Pillars Of Eternity Director Is Working On A New Project That Isn't Avowed

Developer Obsidian Entertainment has certainly been busy ever since Microsoft acquired the studio back in 2018. It just launched Grounded, the arachnophobic survival game, in Early Access on both PC and Xbox One, and just last month it unveiled the first-person RPG Avowed during Microsoft's Xbox Series X Showcase Event.

As it turns out, the famed RPG developer also has another project in the works. Studio design director Josh Sawyer, who led the development of Fallout: New Vegas and both Pillars of Eternity games, has revealed that he's working on something new. This tidbit of information cropped up after Sawyer posted a blog post on Tumblr describing his job role at Obsidian. In response to the post, a Twitter user expressed sadness that Sawyer isn't overseeing his own project, to which the design director replied that he's heading up something new that isn't Avowed.

It's surprising that Sawyer isn't handling director duties on Avowed. We don't know too much about the upcoming RPG, but it's been established that it's set in the Pillars of Eternity universe which Sawyer is intimately familiar with. We do know, however, that he won't be working on another Pillars of Eternity sequel. Despite reviewing well, Deadfire didn't sell, and Sawyer says a third game will only happen if the devs can get "jazzed" about it.

Obsidian's newest game was awarded 6/10 in GameSpot's Grounded Early Access review. "Grounded has the foundation needed to turn into a great survival game, but it has a long way to go yet," said critic Joab Gilroy. "The titular term comes from aviation--when a pilot finds themselves, for whatever reason, unable to fly, they are Grounded. It's a pretty apt name for the current state of Obsidian's foray into the co-op survival genre. But like a balsa wood airplane, Grounded sits at the outstretched tension point of a strong rubber band. It is pure, unadulterated potential energy, and all we can do is sit back and wait to see if that rubber band snaps or if the game achieves take off. I think it's gonna fly."