Obsidian Dev Blasts ‘Cold Take Artists’ for Running Their Mouths

Obsidian Entertainment has just delivered Avowed, Grounded 2 (Early Access), and The Outer Worlds 2 all within a single calendar year. Yet the studio was deeply shaken during the first wave of 1,600 mass layoffs across Microsoft’s gaming division, with another roughly 1,600 cuts still expected. Xbox eliminated 50 positions at Obsidian and reportedly pivoted the studio’s development roadmap away from an Avowed sequel toward a new Fallout title. Now, The Outer Worlds 2 game director has spoken out about the past week’s turmoil, including a flood of online speculation regarding Obsidian’s current state and its future under Xbox.

“This has been an extremely difficult week at Obsidian,” he wrote on LinkedIn, as reported by Eurogamer. “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.”

Adler continued with a sharp rebuke:

“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. 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.”

The game director joined Obsidian in 2006 as a tester on Neverwinter Nights 2 and has since risen through the ranks. His LinkedIn profile currently lists him as working on an unannounced project. Obsidian famously shipped Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, one of the most revered RPGs of its era. Since then, the studio has focused on building original worlds, including the fantasy CRPG series Pillars of Eternity and the Fallout-inspired sci-fi shooter The Outer Worlds.

This week, social media has buzzed with conjecture about which projects Obsidian chose to prioritize and how its studio culture may have shifted over time. Adler pushed back forcefully against claims that the studio’s DNA has fundamentally changed.

“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. I’m extremely proud of our history and I am also excited for who we have become.”

He added, “Just remember, when you are seeing people spouting off about Obsidian, running their mouths about who we are now vs. what we were then, you are listening to someone crow about something with zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games.”

According to Bloomberg, Obsidian was already deep into development on a sequel to last year’s Avowed when the cuts hit. The studio’s focus will now shift to a new Fallout project, though work on the Avowed sequel reportedly continues in the meantime. As a multi-game studio, Obsidian was also developing other titles, including a project led by design director Josh Sawyer that shared many similarities with a Fallout-style RPG. He is now reportedly leading the new Fallout game instead.

All of this unfolds as Xbox doubles down on its biggest franchises, retreating from the Game Pass-era strategy of letting acquired studios pursue diverse, new projects aimed at attracting subscribers. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reportedly wants the next Halo and Fallout games released faster than previously planned. Both titles still appear to be years away, regardless of how many developers are thrown at their production pipelines.