Obsidian Entertainment suffered significant layoffs and multiple project cancellations during the recent massive Xbox reboot, but some members of the team are still holding out hope that Avowed 2 will someday see the light of day.
Avowed 2 is Cancelled, But Some of the Team Is Still Working On it
Avowed was one of the big Xbox Game Pass Day One exclusives when it launched in February 2025 and, although the game wasn’t a massive financial hit, it was well received by critics and action RPG fans.
The game went on to receive a handful of quality of life improvements through post-launch patches and even rollout out a huge anniversary edition update to coincide with its PS5 launch. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the team at Obsidian Entertainment was already hard at work on a follow up to the 2025 release, but that game has reportedly been cancelled in the new era of Xbox.
According to Jason Schreier’s reporting at Bloomberg, Obsidian Entertainment has cancelled multiple projects to clear room to focus on supporting bigger tentpole franchises like Fallout. This aligns with Asha Sharma’s new directive, which seems to be shifting priorities away from a sprawling Game Pass library and back towards a smaller group of big franchises that put out more frequent installments.
Although that means Avowed 2 is no long moving forward, Schreier’s report also suggested that a small group of Obsidian Entertainment team members are continuing to work on Avowed 2 while they wait for new work to arrive.
Schreier ellaborated on this part of the report in a recent video essay diving further into The Cruelest Part of Xbox’s Layoffs:
“Obsidian [has] a small team that was working on Avowed 2, that’s going to still work on Avowed 2 even though it is canceled. While they wait for other projects like Fallout to be ready for them. Maybe in hopes of getting it uncancelled, it was actually further along than most people would guess for a sequel to a game that came out last year. So I think their hope is perhaps they’ll get it so close to finish that Xbox will look at it and say, ‘Okay you can finish and release this, it won’t cost that much more to finish it’.”
Fans of the first Avowed who are hoping to see the next chapter in the world’s story likely shouldn’t get their hopes up too high. It is encouraging to hear that the sequel was further along than you might think, but this is far from any sort of official confirmation that Avowed 2 is actually going to become a reality.
Be sure to check back soon for more news and updates on Obsidian Entertainment and what’s next for Xbox after its major shift in strategy.
Avowed is currently available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles.
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