A director at Obsidian Entertainment has shared their thoughts about the “extremely difficult week” at the studio, stressing how hard it’s been to see “a bunch of cold take artists coming out of the woodwork” and “spouting off” about “what Obsidian is or what it isn’t”.
Brandon Adler, who’s currently directing an unannounced game at Obsidian, jumped onto LinkedIn to talk about how hard it was to “say goodbye to some amazing developers” and “some of my best friends”, particularly when people without inside knowledge “spread an enormous amount of misinformation”.
After insisting that anyone who employs a former Obsidian developer would be “hiring some of the best people around – both professionally and personally”, Adler wrote: “Another difficult aspect is having to see a bunch of cold take artists coming out of the woodwork to talk about what Obsidian is or what it isn’t.
“The number of times I’ve seen people, with no understanding of who has worked on our previous games or what they contributed, talk about how Obsidian isn’t who they used to be… is staggering. Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation.”
Adler added that “in most circumstances”, “the people in lead or director roles are the same people that worked on games like The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, and New Vegas”.
“Like, literally the same people,” he stressed. “The through line from KotOR2 to our current games is pretty clear.
“Is Obsidian the same as it was 20 years ago? No, of course not. Nothing stays the same. But the DNA at Obsidian is the same as it always was. The same DNA that created KotOR, New Vegas, NWN2, and Stick of Truth.”
Adler – who’s worked at Obsidian for 13 years – finished by saying that he was “extremely proud of our history and I am also excited for who we have become”.
“Just remember, when you are seeing people spouting off about Obsidian, running their mouths about who we are now vs. what we were then, you are listening to someone crow about something with zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games.”
In response, one industry peer said, “Anyone who has gotten to work with Obsidian knows how truly special the studio is”.
Days after Microsoft’s devastating 3200 job cuts at Xbox, the true scope of the redundancies became clearer. Obsidian Entertainment, which reportedly lost a quarter of its staff in the cuts, has had its priorities shifted too, with Xbox deciding to move Obsidian onto the Fallout franchise, in alignment with the company’s stated intent to focus only on its biggest franchises. And interestingly, this project is said to be a new Fallout game, not a remaster of an existing title.
As a result of the cuts and the shift in development focus, Obsidian has apparently had to cancel multiple projects, including a sequel to 2025’s well-received role-playing game Avowed.