After a busy 2025, California-based game studio Obsidian Entertainment admits two of its three biggest game launches — The Outer Worlds 2, Grounded 2, and Avowed — failed to reach parent company Microsoft’s sales expectations. In a new interview with Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart explained that, despite shipping three big games last year, only Grounded 2 met Microsoft’s forecasts.
Speaking to Schreier, Urquhart clarifies that Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 were “not disasters.” “I’m not going to say this was a kick in the teeth. It was more like: ‘That sucks. What are we learning?'”
According to Urquhart, Grounded 2‘s success, alongside the disappointing performance of Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2, has led the Obsidian team to rethink its development approach. In the interview, Urquhart explained that the team is “think[ing] a lot about how much we put into the games, how much we spend on them, how long they take.”
Avowed, Obsidian’s vibrant fantasy RPG that shares a world with Pillars of Eternity, spent nearly seven years in development by the time it was finally released in February 2025. Sci-fi sequel The Outer Worlds 2, a project from the creators of Fallout, was released around Halloween 2025 after about six years in development. Meanwhile, Grounded 2 wasn’t even greenlit until Montreal studio Eidos Interactive pitched the project in early 2023. This discrepancy may encourage the team’s developers to reinvest their time and resources.
“We don’t need to change everything every time,” Urquhart said. “We’ve had this debate internally: Do people really care that we spent an extra hundred person-months on the inventory screen?”
Urquhart clarifies in the interview that, while Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 fell short of Microsoft’s targets, all three were critically and commercially successful.
Obsidian’s plan for the foreseeable future? Tackle new projects of all sizes and scopes — additional content for all three aforementioned games included. While The Outer Worlds 2 players can still anticipate updates, Obsidian confirmed it has no plans for a third franchise entry. The studio, however, confirmed that it will continue making content set in the Avowed universe.
