With Game Pass in the mix, success is an odd thing to gauge for any first-party Xbox release nowadays since sales aren't necessarily paramount. Thankfully for the beloved RPG studio, Avowed's director says Obsidian's corporate overseers are happy with how it's doing.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Avowed director Carrie Patel notes that she doesn't "have a really firm metric." The first-person spin on Pillars of Eternity was, as is the case with every Xbox-owned game, released into Xbox Game Pass, meaning you can outright buy the game at full price if you like or just play the entire thing via a monthly subscription. That's great for anyone who wants to dip their toes into a game without dropping its full price tag, but it means developers like Patel can't just cite sales numbers as evidence of success.
"I've certainly been very happy, and all the folks I've talked to, both at the studio level and at the Xbox and Microsoft level, have been very happy with the reception to our game - to the number of people playing it, the amount of time they're spending in it," Patel continues. "But knowing that some people are coming to our game through Game Pass, some of them are purchasing on a variety of platforms, I don't know that there is one specific metric or number I could give you."
It's a complicated and interesting discussion because Microsoft shut down Hi-Fi Rush developers Tango Gameworks, among others, just last year after claiming its rhythm action game was also a success. Tango Gameworks has since been resurrected under another publisher, but its temporary demise brought up question marks about what an Xbox-owned studio would need to do to secure its future or if any potential closures were just the result of fiscal year number shifting.
Either way, Obsidian Entertainment is likely as safe as can be since it's been pumping out quality hits faster than almost any other developer this generation. Grounded 1.0, Pentiment, and Avowed have all been bangers, and the studio's still gearing up to release The Outer Worlds 2 later this year.
Wondering what's next? Check out every upcoming game in development at Obsidian.
