Outer Worlds 2 is looking "incredible", says Obsidian boss, but they did consider "throwing the whole team on Avowed"

rockpapershotgun.com:

Satirical space RPG sequel The Outer Worlds 2 was announced back in 2021. Since then, we've heard nary a peep about it, with developers Obsidian focusing on Pillars Of Eternity successor Avowed and their ace survival game Grounded, which left early access in September 2022. According to Obsidian's studio head Feargus Urquhart, the project is rubbing along nicely. But it was not ever thus: during the opening years of the Covid pandemic, there was apparently "talk of 'do we stop Outer Worlds 2 and just throw the whole team on Avowed'."

That's from a new, hour-long interview with Limit Break Network, in which Urquhart talks about this year's Xbox studio closures and layoffs, the trick to retaining talent, the influence of Baldur's Gate 3, and (as is mandatory for an Obsidian interview nowadays) the pipedream of making sequels for Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas.

"It's going really well," Urquhart said of Outer Worlds 2. "And it's always easy for us to say that, because that's what we should say, when asked the question, but it actually is. I'm really impressed with the team." While Avowed remains the priority, of course, Obsidian have apparently built "a pretty good wall - not a wall, it's a semi-porous membrane" between that project and Outer Worlds 2 in terms of managing creative input and resources. I am inevitably picturing a web of mucus dividing the office, with Spacer's Choice branding on one side and mushroom bears on the other.

"Luckily, the lead programmer is the same lead programmer, Leonard Boyarsky is the same creative director, Brandon Adler's game director, Matt Singh was a tester on Fallout: New Vegas, and he's the head of gameplay and content," Urquhart added. "So we were very lucky that we have a lot of people on that game that get it, that worked on the first one and worked with us for a very long time."

Nonetheless, it sounds like it was touch and go for Outer Worlds 2 during the pandemic lockdowns. "We had a really hard time at the