It has long been known that Obsidian is only focusing on the solo mode in its new role-playing game. In an interview, however, game director Carrie Patel now provides a clear explanation
A co-op mode in a classic role-playing game? That this is possible was impressively proven by Baldur’s Gate 3last year.Another role-playing game, however, deliberately chooses not to follow this path.
Obsidian’s most expensive role-playing game to dateAvowedis due to be released in 2024 –and will focus entirely on single-player.Obsidian announced this last year. Game Director Carrie Patel now reveals the internal reasons for this in (an interview with Windows Central.)
Focus on story and campaign
According to Patel, Obsidian wants to focus on other areas of their game. Obsidian’s game director says:
It was a very big creative and technical challenge to find a way to build the multiplayer mode while also fulfilling the things we’re strong at as a studio.
And further:
It’s important for us to have a really solid campaign and a compelling story that puts the player in the role of the character that’s driving things forward, making important decisions and really shaping the world and characters around them. Of course, this gets more complicated when you try to add a multiplayer component.
You can get an impression of the campaign and the first key moments in the story trailer for Avowed:
Obsidian’s decision against a co-op mode was made in early August 2023 – at the time Baldur’s Gate 3 left Early Access.According to Patel, the success of Larian’s role-playing game did not lead to a rethink at Obsidian:
It’s not that these challenges are unsolvable. The team at Larian Studios has developed an incredible role-playing game with Baldur’s Gate 3 and has years of experience with Divinity: Original Sin in developing a multiplayer mode within a truly stable RPG framework.
This is followed by the big but:
It’s very hard to do this well, and we wanted to make sure that we delivered first and foremost what players expect from an Obsidian Entertainment RPG, which is a really well-developed story, meaningful choices and consequences, and the ability to change the world.
Decision against co-op mode and open world
This is not the first time that Obsidian has decided against a concept that has been successful in other games in the development of Avowed.For example, there will be no open world in the role-playing game. Avowed is set in the same world as the role-playing gamesPillars of EternityandPillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
The role-playing game is the studio’s first AAA production since its acquisition by Microsoft in 2018. In the meantime, rumors surfaced that there were many problems behind the scenes. The development of the game is said to have been restarted after the departure of the lead developers.
Whether players will miss the missing co-op mode will be revealed this fall. Avowed is due to be released then. A specific date, November 12, was also leaked during this year’s Xbox showcase.
However, the date has not yet been officially confirmed. The game’s official website still only lists 2024 as the release date. During the Summer Game Fest 2024, we spoke to the developers ourselves and they also confirmed that 2024 remains a realistic release date
