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[cormack12]

Xbox spent billions on acquisitions and now seven years later many of their studios are still struggling to ship. Avowed shipped, but sadly their Steam numbers are even lower than Dragon Age Veilguard. Most reviewers seem to agree that the game is at least adequate, but some consider it a failure. Now Outerworlds 2 is on the horizon, giving Obsidian a chance to prove that they can deliver and perhaps even put Xbox back on track.

Avowed's Initial Performance and Obsidian's Outlook​

• Avowed did not achieve a lot of engagement during its first weekend of Steam sales, with Dragon Age: Veil guard having more engagement, and this is concerning for the game's success .

• Obsidian, the team behind Avowed, is already working on Outer Worlds 2, which suggests that the success or failure of Avowed will not crush them, and this could be the beginning of a golden age for the company .

• Avowed shipped on February 18th and received average reviews, with critics praising the combat but criticizing the writing, characters, and art style, providing the team with something to build on .

• Fergus, the Studio head, mentioned in an interview that they have created a great action combat system with Avowed, and they are evaluating what makes sense next, but he did not commit to a sequel

The goal of shipping Avowed may not have been to make it a hit, but rather to build a team that could ship a game on a next-gen console and survive the acquisition storm, which they succeeded in doing

 

[Buggy Loop]

Steam CCU only again for "pLaYer EnGagEmEnT". Does she have gamepass & battle.net?

Meanwhile Circana's Xbox

Rest of her video is fine honestly.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

• Avowed shipped on February 18th and received average reviews, with critics praising the combat but criticizing the writing, characters, and art style, providing the team with something to build on .

Did critics truly claim the art style was bad..? Game looks incredible, environments look awesome...

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I can assure you that the last 5 years of MS releases (even including Zenimax) have been an unmitigated failure

 

[Buggy Loop]

Did critics truly claim the art style was bad..? Game looks incredible, environments look awesome...

Yea I don't understand that one.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

I can assure you that the last 5 years of MS releases (even including Zenimax) have been an unmitigated failure

Really? Lol

 

[Ashamam]

The goal of shipping Avowed may not have been to make it a hit, but rather to build a team that could ship a game on a next-gen console and survive the acquisition storm, which they succeeded in doing

Huh? Talk about reframing the narrative.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Did critics truly claim the art style was bad..? Game looks incredible, environments look awesome...

The art style is truly revolting. Purple vomit. Critics sometimes like that style…

 

[simpatico]

Microsoft won't let anyone see inside the black box. Surely the Xbox community has some people who've mostly figured out extrapolating achievement counts into sales ballparks. I don't think Microsoft are really in a position to defund or close them. They relatively quickly and reliably release good-enough titles onto Gamepass to keep that homepage fresh. They're kinda becoming streaming slop merchants like some of the movie studios who only release on Netflix.

 

[xrnzaaas]

So releasing a game on current-gen systems and not getting shut down is a success now?

 

[LectureMaster]

The goal of shipping Avowed may not have been to make it a hit, but rather to build a team that could ship a game on a next-gen console and survive the acquisition storm

Since when has the bar been this low now? How hard is it just to own up to it that the game underperformed and they have just moved on to the next project?



This is what they said themselves:

Obsidian Lead Says Avowed Is The "Most Confident" He's Been For A Game's Launch​

Obsidian Lead Says Avowed Is The "Most Confident" He's Been For A Game's Launch

"This is the most confident I've ever been in my experience at this stage of the project."

www.thegamer.com

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Steam CCU only again for "pLaYer EnGagEmEnT". Does she have gamepass & battle.net?

Meanwhile Circana's Xbox

Rest of her video is fine honestly.

Imagine launching a new AAAA game that only ranks 4th in its release week…

How is that good?

 

[Shifty1897]

Imagine launching a new AAAA game that only ranks 4th in its release week…

How is that good?

Come on now, it was 80 people on this project, there are AA studios with more people than that.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Come on now, it was 80 people on this project, there are AA studios with more people than that.

80 is a lot. And it was developed for many years

This is by every objective measure a commercial failure

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Come on now, it was 80 people on this project, there are AA studios with more people than that.

context:

Now they are owned by MS.

 

[Kurotri]

I'm really not sure why she thinks Obsidian is due for some "golden age"?

 

[Zacfoldor]

The best description I've came up with for Avowed is that it was a fart in the wind.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

So releasing a game on current-gen systems and not getting shut down is a success now?

this was the spin for The Vailguard too.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

80 is a lot. And it was developed for many years

This is by every objective measure a commercial failure

AAA by size is ~500+

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

Steam CCU only again for "pLaYer EnGagEmEnT". Does she have gamepass & battle.net?

Meanwhile Circana's Xbox

Rest of her video is fine honestly.

This is an obsidian game. It will sell at 30 usd and under. I’m still waiting for Alan wake 2 at 25 usd.

 

[PauloRoberto]

No. What do they say? If the title of a article is a question, by default the anwser is no, because whoever is writing wants to prove a point but knows it cannot...

 

[adamsapple]

The art style is truly revolting. Purple vomit. Critics sometimes like that style…

I can't wait till it comes to a platform you can play firsthand so you stop these third rate 'youtuber' parroting points.

 

[Kilau]

80 is a lot. And it was developed for many years

This is by every objective measure a commercial failure

And it was rebooted on J6! That alone earns it 20 million virtual sales for courage.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I can't wait till it comes to a platform you can play firsthand so you stop these third rate 'youtuber' parroting points.

I could play it tomorrow if I wanted on my ghetto 10 year old ps4 pro level PC

My disdain for avowed is because it looks awful and seems to have really bland world building and writing to go along with the cringe art direction

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Since when has the bar been this low now? How hard is it just to own up to it that the game underperformed and they have just moved on to the next project?

I'm intrigued by this new narrative "The goal isn't to make money, it's to train hard so we can make money later"

MS never admits anything is ever wrong until the moment they close a studio though. So let's see how this goes

 

[Humdinger]

I enjoyed the video. I thought she had interesting insights on how the director might have understood the game's limitations and still reap the benefit of the systems that worked (e.g., combat), using what they developed for Avowed in future games.

She also made good points about how productive Obsidian has been, compared to other studios (e.g., Initiative, Undead Labs). They are able to finish games - not necessarily great ones, but at least they get them shipped. A sub service needs that kind of developer.

 

[RoboFu]

Juan Valdez says " it's pretty good, like rich Columbian coffee"

 

[Kacho]

The chances Outer Worlds 2 isn’t more woke slop is slim to none so I strongly disagree with her optimism.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Imagine launching a new AAAA game that only ranks 4th in its release week…

How is that good?

Obsidian? AAAA?

When has that ever happened, in all their history as a studio

 

[Wildebeest]

People are always complaining that there are no successful AA games any more. Here it is, enjoy it, suckers.

 

[Ceadeus]

I think people are sick of these light action rpg. It's just like eating leftover soup for the fifth day in row.

 

[ZehDon]

• Avowed did not achieve a lot of engagement during its first weekend of Steam sales, with Dragon Age: Veil guard having more engagement, and this is concerning for the game's success .

Odd point at this stage of the gane. Microsoft has canabalised sales of its titles with Game Pass, encouraging people to dip in for a month to play a game on release. They've been building and establishing this as their primary focus for a few years now, so it stands to reason most of its engagement wouldn't be through sales, but via Game Pass subscriptions. Good or bad, that's where Microsoft want things to go. So, using charts on the Xbox platforms - like the Xbox App on PC or on Xbox console charts - would provide a better understanding of its overall engagement, and comparing sales on Steam isn't an apples to apples comparison and certainly not worth highlighting.

 

[Sebastian1295]

What is with people hyping up this mid ass game? I've seen nonstop posts on reddit saying 'Avowed is the best RPG i've played in the last 10 years etc etc' and just constant hyping up this mid ass product like they're bots with marching orders. Avowed is the netflix originals of games. It's just gamepass fodder that's thrown onto a subscription service and forgotten about in 3 months after release once newer and better games come along to bury it.

 

[Humdinger]

The chances Outer Worlds 2 isn’t more woke slop is slim to none so I strongly disagree with her optimism.

Yeah, I didn't share her optimism there. She seemed excited that the "old team" was back, but if it's the same team that brought us the first Outer Worlds, I'm not excited. She must've liked the first game more than I did.

 

[Topher]

Did critics truly claim the art style was bad..? Game looks incredible, environments look awesome...

I have to say it looked a lot better playing than in the previews. Turned out it really looked great when you saw all the areas. Previews did not do it justice

 

[Bry0]

Did critics truly claim the art style was bad..? Game looks incredible, environments look awesome...

I was a little critical of the character designs in the previews but I’m playing the game now via gamepass and I will happily eat crow. The game is fun and environmental art beautiful, gives me the same feeling as peak WoW zones did. A little bit shallow compared to KCD2 which I am also playing but after 60 hours I needed a break from that before I dive back in. I’m pleasantly surprised with how fun avowed is.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I'm really not sure why she thinks Obsidian is due for some "golden age"?

Only if they put out a game with characters and writing on par with Kotor 2. Which I don't see happening.

 

[Topher]

What is with people hyping up this mid ass game? I've seen nonstop posts on reddit saying 'Avowed is the best RPG i've played in the last 10 years etc etc' and just constant hyping up this mid ass product like they're bots with marching orders. Avowed is the netflix originals of games. It's just gamepass fodder that's thrown onto a subscription service and forgotten about in 3 months after release once newer and better games come along to bury it.

Truth is usually somewhere in between Avowed certainly isn't the best RPG I've played in the last 10 years. Not even close. But is it "mid ass product"? No....I wouldn't say that either. It is a really good game though. I played it for 70 hours so "game pass fodder" or not, it was worth every minute of it.

 

[ReBurn]

I still haven't played it. The art director controversy turned me off of it and I haven't felt compelled to start it. It's been installed on my Series X since launch and I'll get around t it, but no hurry. From what I've seen it looks like a decent game overall.

 

[Crayon]

I really want to try this, but waiting for it to go cheap.

 

[Durin]

I'm just hoping The Outer Worlds 2 is better.

Obsidian has always had buggy releases, kinda like a Eurojank RPG where I'll put up with the jank for the ambition & inventiveness.

Everything I've seen of Avowed has just been either bland or competent. The internet works in binaries though, so I've seen people pretend it would wow people like Skyrim if it came out in 2011, or that it's Veilguard trash...neither of which seem true.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Below expectations but keeps their job.

Oh wait that was my annual review.

 

[Sebastian1295]

Truth is usually somewhere in between Avowed certainly isn't the best RPG I've played in the last 10 years. Not even close. But is it "mid ass product"? No....I wouldn't say that either. It is a really good game though. I played it for 70 hours so "game pass fodder" or not, it was worth every minute of it.

I agree that there's an in between for most games and that the truth lays somewhere in their good point. I'm willing to give the game a chance just like most games if it comes to the ps5 and hopefully it does.

 

[Sooner]

It's only hope at this point is PS5. Unfortunately, I don't think that will save it. Game just seems to be mid.

 

[ManaByte]

It’s truly depressing how many good games people miss out on due to retarded tribalism.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Meanwhile Circana's Xbox

By now we all know that sales, not engagement, determine the success or failure of a game (remember Hi-Fi Rush and Tango?)

And this is the Player Engagement Tracker, not the sales chart. Laura Fryer was (rightly) talking about Steam sales, which are quite abysmal so far.

 

[adamsapple]

What is with people hyping up this mid ass game?

I'm willing to give the game a chance just like most games if it comes to the ps5

 

[poppabk]

It's a very solid game from what I have played. Looks really good and has a light RPG feel, like you don't immediately feel bogged down and feel like you have to clear your calendar to keep playing.

 

[Hugare]

Bought the game for my girlfriend who loves Skyrim and she enjoyed it.

Me, on the other hand, think its Skyrim's retarded cousing with zero charisma. Gameplay is above average, certainly better than Skyrim, but everything else is just meh.

From what I've played, the story and characters were just so boring. The world is beautiful but so "gamey", doesnt feel lived in.

Feels like a game that have gone through development hell or many reboots, cause it feels like it was made by commitee.

Even The Outer Worlds seemed more inspired.

Oh and the worst UI that I've experienced in a while. Jesus its bad.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

the game isn’t bad. Some people just get butthurt by colors.