Xbox is reportedly planning an Avowed delay for ‘breathing room’

Though the game is in “good shape”

Obsidian Entertainment

Xbox is planning to delay Avowed into 2025, a new report from The Verge says, to give the RPG a chance of attracting attention after a busy season. The paywalled report, which Wario64 summarized, says Obsidian hasn’t run into any issues with developing Avowed, and the delay is just to keep it from getting overshadowed in the holiday season.

The delay is just another hurdle on Avowed’s troubled development path as Obsidian struggled to define its identity as more than just a Skyrim clone. That included a period of time where the team tried making Avowed a multiplayer game, before deciding to stick to what they knew best – deep, single-player experiences.

The potential delay likely explains why Avowed is missing from Xbox’s Gamescom 2024 plans.

The Verge’s sources say the decision is “more a matter of wanting to give the game breathing room outside of a very busy period for Xbox Game Pass.” 

Xbox’s first-party lineup for Game Pass is a little thin for the rest of the year, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 being the only known marquee games for now. Stalker 2 is planned for launch on the subscription service in November 2024 as well.

When Avowed does launch, game director Carrie Patel told GLHF it’ll bring with it deep side quests, influential choices, and even some meaningful expansions to the Pillars of Eternity universe.