Oftentimes, video games are delayed because the project hasn’t fully come together, riddled with performance issues or game-breaking bugs. But that’s not the case with Avowed, according to Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer. He pushed back Obsidian’s upcoming RPG because this holiday season was too crowded for the company.
Speaking with Game File (via VGC), Spencer discussed Avowed’s delay to February, noting Xbox currently has the benefit of a packed holiday season with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hate, and next month’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (not to mention Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024). This allowed Xbox to space out releases and give Avowed its own time to shine next year.
“We didn’t move it because Obsidian needed the time,” Spencer said. “They’ll use the time.”
I remember the devs of Avowed having put a delay in place maybe twice now… I feel that Obsidian still believes their game needs polish, and it’s convenient that they can push it further back due to the busy release schedule. Furthermore, I don’t trust Spencer to be completely honest. This seems like a misdirection buried in a truth about a busy release schedule.
I love Obsidian games but I hate how UE5 the trailers for this look. Just the assets they are using look very much like they’ve been bought from the store instead of handcrafted (I’m sure they were designed but this is a likely an art direction issue).
On the one hand, really hate the reason for the delay. Clearly this is Microsoft just looking to make specific financial quarters look good.
On the other hand, Obsidian games have just about always shipped with a bunch of jank. Considering this is meant to be their big push into the action RPG genre, it would be really nice if they could ship something that “just worked,” and this delay gives them a lot of extra time to polish.
I’d rather they take the time to make it more polished. Still wish for a third person view but I’ll take it if it’s the same quality as the Outer Worlds.
