Obsidian's Avowed reportedly delayed from 2024 to early next year
UPDATE: Delay now official.
UPDATE 2/8/24: Following rumours of a delay for Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed, Microsoft has now officially moved the fantasy action-RPG's release out of 2024.
Avowed will now launch for Xbox and PC on 18th February next year, as confirmed in an official infographic shared on social media. The image, featuring release dates and windows for all Xbox's currently announced games, confirmed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, plus Starfield's Shattered Space Expansion, are still expected to launch this year.
In text accompanying the graphic, Microsoft said it was moving Avowed's release to February 2025 in order to "give players' backlogs some breathing room." In a separate post, Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote, "We're proud of what the Obsidian team have accomplished with Avowed and want to make sure they have the best launch possible."
ORIGINAL STORY 1/8/24: Avowed, the upcoming fantasy action-RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, has reportedly been delayed, moving out of its previously announced 2024 release window into 2025.
That's according to journalist Tom Warren, writing in The Verge's (paywalled) Notepad newsletter. "I'm hearing that Obsidian is about to announce an Avowed delay to early 2025," he revealed, adding the decision had been made to avoid a "very busy period" for Game Pass.
Obsidian and Microsoft have yet to formally announce a release date for Avowed beyond its vague "2024" launch window, but a 12th November date was inadvertently shared - and then rapidly deleted - in a developer blog post published in June.
Despite the reported delay, Warren's sources say Avowed is in "good shape" and that the shift to 2025 is "more a matter of wanting to give the game breathing room during very busy period for Xbox Game Pass". As Warren notes, a November launch for Avowed would see it competing for attention on Game Pass with developer GSC Game World's long-in-the-works Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which recently saw its release date shift from 5th September to 20th November.
A 12th November launch for Avowed would also see it jostling with Assassin's Creed Shadows, while another big RPG - BioWare's Dragon Age: The Veilguard - is also expected to land in roughly the same timeframe. "Things are getting stacked for Xbox games in the all-important holiday season," Warren noted.
Eurogamer spoke to Obsidian about Avowed back in June, when the developer revealed it was "finalising" the game and "in a polish phase".