Obsidian Entertainment’s new RPG, Avowed, underwent extensive overhauls throughout its six-year development period, including two reboots that totally revamped its initial concept. Initially developed as a multiplayer Skyrim-like experience set in the Pillars of Eternity world, Avowed was later a more dedicated single-player RPG before finally releasing as a narrative-driven adventure.
In an interview with Bloomberg last month, Avowed director Carrie Patel explained how the game came to be. Development started in 2018 with the aim of combining the open-world freedom of Skyrim with Destiny’s co-op gameplay. Players were initially supposed to explore the world of Eora with friends on cooperative quests. But by 2020, it had become apparent the multiplayer mechanics weren’t working out as planned and the game saw a total reformulation of its direction. Once the second reboot, Patel was made director and took over the team of approximately 80 people and basically re-started the project from the beginning.
Part of this game rebranding also arose from a shift away from entirely open-world gameplay. Rather than creating Skyrim-sized unified worlds, Obsidian shifted to a zoned, more structured system similar to what exists in The Outer Worlds. By doing so, they were able to place emphasis on providing a more rich, established narrative experience but still provide the players with full agency in playability to explore and utilize extreme RPG features.
In spite of these development delays, Avowed’s delay to 2025 was not technical but a strategic move by Xbox. Xbox head Phil Spencer said that the delay was made to level the Game Pass releases because 2024 was already filled with large titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, STALKER 2, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Fortunately, the relocation has paid off. Avowed has received generally positive reviews since its release. The game’s thrilling gameplay, and engaging story has won widespread acclaim from fans, although there have been criticisms about some bugs experienced by gamers. Despite being released on Xbox Game Pass, the game has also performed relatively well commercially, skyrocketing Steam’s U.S. bestsellers list.
Despite the fact that Avowed is not the multiplayer Skyrim it was originally intended to be, its development into a single-player RPG has cemented it as another quality title in Obsidian’s library.
