Today's Xbox Games Showcase was full of exciting reveals but one that no one saw coming was Obsidian Entertainment's new first-person RPG, Avowed. Fresh off releasing The Outer Worlds and even while still working on Grounded, the studio has managed to carve out some time for what looks like their biggest game yet under the Xbox Game Studios banner.
Avowed was revealed with a simple teaser trailer that set the tone for the upcoming RPG, which is set in the world of Eora. Anyone familiar with Obsidian's previous work, Pillars of Eternity, will immediatey recognize the name as it's the same world. This seems to suggest that many of the game's systems for Avowed will be inspired by Pillars of Eternity, albeit they would still need to be translated to first-person. Pillars of Eternity is a top-down isometric game.
There's also speculation that Avowed could be a contiuation of the Pillars of Eternity story, set after the dramatic events of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Sales for that game weren't great, so series director Josh Sawyer previously suggested that if they were to release a new game continuing the story they would need to "re-examine the entire format of the game." A shift to first-person would certainly be a change.
Avowed will be release for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Windows PC. As a first-party studio game, it will also be available day one via XBox Game Pass. No release date was announced which means it probably won't be an Xbox Series X launch title this year.