The Outer Worlds 2 game director and 20-year Obsidian Entertainment veteran Brandon Adler has reacted to Microsoft’s recent mass layoffs at Xbox and other notable changes, which included the reported cancellation of Avowed 2.
Adler, who is the current game director on an unannounced project at Obsidian, said it was an “extremely difficult week at Obsidian” after the layoffs were announced on July 6. “Not only have I had to say goodbye to some amazing game developers, but I’ve had to say goodbye to some of my best friends. I truly feel for every one of them. Know that if you are looking to hire one of these former Obsidian devs, you are hiring some of the best people around–both professionally and personally,” he said.
Something that made recent days more challenging, Adler said, was how “a bunch of cold take artists” commented on “what Obsidian is what it isn’t,” he said.
Specifically, Adler said he takes issue with people commenting on how Obsidian “isn’t who they used to be” or that the company’s DNA has changed.
“Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation,” he said. “In most circumstances, the people in lead or director roles are the same people that worked on games like The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, and New Vegas. Like, literally the same people. The through line from KotOR2 to our current games is pretty clear.”
Obsidian is “of course not” the same as it was 20 years ago, Adler admitted, and that’s because in life, “nothing stays the same.” However, Adler maintains that “the DNA at Obsidian is the same was it always was.”
The same studio DNA that led to popular and well-received games like Knights of the Old Republic, Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, and South Park: The Stick of Truth remains intact, he said.
“I’m extremely proud of our history and I am also excited for who we have become,” he said. “Just remember, when you are seeing people spouting off about Obsidian, running their mouths about who we are now vs. what we were then, you are listening to someone crow about something with zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games.”
Adler started at Obsidian in January 2006 after spending four years in the United States Air Force where he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as a senior airman. His first gig at Obsidian was a QA tester for Neverwinter Nights 2. He then became an associate producer on Alpha Protocol and later on New Vegas and The Stick of Truth.
He left Obsidian in March 2012 to join MEDL Mobile, where he worked on mobile games and apps. He returned to Obsidian in June 2013 to become lead producer on Pillars of Eternity. He was the gameplay design director on Avowed and then became game director on The Outer Worlds 2 with Leonard Boyarsky.
The layoffs at Obsidian reportedly went deep, with 25% of staff losing their jobs. A planned Avowed sequel was said to have been canceled, with Obsidian shifting focus instead to a new Fallout game from New Vegas director Josh Sawyer.
