The Survival of the Frugal. How Obsidian Entertainment is Trying to Find Its Identity

For 22 years, Obsidian Entertainment has managed to survive in the most challenging situations. Thanks to its diversified approach to development, today it occupies a unique position within the structure of Microsoft Gaming. However, the studio is still in search of its identity, unable to create a truly major hit in its flagship genre, RPGs.

Maximum Productivity — Not a Guarantee of Success

The outgoing year 2025 has been the most productive in Obsidian's history in terms of the number of releases. In less than 10 months, the studio released three projects:

• Avowed — a fantasy role-playing adventure set in the Pillars of Eternity universe;
• Grounded 2 — a sequel to the successful cooperative survival simulator inspired by Disney's "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" film series;
• The Outer Worlds 2 — the continuation of the sci-fi RPG promoted as the spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas.

The flagship titles were supposed to be the two major role-playing games, which the team has always excelled at. However, neither game became a hit.

Released in February, Avowed did not achieve outstanding results. Analysts from VG Insights and Gamalytic estimate the Steam version sales at around 300,000 copies, generating $16–17 million in revenue. Game director Carrie Patel noted only that the studio is satisfied with the sales and audience size.

The Outer Worlds 2, despite receiving a warm reception from the press and players, is also difficult to call a hit. In its first month, it earned about $11 million on Steam, and its sales are estimated at 170,000 copies. How it fared on Xbox is unknown due to a lack of data from Microsoft. The game's results nevertheless pale in comparison to the first part, which exceeded Take-Two's expectations and eventually surpassed 5 million copies sold. Whether the sequel will achieve comparable results remains an open question.