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Timing is everything when you’re shipping a video game. Digital distribution means a longer sales tail, but the opening week on the market and all the hype that surrounds it still matters the most. Game companies love to tout how many bazillion copies they managed to sell on opening day so they can then push more sales as time goes on, rather than scrambling over the ensuing months to try and patch up and re-market their titles.
Obsidian Entertainment is one of my favorite game developers. They’ve spent the last couple of decades making some of the best RPGs ever created. You might know them for their famous sequels to major franchises, like Fallout: New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic II, or (if you’re weird like me) Dungeon Siege III. However, I also love their original titles. They’ve made some incredible hardcore RPGs over the years like Pillars of Eternity, Alpha Protocol, and The Outer Worlds.
Through many weird twists and turns of production scheduling, they’ve got two different games launching in 2025. Towards the end of the year at some nebulous date, Outer Worlds will finally get a sequel, but in just a few days they’re launching Avowed. This seems like a new IP on the surface, but it’s actually also kind of a third installment in the dormant Pillars of Eternity…
