0:00
so Avowed came out and then just kind of
0:03
vanished like blinked out of existence
0:06
nobody's really talking about it anymore
0:08
and if they are it's not exactly in a
0:11
good way now when Avou first launched
0:14
there was already a dark cloud over it
0:16
there was pre-release drama lots of
0:18
controversy and a general lack of hype
0:21
that didn't help but after people
0:23
finished the campaign they just moved on
0:26
there was no buzz no lasting community
0:29
nothing it like evaporated gone forever
0:33
and now it's looking worse than ever
0:35
because Obsidian's lead on the project
0:38
Carrie Patel the actual director of
0:41
Avowed just left the studio after over a
0:46
decade at Obsidian she's heading to
0:49
Netflix games yeah Netflix games now
0:53
look I get that career moves happen but
0:57
leaving a longstanding position at a
0:59
studio like Obsidian one that's still
1:01
under the Xbox umbrella to jump ship to
1:05
Netflix of all places that's kind of a
1:07
weird head scratcher if I'm going to be
1:09
honest sure the paycheck's probably
1:11
fatter but come on this feels like
1:14
walking off a cliff and hoping you land
1:16
on a trampoline she confirmed the news
1:19
herself on LinkedIn she's now the game
1:22
director at Night School Studio the
1:24
folks behind Oxenfree and hey Oxenfree
1:28
is a cool game i played it on the
1:29
Nintendo Switch i enjoyed it but it's
1:31
not exactly what I'd call a powerhouse
1:34
move unless the goal is to escape a
1:37
burning building that's obsidian and
1:39
let's be honest that might be what's
1:41
going on here because a vowed Yeah it
1:46
flopped and no not the oh oh no it
1:50
underperformed slightly type of flop i
1:52
mean fullon face plant teeth knocked
1:57
out on Steam guys it peaked at just
2:01
under 20,000 concurrent players right
2:05
now if you go and look at it it's
2:06
sitting around 500 that's That's not a
2:09
slow decline guys that is a nose dive
2:12
that's like taking the Texas Giant at
2:14
Six Flags and just riding it straight
2:16
down now yeah it was a day one Game Pass
2:19
title and that kind of skews things
2:21
quite a bit but here's the deal you
2:24
still need to sell copies okay steam
2:27
Epic Xbox store GOG all those other ones
2:32
those platforms matter and this game did
2:34
not move the needle at all and despite
2:37
Obsidian claiming that they had big
2:39
postlaunch plans back in March we've
2:42
seen absolutely nothing no road map no
2:45
DLC drop not even a "Hey we're still
2:48
working on it." It's been complete radio
2:50
silence and now their director has
2:53
literally walked out of the door it
2:56
doesn't exactly scream confidence in a
2:58
vow does it no there's probably a lot
3:01
more going on behind the scenes that we
3:03
don't know about now the game itself
3:05
honestly it wasn't terrible it was just
3:08
painfully mediocre i played it a few
3:11
times on Steam uh the world looked nice
3:15
sure but these days every game looks
3:18
nice every game is visually polished you
3:21
can't survive on Pretty Alone right the
3:24
story didn't grab me the characters felt
3:27
pretty hollow i I don't remember
3:29
anything really memorable about it and
3:31
the combat let's just say it was there
3:33
it existed right i've played worse this
3:36
year don't get me wrong but Avowed just
3:38
didn't leave an impression it was like
3:41
digital oatmeal it was warm bland and
3:44
forgettable and let's not forget the
3:46
bigger trend here guys studios that were
3:50
legendary 10 15 20 years ago are now
3:54
fumbling hard there's talent that leaves
3:57
there's leadership shifts and suddenly
3:59
you got teams chasing modern trends
4:01
instead of actually making the games
4:04
they used to be known
4:06
for at Obsidian like like games that
4:09
they used to make back in the day they
4:10
make games catered towards a modern
4:12
audience obsidian used to mean something
4:14
guys but now they feel lost and they're
4:17
not the only company out there there's
4:18
Ubisoft just to name a couple other ones
4:21
they're stuck between their reputation
4:23
and this need to modernize and the
4:26
result is modern audience slop even the
4:31
fans aren't pretending to care anymore
4:33
at this point i've seen people online
4:35
straight up say "Oh yeah that came out
4:38
totally forgot about it that's brutal."
4:41
But I get it there was a time that you
4:43
know most people would probably defend
4:46
Obsidian and you know there was New
4:48
Vegas Knights of the Old Republic uh too
4:52
th those were formative games but this
4:54
avowed mm- it's just more proof that the
4:58
studio isn't what it used to be now to
5:01
be fair they are currently working on
5:03
The Outer Worlds 2 and we'll supposedly
5:06
see more of that at the Xbox showcase
5:09
that's in June but after a vowed my hype
5:11
is at zero and let's be real if your
5:14
last big RPG was a dud and your director
5:18
just left how confident can we be in
5:20
their next game i I think signs point to
5:24
pretty low and look I'm not just trying
5:26
to pile on Obsidian or even Carrie Patel
5:29
i barely even knew who they were before
5:32
hearing this news of them leaving which
5:33
is kind of wild considering she led a
5:36
major firstparty Xbox title but the move
5:40
to Netflix is just kind of baffling it's
5:42
like quitting your band after a bad
5:44
album and announcing your new gig is
5:46
making soundtracks for for Tik Tok i
5:49
mean technically it's still music but
5:50
it's not really the same thing right and
5:52
the worst part is all signs point to a
5:57
abandoned i'd love to be proven wrong
5:59
but it really feels like they're going
6:01
to slap together some kind of cosmetics
6:03
and call it DLC maybe patch a few bugs
6:06
and then move on to something else
6:08
probably the Outer Worlds too because
6:10
that's that's all they got left now at
6:11
this point and honestly that's pretty
6:14
rough if if you want to take a look at
6:16
things cuz that game was hyped they were
6:18
hyping about it it was supposed to be a
6:20
big deal it was an Xbox RPG competitor
6:24
to games like Skyrim but instead it's
6:26
looking like a cautionary tale right so
6:31
yeah I I feel that this game was dead on
6:34
arrival especially when you had other
6:35
people at the studio saying stupid stuff
6:38
on social media and then it was just
6:40
getting torched it was just getting
6:42
absolutely torched and again it's when
6:45
companies cater to this modern audience
6:47
you hire people that just don't know how
6:50
to act right they say stupid things on
6:52
social media and it kills your game it
6:54
kills your game so I want to know what
6:55
you guys think was a vowed always
6:59
doomed can Obsidian turn things around
7:01
at this point or is this the beginning
7:03
of the end drop your thoughts below
7:05
because right now I think things are
7:07
looking bleak for them i'll keep
7:10
watching the story but man it's not
7:12
looking good for the last uh 500 Aval
7:16
players that are on Steam right now
7:18
imagine playing it right now on Steam
7:20
thinking "Oh my gosh they're going to
7:21
turn things around and you're just
7:23
essentially playing a game that's a
7:24
ghost town." Anyways guys before we
7:27
leave hit that subscription button i
7:29
really would appreciate it if you guys
7:31
subscribe we're on the road to 100,000
7:33
subscribers i can't reach it without you
7:35
guys join the AB Nation it's completely
7:38
free to subscribe i appreciate it guys i
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make daily content love to have you guys
7:43
on board we're a fun community right
7:45
here and we're you know we got plenty of
7:47
things to talk about plenty of things to
7:49
talk about this is just one of many
7:50
topics that we're touching back on so
7:53
yeah it's kind of weird that this lead
7:55
left netflix games i I Who plays games
7:59
on Netflix that's so weird so weird
