Obsidian aims to avoid another year with three game releases, but Fallout: New Vegas demonstrates how the studio can accelerate development without overhauling their approach.
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Obsidian launched three games in 2025, but that doesn’t mean they’re cranking out RPGs at a breakneck pace. The development of Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 took considerable time, and it just so happened they were ready for release in the same year Grounded 2 hit early access. The studio aims to release games more consistently in the future, taking cues from Fallout: New Vegas as a model for success.
With Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian leveraged the existing tech from Fallout 3 to create a game in under two years for a modest budget of $8 million. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time,” Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart shared. “We’ve debated internally: Do players really care if we spent an extra hundred person-months on the inventory screen?”
This approach also benefited Obsidian’s first title, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, which was similarly built on existing technology and developed quickly. Both KOTOR 2 and New Vegas are celebrated for their rich systems and compelling narratives, though they did launch with notable technical issues.
There may be a balanced approach for Obsidian moving forward. A recent DICE presentation featured Justin Britch and Marcus Morgan, who are set to succeed Urquhart. They suggested that the studio’s best strategy involves retaining current staff, avoiding unsustainable growth, and focusing on regular releases aimed at moderate success rather than aiming for blockbuster hits.
“You need to keep having at-bats, because at some point, if you can consistently make good stuff, you’ll get those breakout hits,” Morgan noted.
Microsoft, still captivated by the potential of AI, is reportedly pushing its Xbox studios toward a challenging 30% profit margin. Obsidian hopes that affordable successes like Pentiment, which may not have been a massive hit but was still profitable, will continue to align with Microsoft’s expectations. Even if, as Urquhart suggests, “maybe our profitability goals won’t always hit that 30% mark.”
Currently, Obsidian is juggling multiple projects, including ongoing work on Grounded 2, original titles, and possible new entries in the Pillars of Eternity and Avowed universes. However, The Outer Worlds 3 is not in development at this time, as the studio evaluates the reception of this year’s releases to ensure they’re on the right track. Sometimes, that might even mean recognizing that Avowed could have benefited from a more robust crime system.
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“Our job, all of us here, is to create games that people want to play and buy,” Urquhart concludes, “and if we keep doing that, we’ll have a solid business.”
Obsidian has crafted some of the best RPGs of all time.
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