At the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian revealed that they are developing a new game called Avowed. Avowed is set in the fantasy world of Eora, a setting that would be familiar to anyone that has played Pillars of Eternity and its 2018 sequel. Although Eora has several continents that have not been explored, so there is a possibility that Avowed will not share much with Pillars of Eternity. While the original Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II are viewed from the isometric camera angle, Avow will be a first-person RPG. With the perspective change, Avowed will feature more complex swordplay and spellcasting that appears to be done in real-time over the DnD style system that Pillars of Eternity featured. The trailer that was released does not reveal much of anything of the gameplay or the story but it does set the tone and display some of the art philosophy that we should be expecting in the full release.
Avowed will be the third game to come out of Obsidian since its purchase by Microsoft, although The Outer Worlds was underdevelopment under Private Division and 2k before Obsidian was purchased. Obsidian second game Grounded is a cooperative survival game coming out through Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview on July 28th.
Obsidian also announced a noir-influenced expansion to The Outer Worlds, called Peril on Gorgon, for release on September 9th. Avowed does not yet have a projected released date, and has already drawn some comparison to Bethesda’s juggernaut The Elder Scrolls, which is also another high fantasy RPG. Avowed is most likely coming to both Windows 10 via the Xbox app and Xbox Series X. If Microsoft keeps following what they have done with the rest of their first-party games, Avowed will be available on Xbox Game Pass, making it free to play on both console and PC.