Obsidian Entertainmenthas long been a beloved name in the gaming industry. It has produced all-time classics likeStar Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith LordsandFallout: New Vegas, but also plenty of incredible original works, such as the twoPillars of Eternitygames andour 2022 Game of the Year,Pentiment. It’s no surprise that the studio’s founders cut their teeth onPlanescape: Torment,Fallout 2,Baldur’s Gate, and plenty of other highly regarded RPGs before forming Obsidian.
In 2018,Obsidian was acquired by Microsoftand became a notable member of the now enormous development conglomerate known as Xbox Game Studios. Obsidian is now one of Microsoft’s more prolific development houses, and seems to be defying widespread industry trends that have seen AAA game production grind to a crawl. 2025 is the year of Obsidian Entertainment.
Obsidian Entertainment Is Releasing 3 Games In 2025
Prolific Output
It was recently revealed thatGrounded 2’s early access will launch onXbox Game Pass day one, and it made me realizeObsidian is having an astounding year. The studio delivered one of 2025’s early highlights withAvowed’s release in February.Grounded 2will be next on July 29 (there’s no release window for 1.0 yet), andThe Outer Worlds 2will follow on October 29.
I enjoyedAvowedvery much, though I recognize others have many valid criticisms of it, andGrounded 2andThe Outer Worlds 2appear to be significant iterations on games that are held in a favorable light.It’s exceedingly rare to see a game developer drop three titles in a single year, much less three that are of (likely) high quality – and with few technical issues ifAvowedis anything to go by.
Obsidian’s Output Is Astounding In Modern Game Development
AAA Game Development Takes Forever
Obsidian seems to be doing the impossible in modern game development by getting so many projects out the door in such a short time span.Big-budget video game development time has notoriously balloonedin the last decade. The most extreme examples areGrand Theft Auto 6, which entered the conceptual phases in 2014, but didn’t really get underway until 2018, andThe Elder Scrolls 6, infamously announced at E3 2018 and without a peep in the seven years since.
Rockstar and Bethesda are almost outliers among the industry’s biggest names, though, throwing most of their weight into a single project at a time.Call of Duty, for example, has many studios working on separate titles to keep its yearly release schedule rolling; Ubisoft does similar with its many franchises. In fact, Ubisoft is an interesting comparison –the publisher’s subsidiary studios are aiming to release eight games this year, four of which are mobile games, and two releasing in early access.
The difference is thatUbisoft had over 18,000 employees in 2024; Obsidian has fewer than 300. Some of Obsidian’s astounding output could be due to coincidence. Three major projects may have just happened to come together around the same time. It also helps that two of them are sequels, meaning less development work has to go into the foundations.
But I also have a sneaking suspicion that Obsidian has talented project management. Looking atThe Outer Worlds,Avowed, and nowThe Outer Worlds 2,there’s a clear scope that constrains the studio’s action RPGs, a genre that has grown notorious for bloated games that take upwards of 100 hours to play. Obsidian’s modern RPGs are comparatively humble, divided into open zones, which conceivably help keep their narrative and gameplay scopes focused.
Obsidian’s consistent output may be partially why I didn’t hear about the studio being affected by therecent Microsoft layoffs. Microsoft is profitable enough to have kept those 9,000+ employees, but it’s unsurprising to see that a division releasing three games in one year wasn’t on the chopping block.Obsidian Entertainmentis poised to dominate 2025 with three major releases, and I hope it keeps the legendary development house in the good graces of its parent company.
