A game director at Obsidian Entertainment has criticized “cold take artists” who have been discussing the studio’s current situation and how it relates to its past projects.
Last week it was reported that Obsidian is one of the studios affected by Xbox’s major ‘reset’, which involves laying off thousands of workers across all its departments and refocusing on its biggest franchises.
According to a WARN notice in California, Obsidian – which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 – is losing 52 workers, including 43 based in its California offices and nine in-state remote workers.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn over the weekend, Obsidian veteran Brandon Adler – who joined the studio 20 years ago and is currently game director on an as-yet unannounced title – paid respect to colleagues losing their jobs.
“This has been an extremely difficult week at Obsidian,” Adler wrote. “Not only have I had to say goodbye to some amazing game developers, but I’ve had to say goodbye to some of my best friends. I truly feel for every one of them. Know that if you are looking to hire one of these former Obsidian devs, you are hiring some of the best people around – both professionally and personally.”
Adler – who was most recently game director on The Outer Worlds 2 and gameplay design director on Avowed – then condemned those who don’t work for the studio who have been saying Obsidian isn’t what it once was.
“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,” he stated.
“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.
“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. The through line from Knights of the Old Republic 2 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 Knights of the Old Republic, New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Stick of Truth. I’m 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 versus 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 a Bloomberg interview with Obsidian head Fergus Urquhart published earlier this year, it was implied that Grounded 2 was “a big hit” for the studio, but that neither The Outer Worlds 2 nor Avowed met sales expectations.
A report from the same publication posted last week claimed that Obsidian has now cancelled a planned sequel to Avowed to start work on a new Fallout game.
