s a restructure that saw studios Ninja Theory and Undead Labs enter terms with new ownership as <u>Double Fine and Compulsion Games<\/u> became independent. While the fate of Marvel&#8217;s Blade developer Arkane Studios <u>remains unclear<\/u>, developers like <u>ZeniMax Online<\/u>, <u>id Software<\/u>, and <u>Obsidian<\/u> are said to have lost large chunks of their teams.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Amid uncertainty across Xbox, Adler is fighting back against those misrepresenting the talent Obsidian has gathered over the years. He said that, in many cases, &#8220;the people in lead or director roles are the same people that worked on games like The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, and New Vegas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Like, literally the same people,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The through line from KotOR2 to our current games is pretty clear.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">The 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"What is an Xbox? Microsoft has spent 25 years trying to answer the question, but for fans, the answer is easy: \u201cXbox\u201d evokes one-eared headsets wired into the memory card slots of massive controllers with breakaway cords. A dashboard with gleaming skeuomorphic blades and avatars adorned in earned accessories. That sound that plays when a hard-earned Achievement finally pops. \u201cXbox\u201d means heavy-duty hardware. Tactile sensations. Friends connecting for the first time. And that\u2019s before we even get to the games.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;It may be that the very idea of an Xbox game is coming to an end. Microsoft has undeniably shifted its tactics, with a new focus on multi-platform releases, handheld Xboxes that are actually miniature Windows computers, and the potential that future Xbox consoles may simply be gaming PCs. So now seems as good a time as any to look back at the entire history of Microsoft\u2019s console journey and rank the best Xbox games, with help from our friends at Outside Xbox, the multimillion-subscriber channel that serves up weekly videos about video games and video game-adjacent things&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;When we say \u201cthe best Xbox games,\u201d we mean the ones that most evoke that weighty sense of \u201cXboxness.\u201d Some are first-party, most are exclusives, and all of them are indelibly tied to the legacy of and fondness for a platform that\u2019s left a massive mark on gaming. These are the 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time. We'll be updating this list daily with 25 games at 7am PST\/10am ET\/3pm GMT from Tuesday, 20th January to Friday, 23rd January, until number one is revealed.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Is Obsidian the same as it was 20 years ago? No, of course not. Nothing stays the same. But the DNA at Obsidian is the same as it always was. The same DNA that created KotOR, New Vegas, NWN2, and Stick of Truth.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;I&#8217;m extremely proud of our history and I am also excited for who we have become.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Adler signed off, asking readers to remember that &#8220;people spouting off about Obsidian, running their mouths about who we are now vs. what we were then&#8221; are individuals who have &#8220;zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games.&#8221; Meanwhile, in the aftermath of last week&#8217;s layoffs, <u>Bloomberg<\/u> reported that Obsidian recently <u>canceled a sequel for its fantasy RPG, Avowed, and started work on a return to the Fallout universe<\/u> with a new game led by Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">You can catch up on some of the other post-layoff news that has emerged <u>here<\/u>. For a look at what&#8217;s going on at Bethesda, you can <u>click here<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He&#8217;s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/obsidian-director-blasts-people-running-their-mouths-about-how-the-studio-has-changed-following-xbox-layoffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obsidian Entertainment director Brandon Adler is tired of seeing &#8220;cold take artists&#8221; who are &#8220;running their mouths&#8221; about how the studio has changed following recent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5664,1767,2626,897,26406,5506,121,2214,2770,162],"class_list":["post-68277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-blasts","tag-changed","tag-director","tag-layoffs","tag-mouths","tag-obsidian","tag-people","tag-running","tag-studio","tag-xbox","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68277","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=68277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}