If you were hoping to return to the Living Lands for a sequel, that trip is on hold. Avowed fans got a rough piece of news this week: Obsidian Entertainment has cancelled plans for Avowed 2, redirecting the studio's resources toward a brand new Fallout game. The shift is part of a broader Xbox restructuring that has sent shockwaves through the first-party lineup.
How Obsidian landed here
The story starts with Josh Sawyer, the designer best known for directing Fallout: New Vegas. Sawyer had reportedly been developing a different RPG at Obsidian, one that shared structural DNA with Fallout. Xbox and Bethesda saw an opportunity, and the project has now been redirected into a proper new Fallout game, with Sawyer leading it.
That pivot came at a cost. A quarter of Obsidian's staff was laid off as part of the wider Xbox reset, which also saw thousands of cuts across Microsoft's gaming division and several first-party teams parting ways with the company entirely. Avowed 2 didn't survive the restructuring, at least not in any meaningful form.
Here's the thing: a small group of staff is reportedly still attached to Avowed 2 with the hope of reviving it at some point. But there's no timeline, no greenlight, and no guarantee that revival ever happens.
What this means for Fallout fans
For players who have been waiting on a single-player Fallout since 2015, this news lands very differently. Fallout 4 is over a decade old. Fallout 76 scratched a different itch entirely with its online structure. The Prime Video series has kept the IP visible and pulled in strong viewership, but it has also made the absence of a new mainline game feel more obvious.
Bethesda is occupied with The Elder Scrolls 6, which is reportedly still at least two years from release even now. A new Fallout from that studio is likely close to a decade away. Obsidian stepping in with Sawyer at the helm is the most realistic path to a proper single-player Fallout in the near term.
Sawyer's history with the franchise matters here. Fallout: New Vegas is widely regarded as the high point of the modern Fallout era, praised for its reactive writing, faction depth, and respect for player choice. His involvement is the kind of detail that turns cautious optimism into genuine anticipation.
The Avowed side of the equation
For players already deep in Obsidian's fantasy RPG, the cancellation of a sequel stings. Avowed built a dedicated fanbase with its first-person combat, branching dialogue, and dense world design set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. The idea of that world expanding further now feels distant.
What most players miss in news like this is that cancelled sequels rarely mean the original loses support entirely. Avowed itself is still out there, and if you haven't finished it or explored every build, there's plenty left to do.
The key here is that Obsidian's direction is now firmly pointed at the Fallout universe for the foreseeable future. Whether Avowed 2 ever gets a second life depends entirely on how this new Fallout project performs and what Xbox's priorities look like on the other side of this restructuring.
Where things go from here
This is a story with two very different audiences reacting in two very different ways. Avowed fans are mourning a sequel that never got to exist. Fallout fans are cautiously excited about the franchise getting a genuine single-player entry led by someone who has done it before.
Both reactions make sense. The reality is that Xbox is making big bets on its strongest franchises, and Fallout, especially with the TV series keeping it culturally relevant, is one of the clearest ones. Obsidian with Sawyer attached is a compelling argument for that bet paying off.
If you're spending time with Avowed while waiting for more news, the Avowed strategy guides cover everything from build optimization to New Game+ strategies to help you get the most out of what's already there.
