Avowed Not Being Open-World Is A Good Thing, Devs Say

Microsoft’s next big game, the RPG Avowed from The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian, is coming out in February. Unlike some of Obsidian’s other RPGs, Avowed is not an open-world game. This serves the game best, Avowed region director Berto Ritger said.

Avowed features large “defined zones,” as opposed to taking place in an open world. Ritger said having established and distinct zones is a “good pacing mechanism” for the choices players make.

“We know roughly what you’ve done before you’ve gone to the next thing. It’s still a very open structure within those zones, where you can do whatever you want for the most part, but it’s not one contiguous area where you could be anywhere at any moment,” Ritger said in an interview with Xbox Wire.

Narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde echoed Ritger, saying in the interview that one of the difficult elements of open-world games is pacing.

“You never know where the player is and what they’re doing at any given time. So having these zones that happen in sequence means we always know what content you’ve just come from on the critical path,” Dollarhyde said. “Maybe not what side quests you’ve done, but we always know you’ve just had this [core] experience.”

Avowed releases on February 18 for Xbox and PC, and it will be available at launch for Xbox Game Pass. In addition to Avowed, Obsidian is making The Outer Worlds 2, which is also set for release in 2025.

In other Xbox news, Microsoft just recently held the latest Xbox Developer Direct event, and it included some big news and reveals, including the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4.