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Was there a stated reason why Pillars directors didn't want to work on Avowed?

Tencatta

By Tencatta
in Avowed Speculation

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Tencatta

Tencatta

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I noticed both Adam B. (can't spell last name) and Josh Sawyer both aren't on Avowed, although it seems other sub-leads are.

Was there ever an official reason stated for this? (Not looking for speculation, looking for quotes and answers - although you can speculate on those if you find them.)

It seems kind of odd that both of them wouldn't want to continue another game in their franchise, makes me a little uneasy about Avowed.

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Boeroer

Boeroer

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Josh said the he (and others on Deadfire) were pretty bummed and burned out after Deadfire sold poorly. He also said that he didn't want to do another pillars game in the forseeable future (because PoE + Deadfire was a lot of that) - but instead tackle something smaller as director. Besides that he's the studio's design director and provides feedback on all projects so I guess half of his day is filled with meetings and such anyway. 

Also Avowed is and was Feagus' "baby". I guess Josh isn't so much into directing contemporaty first person RPGs - although he seemed to have enjoyed Skyrim quite a bit. 

However - Josh is still working on the TTRPG of PoE. Every now and then he shows some of the stuff he wrote on Twitter (last entry: Paladins of the Steel Garrote). I like what he does with it! So he's not completely off the pillars hook maybe. ;)

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Tencatta

Tencatta

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On 12/20/2020 at 2:29 PM, Boeroer said:

Josh said the he (and others on Deadfire) were pretty bummed and burned out after Deadfire sold poorly. He also said that he didn't want to do another pillars game in the forseeable future (because PoE + Deadfire was a lot of that) - but instead tackle something smaller as director. Besides that he's the studio's design director and provides feedback on all projects so I guess half of his day is filled with meetings and such anyway. 

Also Avowed is and was Feagus' "baby". I guess Josh isn't so much into directing contemporaty first person RPGs - although he seemed to have enjoyed Skyrim quite a bit. 

However - Josh is still working on the TTRPG of PoE. Every now and then he shows some of the stuff he wrote on Twitter (last entry: Paladins of the Steel Garrote). I like what he does with it! So he's not completely off the pillars hook maybe. ;)

Feargus is leading this project? Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Sad Josh doesn't want to keep Pillars going (in the digital world), but understand the burnout. I think players and devs both needed a break or breath of fresh air from Pillars 2, though - but the problem is the game left on a "in the third game..." kind of vibe, which I doubt Avowed will continue.

On 12/26/2020 at 1:06 PM, Zafar1981 said:

Microsoft will own Fallout franchise after March 2021 so my GUESS that Josh will be working for Obsidian's Fallout (may be New Vegas 2) because internally they knew MS is going to acquire ZeniMax. 

I'd be surprised if anyone could pry that from Howard's cold, dead fingers.

I also would be surprised if Bethesda didn't sign something saying they had full control over who does Fallout so it can't be farmed out (especially since even though it was a Zenimax studio, F76 seemed an embarassment, and even game journalists were quoted as saying Zenimax thought New Vegas was bad for the company, although I'm not sure players would agree). If they had ever wanted Obsidian to do a NV2, they would have reached a deal long before now, I imagine.

Anyway, this doesn't really light a hopeful torch for Avowed, since the New Vegas and Outer Worlds folks are the closest to first person creators at the company and the New Vegas staff is only a small % of the original team (which showed in Outer Worlds, unfortunately).

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Boeroer

Boeroer

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No, Feargus is not directing Avowed. Afaik he's not directing anything but is completely occupied with his role as CEO. When I said that Avowed is his "baby" I meant that he wanted Obsidian to develop a first person RPG since Skyrim came out - and now successfully pitched the idea to Microsoft. 

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Tencatta

Tencatta

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On 12/29/2020 at 3:28 AM, Boeroer said:

No, Feargus is not directing Avowed. Afaik he's not directing anything but is completely occupied with his role as CEO. When I said that Avowed is his "baby" I meant that he wanted Obsidian to develop a first person RPG since Skyrim came out - and now successfully pitched the idea to Microsoft. 

Good to hear, I thought there was some hints he was getting back into the Obsidian games, which from a manager standpoint, isn't always a good thing.

I thought they had pitched the idea to Microsoft before and got shut down.

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EveryThorn

EveryThorn

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On 1/4/2021 at 3:00 PM, Boeroer said:

If they didn't successfully pitch Avowed to Microsoft how could they develop it now? They are owned by Microsoft.

Obsidian pitched a FPS open world game to Microsoft many years ago and its cancelation was the reason many in the studio had to be let go when the game prototype failed.

Things are obviously different with the aquistion, though.

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Boeroer

Boeroer

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Stormlands got canceled - yet it was pitched successfully before. I think in this case Microsoft approached Obsidian though iirc.

Besides that: Stormlands was supposed to be a multiplayer game with online raids etc. and not a single player RPG/Elder Scrolls on Eora. Two quite different games. Stormland's leftovers were used for Tyranny by the way. 

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Wormerine

Wormerine

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13 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Feargus hasn't directed any of Obsidian's games so far and I don't think he will start with it now. 

I do remember reading somewhere that with Obsidian getting purchased he would like to do something more hands-on - but don't remember details, and even so, I would doubt he would jump right into leading a flagship title.

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Boeroer

Boeroer

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I read that Avowed development started 2 years ago. That was before the aquisition by Microsoft and maybe even before Microsoft knocked at their doors (but maybe not). 

I wouldn't completely dismiss that possibility but I don't find it very likely. Well sooner or later we will know more I guess. :)

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