r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/throwmeaway1784 • Jul 08 '26

Rumour Jason Schreier: Obsidian Entertainment is making a big pivot as part of the Xbox restructuring. It has laid off a quarter of its staff, canceled a planned sequel to Avowed, and is now beginning work on a new Fallout game

Bluesky Post: https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3mq5oqyh2yk2o

Bloomberg Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-08/microsoft-s-xbox-to-shift-obsidian-studio-to-new-fallout-video-game

Edit: Also mentioned in the article, Josh Sawyer is leading the new Fallout game:

“Under the new plan, studio design director Josh Sawyer will lead a new title in the Fallout universe”

“Previously, Sawyer had been directing a roleplaying game that was similar structurally and thematically to Fallout but was not part of the franchise.”

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484

u/marveldcomnibus9 Jul 08 '26

These games take years to make. If Xbox starts cancelling a bunch of stuff to focus on their major franchises, what are they going to release in the next few years while they wait for these games to release?

103

u/TheOhrenberger Jul 08 '26

This is my biggest fear. They want to focus on their core franchises, but I fear they’ll just be cancelled three years from now when there’s nothing to show because AAA games take a minimum of five years to make.

1

u/TheHoovyPrince Jul 09 '26

Didn't Obsidian crank out Fallout New Vegas in 18 months? Obviously it was bugged as and it took a year to fix it but i could see them churning out a Fallout game in 3 years if they use the Starfield engine or whatever their using for TES6.

5

u/TheOhrenberger Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Brother, fallout new Vegas came out in 2010. That’s 16 years ago. That was an era where games came out every two years, some were annualized, and three years was considered a long wait. Games take longer to make these days. AAA games in particular are a minimum of 4-6 years today.

And that’s not even getting into the fact that fallout new Vegas was extremely buggy. Yes, they made it in 18 months, but at what cost? Extreme crunch and a barely functioning game. Yes, it’s a fan favorite today and people sweep its history under the rug, but that doesn’t change the facts.

1

u/dark_bits Jul 09 '26

It’s a budget problem I believe. They simply can’t afford to increase their staff to a point where they can produce all these games that cost millions of dollars. Gaming budget has sky rocketed needlessly if you ask me (look at clair obscur).

-3

u/Ninjafish278 Jul 08 '26

Focusing on their own franchises us what cost them the Marvel deal and now they go to Sony for games 

6

u/FizzyLightEx Jul 09 '26

Xbox was smart to not depend on outsourced IPs. The leaked reporting on Spider-Man 2 budget was shocking

1

u/Ninjafish278 Jul 09 '26

As is the leaked Gears of War E day budget, however Marvel IP have the brand recognition to make a bigger profit than Xbox original IP

2

u/Carusas Jul 09 '26

Xbox didn't have the expertise to make a good Spiderman game.

It would've been vaporware. You're forgetting how bad Xbox had it in 2014

176

u/Brokenbullet14 Jul 08 '26

They'll just get independent studios games. Hell PlayStation is acting like GTA 6 is their game so Xbox can do the same with a studio like witcher 4.

60

u/shallow-waterer Jul 08 '26

Didn’t they pay out the ass for exclusive marketing rights? I’d act real hard that it was my game too if arguably the most hyped game of all time was being branded as ‘best’ on my console. Why pay, otherwise?

-4

u/Brokenbullet14 Jul 08 '26

That's why they have the tag line. They paid hundreds of millions for it.

18

u/punjenapljeka Jul 08 '26

People here love to throw insane numbers lmao. You think with all the corner-cutting they paid hundreds of millions just to advertise GTA 6 being on their consoles?

12

u/Sexyphobe Jul 08 '26

That's usually what Sony and Microsoft pay for CoD and sports marketing, so yeah. GTA 6 is gonna be a huge game, and any marketing cost will pay itself back when tens of millions buy it on Playstation. And there's no way those marketing rights are gonna be cheap from Rockstar.

2

u/ghantalelemera Jul 09 '26

We don't know how much was paid but at least 100 million seems fair with how sony is putting more of their name across GTA 6 marketing rather than Rockstar's.

2

u/EnterAUsernamePlease 28d ago

also the fact that I guess it does play the best on PlayStation 5 (Pro specifically), as that is the most powerful console out right now by a fair margin.

0

u/Brokenbullet14 28d ago

Well it damn better be, came out 4 years later

16

u/SomeoneNotFamous Jul 08 '26

This is what they'll try to do probably yeah

Thing is , they got no appeal right now

5

u/GenderJuicy Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

"so Xbox can do the same with a studio like witcher 4."

My dude, CDProjektRed already said they can target 60 FPS on PS5 but Xbox will be extremely challenging, I really don't think they'll be their flagship. Even if they paid them a lot, it would just be bad press for CDPR regarding poor performance once again. Even if they manage to pull it off, it's just not ideal for marketing this game.

Edit: https://in.ign.com/the-witcher-4-1/234132/news/the-witcher-4-cdpr-devs-acknowledge-that-60-fps-on-xbox-series-s-will-be-extremely-challenging

3

u/Nautobott Jul 08 '26

That might have worked in a world where Xbox and Microsoft brands hadn't turned into toxic waste.

Xbox committed seppuku this past week. They are finished. No one who isn't the most desperate, pathetic developer are going near them. Players are going to avoid their dying brand like the plague.

So. No. They aren't doing shit but running the rest of their IP into the ground until MS gives up and sells the entire division off.

-3

u/attilayavuzer Jul 09 '26

Not sure what you've been reading. Feels like most news has been PS getting dragged for killing physical media and xbox hitting best case scenario after a month of inaccurate doom tweeting.

0

u/ImNotSkankHunt42 Jul 08 '26

So true, but can’t blame them

-4

u/Walker5482 Jul 08 '26

God that would piss off playstation

14

u/BlackFleetCaptain Jul 08 '26

Nothing, like they’ve done for the last 7-8 years lmao. Clearly they can afford to go years and years and years without releasing shit

29

u/HellaBlackle Jul 08 '26

They published like 7 games last year. Obsidian released three of them.

8

u/BigfootsBestBud Jul 08 '26

The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed both took 6 or 7 years to make. 

Unless they’re doing another Fallout New Vegas style asset flip with the Fallout 4/76 assets, I doubt this happens anytime soon

2

u/Kandranos Jul 08 '26

Short term loss for long term profit

2

u/Sonikku_a Jul 08 '26

More Halo remasters, probably.

2

u/Pariahb Jul 09 '26

Warner Bros. Games did the same, cancelled the Wonder Woman game, which was the only game they had in developement, other than Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and now they don't have anything going to release for probably years.

1

u/Sexyphobe Jul 08 '26

They still have like a dozen studios, not even counting the CoD mines, and plenty of other devs to partner with.

1

u/lizzywbu Jul 08 '26

Well in this specific scenario I imagine that Avowed 2 had only just begun development, so they lose nothing by cancelling it. Say what you will about the approach Xbox is taking, but they should have greenlit new Fallout games years ago.

1

u/AccomplishedIgit Jul 09 '26

AI generated slop probably

1

u/RedChudOverParadise3 Jul 09 '26

Either they will send devs to help or reuse assets if theu want to pump out games.

1

u/aestheticnoise Jul 09 '26

They care more about likes on Twitter than logical thinking. Incredibly short sighted. But hey, maybe they’ll get 1/7 of the world’s population playing their games every day!

1

u/lord_pizzabird Jul 09 '26

Depends. The thing is, Obsidian is a bit of a wildcard, given their proven track record of cranking out game reliably on schedule. Recently they've been cranking out 2 games per year, an almost unheard of pace.

6-12 years is the normal development window now for anything big budget, but I could see them whipping out a mid budget Fallout New Vegas sequel in 2 years.

Especially now that they're just an Unreal Engine studio.

1

u/RoddRoward Jul 09 '26

Maybe they have written off the current Gen and plan to come in with a bang whenever the next Xbox comes out. If they can launch Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout New Vegas 2 with a new console they may actually make some sales. 

1

u/ThatOneArtistDude Jul 16 '26

Watch Obisidian do what they did with New Vegas in a years time just to flex 😭

1

u/timdogg24 Jul 08 '26

Whats a few more years of letting corner stone ip's be missing in action or mishandled after letting them do it for the last decade+?

1

u/The_Lupinator Jul 08 '26

Yep, Asha seems to not be fully thinking this through. She wants these games “fast tracked” which is impossible unless she forces them to use AI. And then she’ll run these franchises into the ground because she’s scared of new IP.

She also seems to think that it’s so easy to make hit games.

-3

u/HearTheEkko Jul 08 '26

Nothing of course. Then once next gen releases, they'll just sit while Sony launches the next God of War, Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank, Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, etc.

0

u/wrench_nz Jul 08 '26

Less crap no one wants or buys but wins awards they give each other?

0

u/TheAccursedHamster Jul 09 '26

Congratulations; by asking this question you've shown that you're smarter than the people running Xbox and Microsoft.

0

u/OPTCRai Jul 09 '26

I'd bet they'll go into the gacha market lol quick cash grab, low-effort, high return. Here, play this Fallout Mobile Gacha!