The Outer Worlds 2 Director Responds To Critics "Running Their Mouths" About Obsidian's Changes After Xbox Layoffs

"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 Outer Worlds 2

As if things weren't already hard enough for the game industry, the past few weeks have been especially rough. We've seen news of over 3,000 Xbox employees being laid off, leadership changes across its studios, and id Software reportedly losing half of its workforce.

Obsidian Entertainment was among the Xbox studios affected by the recent changes and reportedly shifted its plans from an Avowed sequel to a new Fallout project. Brandon Adler, director of The Outer Worlds 2, recently shared his thoughts on LinkedIn regarding the online speculation surrounding Obsidian's current situation and its future:

"This has been an extremely difficult week at Obsidian. Not only have I had to say goodbye to some amazing game developers, but I've had to say goodbye to some of my best friends. I truly feel for every one of them. Know that if you are looking to hire one of these former Obsidian devs, you are hiring some of the best people around – both professionally and personally.

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. 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."

Adler also pushed back on the idea that Obsidian has lost what made the studio special, noting that many of the people behind its most beloved games are still part of the team:

"In most circumstances, 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. Like, literally the same people. The through line from KotOR2 to our current games is pretty clear.

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."

He wrapped up his thoughts by saying that when people are "running their mouths" about who Obsidian is now compared to what it was in the past, they are speaking with "zero insight into how a game is made" and who contributed to the studio's previous titles.

Xbox is apparently placing more emphasis on its major franchise and moving away from giving acquired studios the freedom to create new and ambitious projects. For now, it seems Obsidian won't be revisiting the Pillars of Eternity universe anytime soon.

Meanwhile, in an interesting bit of timing, the Federal Reserve has named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma as an advisor on its new Jobs and Productivity task force.

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