Obsidian Admits Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 Missed Sales Expectations
Obsidian is often described as one of Xbox’s most active studios. In 2025 alone, the developer released three major titles. The first was Avowed, a fantasy action RPG set in the world of Pillars of Eternity. Months later, Grounded 2 launched in early access on Xbox Series X|S and PC. Finally, The Outer Worlds 2 arrived at the end of October on PS5, Xbox, PC, and Game Pass, closing a very busy year for the studio.
So how did these games perform commercially? An interview with Obsidian leaders Feargus Urquhart, Josh Sawyer, and Brandon Adler sheds light on the situation, and the picture is not entirely positive.
Obsidian Explains Why Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 Failed to Meet Sales Targets
Both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 failed to reach Microsoft’s sales targets, while Grounded 2 met expectations and is considered a success.
“They’re not disasters,” studio head Feargus Urquhart says. “I’m not going to say this was a kick in the teeth. It was more like: ‘That sucks. What are we learning?’”
While releasing three games in a single year may seem impressive, Obsidian now believes it was a mistake. Only Grounded 2 performed as expected, while the other two titles—each developed over more than six years—fell short commercially. As a result, the studio is now rethinking its approach.
“I don’t think anybody really likes five-, six-, seven-year dev cycles. We’ve kind of grown into that,” explained Brandon Adler, director of The Outer Worlds 2.
“Spacing those releases helps the company manage its resources and not burn everybody out. It’s not good to release three games in the same year. It’s the result of things going wrong,” added Josh Sawyer.
Urquhart also revealed that Microsoft expects profit margins of around 30% for some Xbox releases. This helps explain why games like The Outer Worlds 2 also launched on PS5.
Looking ahead, The Outer Worlds 2 will be supported with expansions, as Obsidian is not currently working on a third game and no plans have been shared so far for Avowed 2.
It’s also worth noting that Avowed is officially coming to PlayStation 5 on February 17, 2026, alongside a major first-anniversary update that hits all platforms. That should boost the game’s sales performance significantly.
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Obsidian today is not the same as it was 20 years ago. The name is the same, but the teams are totally different. Same with Rocksteady, NetherRealm Studios and so on and so forth. It just takes people a moment to realize this. They buy the products for a while, noticing the slow degradation in quality and then it just collapses upon itself and the studios name is no longer enough to sell mediocre titles.
Remember, they wanted to sell OW2 for $80 – until people revolted and they ‘lowered’ it to $70. Now it goes on sale for $40 every month.
Seems like the real story is that Microsoft cannibalized their own sales with GamePass to prop up the Xbox platform that resoundingly lost the last two generations, largely because of their own confused and self-defeating strategy. Then they wondered why sales of $70 games people could day-one rent for $15/mo and finish in two weeks with distinct conclusions and no endgame didn’t exactly launch into the stratosphere.