Rescheduling Obsidian’s project wasn’t easy, but Phil Spencer knew that the end of 2024 would be more competitive within the brand for Avowed…

2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for Xbox, with upcoming releases such as DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight and Avowed. However, the latter was only transferred to the list of next year’s releases after the delay was announced in August. Phil Spencer has now clarified the reasons for the move to calm the spirits: the slide was not due to quality problems or a lack of polishing but to make room for other games.

Avowed was initially scheduled for release in the fall of 2024. However, as mentioned, it was pushed back this summer, leaving STALKER 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as the big titles to headline Xbox’s final quarter.

While no title is more or less important than Avowed regarding market impact, 2024 was a very strong year for RPGs. The game from the creators of Fallout: New Vegas could have overshadowed the rest. So, as Phil Spencer quoted Game File as saying, while delaying the game was a difficult decision, it was done because “we could afford it,” referring to the release of Black Ops 6 and the two aforementioned games.

“We didn’t move it because Obsidian needed the time. They’ll use the time,” Spencer clarified.

Even though Avowed was announced in July 2020, it’s not a project that had to be released at a specific time. The strength of the genre, the Pillars of Eternity saga and the Obsidian team guarantee that whenever it appears, it will arouse the interest of many. Thus, the company has officially moved the release date to February 18, 2025.

At the time, Avowed performed better on Xbox Series X than on the PC

As for the game’s performance, Avowed art director Matt Hansen revealed in August, after the delay, that the fantasy RPG generally ran better on Xbox Series X than on PC. This discovery was made early in development. This allowed the team to work consistently on both versions. Without the need for major modifications typical of Microsoft’s console.

Source: Game File