As Xbox continues its reset and lays off practically 300 employees, the corporate introduced that a few of its subsidiaries have been shaken up as effectively. This consists of Obsidian Leisure, which is able to now function underneath Bethesda Softworks.
On September 22, Xbox chief content material officer and govt vice chairman Matt Booty posted on Xbox’s web site, outlining a brand new construction that sees the Bethesda enterprise unit now embrace Obsidian.
“Bethesda will develop its remit to incorporate Obsidian, which is able to proceed its present tasks, together with Grounded, in addition to the brand new Fallout challenge made in collaboration with Bethesda Sport Studios,” Booty wrote on Xbox Wire.
This language would not seem to counsel that Bethesda wolfed up Obsidian to take possession over the studio or something. As a substitute, it sounds slightly nearer to the working relationship Bethesda–or moderately, the studio’s guardian firm, ZeniMax Media–has with Doom maker id Software program.
Obsidian Leisure–which developed copious RPGs from Neverwinter Nights 2 to Pillars of Eternity to Star Wars Knights of the Outdated Republic II: The Sith Lords to The Outer Worlds–lost 25% of its employees in July after Xbox’s first main reset. This resulted within the Avowed sequel being killed and the acclaimed RPG studio shifting its focus to the Fallout franchise, with a brand new sport in improvement. It is unclear if this challenge is Fallout 5 or some spin-off of the long-running sequence, however alongside no matter Obsidian Leisure is engaged on, there are not less than three Fallout pies within the oven now.
This is not the one reshuffling occurring at Xbox. Booty additionally introduced that Activision will develop the following Halo, Hellblade developer Ninja Principle will seemingly shut, and the 2 Forza studios have hit the fusion dance to turn into one. There’s extra to come back, too, with extra layoffs reportedly deliberate earlier than June 2027.