As we know, XBOX is currently in the middle of a major restructuring, which seems to have also affected Obsidian, authors of Grounded, Avowed and The Outer World. According to a Bloomberg report, in fact, the Californian studio would have canceled some projects to focus on a new Fallout.

In fact, the newspaper explains that the studio has canceled the sequel to Avowed and other projects not yet announced. Although the development of the sequel was proceeding at full speed and the official announcement was expected within the year, the project was no longer part of XBOX's new strategic vision, thanks to the sales below expectations of two of the three titles launched by the studio last year, including the first Avowed. Some employees will still remain assigned to this following while waiting for the new jobs to come into full swing, cultivating the hope of one day being able to resurrect it.

XBOX's new strategy aims to focus investments on the company's most successful franchises, corroborated by the exceptional numbers generated by the recent Fallout TV series. For this reason, Obsidian will start working on a brand new Fallout, joining forces with Bethesda Game Studios, which has always been the custodian of the franchise. Leading the project will be design director Josh Sawyer, already famous for directing the beloved Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, to date the only chapter in the last twenty years not to have been developed internally by Bethesda.

Before this change of course, Sawyer was already directing a role-playing game structurally and thematically similar, but unrelated to the famous post-apocalyptic universe. Now those ideas will flow into an official title, in which we will presumably have the opportunity to explore the consequences of nuclear war in an alternative and devastated America. This new production effort will fill a void that has lasted since the launch of Fallout 76 in 2018; although the online title continued to receive constant updates and new content (reaching over 23 million players), the main series had inevitably remained on hiatus due to Bethesda's other commitments.

Despite this, Obsidian has not stopped all its collateral productions. The team will continue to develop additional downloadable content for The Outer Worlds 2, released last year, and will maintain support for the live-service multiplayer title Grounded 2, where we will have to continue to collaborate and build to survive the pitfalls of a smaller-scale world. We just have to wait for news on the new Fallout, hoping that it arrives as soon as possible!