The Outer Worlds

Update []:

Shortly following today's report from The Game Business, journalist Jason Schreier has stated Obsidian actually isn't at risk of being shuttered by Microsoft. In a social media post, he said:

"Despite a report this morning, I can confirm that Obsidian is not in negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation."

Original Story: The Outer Worlds and Avowed developer Obsidian has been named as yet another team within Xbox Games Studios at risk of closure.

The Game Business lists the RPG specialist alongside the other publicly named studios fighting for their futures: Ninja Theory (Hellblade), Compulsion (South of Midnight), Double Fine (Psychonauts), and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3).

Christopher Dring of the outlet states the five developers "and others" are in "deep in negotiation with Microsoft to avoid closure". Previously, it's been said these teams may be let go of and made independent once more. The scary part of is that "others", besides the already five named Xbox studios, are also in talks to avoid being shut down by Microsoft.

The significant cuts are expected to be confirmed next week.

A lot of the frustration behind the cuts internally at Microsoft apparently stems from the disappointment behind Call of Duty's recent poor performance. First-party Xbox teams believe they're being punished, as Dring puts it:

"Even if Obsidian had delivered an incredible year, even if The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed had performed five times the numbers that they did, it wouldn’t have offset the drop on Call of Duty. A game like that, and Candy Crush, and Minecraft, and Warcraft, make a lot of Xbox’s output seem almost insignificant."

All eyes are now on next week as Microsoft confirms exactly what it will be doing with the five — and potentially more — internal studios that have been named as being at risk.

Having most recently produced Avowed and The Outer Worlds series, Obsidian also created Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Alpha Protocol, and the second Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game.

[source thegamebusiness.com]