Brandon Adler, director at Obsidian Entertainment, is done listening to uninformed speculation about the studio's direction following the recent wave of Xbox layoffs. In a LinkedIn post, he called out what he termed "cold take artists" spreading "misinformation" about the developer's current state and trajectory.
Adler, who is overseeing The Outer Worlds 2 and an unannounced new project, acknowledged that the past week has been brutal for his team. After paying respects to those who lost jobs in the cuts, he turned his attention to the chorus of online voices claiming to know what Obsidian has become.
"The number of times I've seen people, with no understanding of who has worked on our previous games or what they contributed, talk about how Obsidian isn't who they used to be is staggering," Adler wrote. "Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation."
Obsidian was among the studios hit hardest when Microsoft announced its massive Xbox restructuring last week. The company cut 1,600 positions immediately, with another 1,600 layoffs planned through the rest of the fiscal year. The upheaval was described by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma as "the most significant restructure" the gaming division has undergone. Some studios, including Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, were sold off to new owners, while others like Arkane Studios, id Software, and Obsidian saw substantial portions of their teams eliminated.
What frustrated Adler most was the claim that the studio's creative core had fundamentally changed. He pushed back with specifics: many of the people now in leadership roles at Obsidian are the same developers who shipped The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, and Fallout: New Vegas.
"Like, literally the same people," he stressed, drawing a through line from Knights of the Old Republic 2 all the way to current projects. "The DNA at Obsidian is the same as it always was. The same DNA that created KotOR, New Vegas, NWN2, and Stick of Truth."
Adler acknowledged that Obsidian is not frozen in time. "Is Obsidian the same as it was 20 years ago? No, of course not. Nothing stays the same. But the DNA at Obsidian is the same as it always was," he wrote, adding that he remains "extremely proud of our history" while being "excited for who we have become."
He wrapped up by dismissing the online chorus as people with "zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games."
Reports emerged shortly after the layoffs that Obsidian had shelved a planned Avowed sequel and started development on a new Fallout game, with veteran director Josh Sawyer at the helm. Those projects hint at where the studio is heading next, even as it processes the human toll of the restructuring.
Author Emily Chen: "Adler's frustration is justified, but the real test will be whether these remaining creators can deliver on their ambitious slate without the teams they lost."
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