Obsidian confirms the failure of The Outer Worlds 2 and has no plans for a third installment
, by Thibaut
In an interview with Bloomberg, Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, spoke candidly about a variety of topics. He admitted to several mistakes and the commercial failure of two of the company's last three games.
With around 280 employees, Obsidian released no fewer than three new titles in 2025. While Grounded 2 is considered a “huge hit”, the same cannot be said for The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed, which failed to meet Microsoft's commercial targets. These two games were developed over a period of more than six years.
Josh Sawyer, Studio Design Director, was also extremely critical of the decision to release all these productions in the same calendar year.
"Releasing three games in the same year is not good. It's a sign that things have gone wrong. Spacing out releases allows the company to better manage its resources and avoid burnout."
It was also clarified that The Outer Worlds 3 is not currently planned. However, the studio still wants to continue creating games in the Pillars of Eternity universe, where Avowed is set. The latter was originally a multiplayer game that combined elements from Skyrim and Destiny. This formula was ultimately abandoned.
This article also confirmed that Xbox now demands a 30% profit share from several of its studios, which is why many are choosing to port their games to PS5.
Finally, Obsidian is already working on new projects of varying ambition and scale, such as additional content for Grounded 2 and The Outer Worlds 2 too.
Source: bloomberg.com