Avowed was originally co-op but Obsidian ditched it to “refocus”

To “make sure that it was an Obsidian game”

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Obsidian was originally makingAvowedas a co-op game until a change during development saw the studio “refocus”.

As reported byEurogamer, the developer changed tack during the game’s development as they were “too focused on co-op”, according to studio head Feargus Urquhart. Known for quality single-player games, the idea thatAvowedwas originally penned, and being made, as a co-op game is quite the eyebrow-raiser.

This was revealed in the last episode of Obsidian Entertainment’s 20th Anniversary documentary serieson the developer’s channel, which, while containing a lot of looking back at the history, shed some light on the future and the development ofAvowed. You can see the full video below.

Urquhart revealed this change when reflecting on decisions he made over the past 20 years: “When I look back at 20 years, there’s decisions of mine that I feel really good about, there’s decisions that I feel not so good about… One of the things where I really pushed was that Avowed was going to be multiplayer, and I kept on that for a long time.”

This was, Urquhart says, in an effort to make the game stand out and be more attractive to publishers. However, as Justin Britch, head of development, goes on to say, this original focus came at the expense of how the studio approaches quests and dialogue. After a while, he says that they needed to “refocus really, and make sure that it was, at the end of the day, an Obsidian game and not something different.” This will be welcome news to fans of Obsidian’s games of years past, with the studio’s reputation in making some of the richest and most enjoyablesingle-player gamesgoing.

Avoweddoesn’t have a specific release date yet, but it is speculated to come out next year; it will release onXbox Series X|S and PC.

If you do want something to play cooperatively, check out our list of thebest co-op games.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

Rob is the Managing Editor of TechRadar Gaming, a video games journalist, critic, editor, and writer, and has years of experience gained from multiple publications. Prior to being TechRadar Gaming’s Managing Editor, he was TRG’s Deputy Editor, and a longstanding member of GamesRadar+, being the Commissioning Editor for Hardware there for years, while also squeezing in a short stint as Gaming Editor at WePC just before joining TechRadar Gaming. He is also a writer on tech, gaming hardware, and video games but also gardens and landscapes, combining the two areas in an upcomingbook on video game landscapesthat you can back and pre-order now.

Valve just single-handedly upgraded content creation for PC gamers – Steam’s Game Recording feature is now available to all

Nintendo finally confirms that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible

New World: Aeternum review: Amazon’s ailing MMORPG gets a much-needed second wind