Obsidian Entertainment is one of the most influential RPG developers in recent memory and sparked excitement when it released the reveal trailer forAvowedearlier this week. The studio was originally formed by the Black Isle Studios developers who had worked on some of the genre’s most foundational games, includingFallout 2andBaldur’s Gate, the latter in collaboration with BioWare. It is Obsidian’s relationship with Bethesda, however, that is perhaps one of the most interesting in the gaming industry.
With Obsidian’sThe Outer Worldsreleased last year andAvowedannounced this week, it appears the developer is attempting to outdo Bethesda in both the first-person sci-fi and fantasy RPG genres, whose top spots have been held by Bethesda’sFalloutandThe Elder Scrollsseries respectively for the past decade. It’s a big task, but there are a few key reasons Obsidian might be in the right position to topple one of gaming’s greatest giants.
RELATED:Obsidian’s Avowed Will Likely Have Playable Races, Here’s What They Could Be
The History of Obsidian and Bethesda
Bethesda and Obsidian have worked on several of the same IPs, and Bethesda’s worlds were greatly influenced by earlier games that Obsidian’s future founders had worked on. Bethesda took over theFalloutseries withFallout 3in 2008, but many of theFallout 2developers were then able to return to the series to work on Obsidian’sFallout: New Vegas. Despite the devs having to work in Bethesda’s new first-person format rather thanFallout 2’s top-down perspective, the game was a huge critical success, and many considerNew Vegasone of the best games in the series.
Obsidian’s success with first-person RPGs led to its release ofThe Outer Worldsin 2019, a sci-fi RPG set in space with much of the satirical anti-capitalist wrappings which definedFallout’s early years. And thereveal trailer forAvowed, a first-person fantasy game that strongly resemblesThe Elder Scrolls,shows a first-person view of an adventurer holding a sword in their right hand while preparing a spell with their left, a moment which closely resemblesSkyrim’scombat system rendered in next-generation graphics. Obsidian is seemingly making no secrets of which top spot its gunning for.
The Outer Worldswas highly praised for its writing and its focus on conversation and character-development, though some found the game to be a little short, clocking in at about 24 hours. In contrastFallout 4was received less favorably, with many finding the main story to be particularly weak, a trend in criticism that has haunted Bethesda since its early games.
A player can sink hundreds of hours intoFallout 4compared toThe Outer Worlds, which, when comparing their reception, suggests many fans now prefer depth over breadth in their RPGs, considered to be one of Obsidian’s greatest strengths compared to Bethesda.Fallout 76cemented what many considered to be Bethesda’s poor instincts, with the multiplayer game receiving poor reviews and facing a slew of technical issues. As Bethesda flounders, it appears that Obsidian has taken the opportunity to fill in the gaps in the market.
Why Fans are Turning to Obsidian
Not only were Bethesda’s last two games a disappointment to many, but one of its most anticipated releases,The Elder Scrolls 6, hasn’t been seen since a teaser trailer was released on June 01, 2025. Fans don’t even know which part of Tamriel it’s planned to be set in, and it seems like the release of the game could be a long way away. It’s no secret thatThe Elder Scrolls 6was announced earlydue to the expected divisiveness ofFallout 76.
BetweenFallout: New VegasandThe Outer Worlds, Obsidian has gained a lot of trust from Bethesda fans for delivering a similar format with a more engaging story and a slightly sharper wit, as well rarely appearing to rest on its laurels in the same way as Bethesda, which has avoided new IPs and released increasingly disappointing games over the last nine years.
Furthermore, Obsidian’s worlds tend to fix a lot of the common complaints about Bethesda games.Fallout: New Vegas’ characters from Caesar to Benny to Mr. House have ingrained themselves far further into gaming culture than almost any character from the main Bethesda games. Indeed, the whole concept of New Vegas as a setting proved far more adventurous and interesting than the ruined East Coast cities ofFallout 3andFallout 4, which many fans felt were comparatively repetitive, leading some to hopeFallout 5is more likeNew Vegasthan it isFallout 4.
The Outer Worldsproved that Obsidian still has the capacity to create new and interesting IPs as well, something Bethesda has not demonstrated for some time. WithThe Outer Worldsconsidered to be one ofthe best games of 2019, the developer’s announcement ofAvowedhas not only excited fans, but seems directly targeted to seize the opportunity left open by Bethesda’s failure to maintain marketing momentum forThe Elder Scrolls 6and the diminishing faith fans have that the larger developer is still able to deliver the goods.
RELATED:New Obsidian Fantasy RPG Avowed Coming to Xbox Series X
The Future of First-Person RPGs
Obsidian has a lot going for it. Unlike Bethesda it has maintained the trust of many of its fans, and unlikeBethesdait has been seen to grow and develop over the last few years while the larger company has stagnated and released several critical disappointments. As a result,Avowed’s announcement has been able to get the jump on Bethesda is a way few games could.
The single trailer released forAvowedalready shows fans more thanThe Elder Scrolls 6has shown them in the last two years. The trailer works not only to get players excited and to take advantage of Bethesda’s slow development speed, but makes Bethesda appear particularly unreliable in comparison to Obsidian.Cyberpunk 2077is another first-person RPG that has had a particularly long development cycle, and yet unlike Bethesda, CD Projekt Red does not have a relationship with another developer like Obsidian that fans can so easily draw unfavorable comparisons with.
Thesuccesses of Obsidianwill always be drawn in direct comparison to Bethesda in a relationship very few companies have. Due to their sharing of staff and IPs over the years, when Obsidian succeeds as the smaller developer, it makes Bethesda appear complacent, and the critical success of Obsidian’s releases invites comparison between the company’s design philosophies, especially because Bethesda has a far larger budget.
Bethesda is still a huge company, and it will be a long time before its place in the RPG world is completely replaced. Nonetheless, Obsidian’s announcement ofAvowedshows that the smaller developer is coming for Bethesda’s crown, and is ready to take advantage of Bethesda’s failures over the last few years. Time will tell if Obsidian is successful, but if both companies continue their current trajectories, Obsidian may well prove the old mantra true: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Avowedis currently in development for PC and Xbox Series X with no confirmed release date.
