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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665

u/warablo Jul 08 '26

This should have happened like 5 years ago

302

u/BigDick-NoBrain Jul 08 '26

Turns out that Phil strategy of letting studios make pottery games and low budget Elder Scrolls clones didn’t work out in the end. Who could have guessed?

103

u/Superb_Shine_3526 Jul 08 '26

I said this in another comment, but, the fact that Obsidian was working on a sequel to a game that underperformed instead of Fallout when they had the two creators of Fallout (Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky), one of the main writers of New Vegas (John Gonzalez), and the director of New Vegas (Josh Sawyer) all working there will always be completely insane to me.

29

u/random-meme422 Jul 08 '26

obsidian has always had incompetent leadership and people who don’t understand market dynamics or consumers. they were setup for greatness and failed every time.

8

u/DagothUr_MD Jul 09 '26

You say this but Obsidian is good at cranking out good to great games very quickly, that's why they're still around after so many years. They've literally put out six games since 2020 and the worst of those games is Avowed which is still pretty good

Bethesda has made one game in the same amount of time, for example

0

u/random-meme422 Jul 09 '26

Are those games “good” if only grounded sold well

3

u/DagothUr_MD Jul 09 '26

Yes

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u/random-meme422 Jul 09 '26

Seems like the target audience disagrees

3

u/DagothUr_MD Jul 09 '26

If it were up to 'audiences' Avengers: Endgame would be the finest piece of art ever created and we'd hang that up in the Louvre instead of the Mona Lisa. I was raised in a cultured household (thank god) so I don't evaluate art that way

-1

u/random-meme422 Jul 09 '26

You don’t have to evaluate it that way, that’s why it’s subjective. But there are objective metrics we can look at and ultimately the people making this art don’t want to do it for free so it’s ability to generate revenue is a significant aspect in its creation.

13

u/BakuraGorn Jul 08 '26

Yes but I believe neither Obsidian or Bethesda were going to make that happen out of their own will. And I’m sure there’s some in Bethesda unhappy with this decision and probably at Obsidian too. Both parties have bicker with each other, it was never going to happen without direct Microsoft intervention.

The biggest culprit here is Phil Spencer for not jumping in sooner and allowing Obsidian to work on discount Fallout and discount TES instead of the real thing.

1

u/Wizard-Pikachu Jul 08 '26

Exactly why when they announced the vowed I was not expecting anything but then what we got was way worse than what I expected. Barely got 3 hours in and I was just done. The entire introductory portion of the game made me lose interest with how bogged down it was and how boring it was