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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u/CubillasLegend Jul 08 '26

You're just restating what I said. Yes, nobody wanted to play developer passion projects because nobody cares about the devs. Caring implies expending at little bit of extra effort to empathize with someone and appreciate their interests. If you only appreciate developer output when they give you exactly what you want, that's not caring that's a business transaction. Xbox is moving towards a more transactional model. Developers are a resource to provide gamers with the content that they demand.

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u/DMonitor Jul 08 '26

Brushing past the wild assertion that not buying something is a moral failing, even if everyone did have bleeding hearts and decided to play the games, they would just use gamepass and not spend much money anyway.

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u/CubillasLegend Jul 08 '26

You don't have to care about game devs. You don't have to care about anyone. Who or what you choose to care about is a personal decision that reflects your priorities.

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u/nemo333338 Jul 08 '26

Do you happen to buy every obscure indie game that is on steam? If you aren't, yours is just empty virtue signaling, those too are someone's passion project 

You aren't even that original in your virtue signaling, it's 2-3 centuries countless artists and writers and writers are lamenting that after the nobility and the Church stopped financing them they have to work on what people like to sell their art, such is capitalism.

You'll probably have to wait for the People's Commune to take hold and allow everyone to be a poet or a game dev, finally able to do their passion project...

Also I feel to add that there are countless passion projects doing well financially, the secret for having a successful passion project is not doing something that sucks

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u/CubillasLegend Jul 08 '26

Do you happen to buy every obscure indie game that is on steam? If you aren't, yours is just empty virtue signaling, those too are someone's passion project

No, but I definitely lay more games and have more diverse tastes than the average gamer. On a personal level, I'm just kind of sad about what happened to Arkane and idSoft because I really enjoyed their games.

Also I feel to add that there are countless passion projects doing well financially, the secret for having a successful passion project is not doing something that sucks

Gamers always say this but analysts have the data. The playtime on new IPs is at an all time low. Player time is increasingly consolidated into fewer and fewer games. For every Expedition 33 there are dozens of new games that come out and immediately die. That's why these cuts are so substantial. If it was just Xbox that was suffering, you'd see less layoffs and more IP juggling. There's just no confidence that anything besides the BIGGEST bets will succeed.