Obsidian was originally making Avowed as a co-op game until a change during development saw the studio “refocus”.
As reported by Eurogamer, the developer changed tack during the game’s development as they were “too focused on co-op”, according to studio head Feargus Urquhart. Known for quality single-player games, the idea that Avowed was originally penned, and being made, as a co-op game is quite the eyebrow-raiser.
This was revealed in the last episode of Obsidian Entertainment’s 20th Anniversary documentary series on the developer’s channel, which, while containing a lot of looking back at the history, shed some light on the future and the development of Avowed. You can see the full video below.
Urquhart revealed this change when reflecting on decisions he made over the past 20 years: “When I look back at 20 years, there’s decisions of mine that I feel really good about, there’s decisions that I feel not so good about… One of the things where I really pushed was that Avowed was going to be multiplayer, and I kept on that for a long time.”
This was, Urquhart says, in an effort to make the game stand out and be more attractive to publishers. However, as Justin Britch, head of development, goes on to say, this original focus came at the expense of how the studio approaches quests and dialogue. After a while, he says that they needed to “refocus really, and make sure that it was, at the end of the day, an Obsidian game and not something different.” This will be welcome news to fans of Obsidian’s games of years past, with the studio’s reputation in making some of the richest and most enjoyable single-player games going.
Avowed doesn’t have a specific release date yet, but it is speculated to come out next year; it will release on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
If you do want something to play cooperatively, check out our list of the best co-op games.
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