Of course, the question is what the studio is working on, because conflicting rumors are circulating about this as well.
Despite the Fallout television series becoming a major success on Amazon, Xbox and Bethesda have not been able to capitalize on it with a new game. While Todd Howard’s studio is unlikely to work on a new entry in the series until The Elder Scrolls VI releases, another development studio, Obsidian Entertainment, is reportedly working on a Fallout project.
According to the latest rumors, Obsidian will not be affected by the upcoming restructuring, despite another rumor suggesting that it was also in Xbox’s crosshairs.
After speaking with one of the games industry’s most senior PR executives, Christopher Dring of The Game Business said that Xbox intends to reorganize its publishing operations. The company wants to invest in its major franchises and has to reduce costs elsewhere to do so.
Studios such as Compulsion, Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Obsidian, Undead Labs, and others are reportedly in intense negotiations with Microsoft in an effort to keep their doors open. This came as a surprise, even if it is unclear what Obsidian has been working on after Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2, because it has been one of the few Xbox-owned studios with a consistent release schedule during this generation and one of the few to launch a successful live-service franchise through Grounded.
However, rumors to the contrary claim that this is not actually the case. Responding to the threat of closure, VGC’s Jordan Middler said on Bluesky that the studio is in the early stages of a Fallout project and that work is expected to continue, as Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed that Obsidian is not in talks to avoid closure.
Details still need to be worked out, and more information is expected regarding the upcoming July 6 corporate deadline, but sources familiar with the situation say that Xbox is not closing the studio.
No one knows what this new Fallout project could be. We have known for some time that Fallout 3 may receive a remaster and perhaps Fallout: New Vegas as well, but Obsidian is unlikely to be involved in either, since it is reportedly still in the early stages of its own project while the two remasters probably are not.
After that, Schreier confirmed that Obsidian’s closure is not being considered and revealed on the ResetEra forum that the studio is not currently working on a new Fallout project, though that could change soon because of Xbox’s new direction. So what could it be working on?
Source: WCCFTech, The Game Business, Bluesky, Bluesky, ResetEra
