Obsidian doesn't want another 3-game year, but Fallout: New Vegas' example shows how the studio can make games faster without needing "to change everything every time"

Obsidian released three games in 2025, but that doesn't mean the studio intends to run an RPG assembly line. Development of Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 dragged on for ages, and it's sheer coincidence they happened to be ready for launch the same year that Grounded 2 entered early access. But the studio is hoping to release games at more regular intervals going forward, and Fallout: New Vegas offers a pretty good example of how it can be done.

With Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian built on the existing technology of Fallout 3 to develop a game in less than two years at the relatively low price of $8 million. "We don't need to change everything every time," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart tells Bloomberg (paid article link). "We've had this debate internally: Do people really care that we spent an extra hundred person-months on the inventory screen?"

It's a strategy that also worked well for Obsidian's debut title, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, which similarly was built on existing technology and developed in short order. Both KOTOR 2 and New Vegas are remembered as brilliant games offering deeper systems and more engaging storylines than their predecessors – though it's worth noting that both launched in seriously flawed technical states.

Still, maybe there's a happy medium to be found for Obsidian. Bloomberg cites a DICE presentation last year from Obsidian's Justin Britch and Marcus Morgan, who are set to replace Urquhart when he eventually retires. Then, the pair suggested that the studio's best path forward was retaining its current employees, avoiding unsustainable growth, and making more regular games aimed at moderate success rather than industry-shaking ambition.

"You need to keep having at-bats, because at some point, if you can consistently make good stuff, you’ll get those breakout hits," according to Morgan.

Microsoft, still dazzled by the infinite money it seems to imagine in the AI business, is reportedly pushing its Xbox studios toward a difficult 30% profit margin. Obsidian hopes that inexpensive hits like Pentiment, which wasn't a juggernaut but was still profitable, will continue to meet Microsoft's approval. Even if, as Uruqhart suggests, "maybe where we are going to be from a profitability standpoint isn't going to be 30%."

For now, Obsidian has a lot of fires going, including continued work on Grounded 2, original games, and potential new titles in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity and Avowed. The Outer Worlds 3, however, is not currently in the works, and the studio is examining the response to this year's games to make sure it's pursuing the best path forward. Even if that's as simple as, say, deciding Avowed should've had a proper crime system.

"Our job, all of us here, is to go make games that people want to play and buy," Urquhart concludes, "and if we continue to do that, then we have a solid business."

Obsidian has made many of the best RPGs of all time.