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The game director of Avowed, Carrie Patel, has officially jumped ship—leaving Obsidian Entertainment after nearly 12 years to join Netflix Games. With Avowed already struggling post-launch, is Obsidian the next BioWare-style collapse?
Why would a major RPG lead abandon the game so soon after release? Where’s the DLC? Where’s the roadmap? Why are Avowed player counts crashing on Steam and Game Pass?
This shocking career move could signal the end of post-launch support, and it raises serious questions about Xbox Game Studios’ internal chaos. Is this a one-off, or is Obsidian following BioWare’s tragic path—where creative leads bail as the studio burns?
Let’s break it all down:
Why Carrie Patel left Obsidian
Avowed’s weak launch and falling player base
The death of post-launch content and DLC support
Obsidian’s decline since Pillars of Eternity
The rise of Netflix Games poaching failed dev teams
What this means for The Outer Worlds 2
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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
1:45
absolutely
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
5:55
VOD getting quietly
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
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7:31
subscribe we're on the road to 100,000
7:33
subscribers i can't reach it without you
7:35
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7:38
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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
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