As the delayed launch of Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming fantasy RPG, continues to cause raised eyebrows among gamers, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has given insight into their decision of pushing back its release date.
Xbox's Phil Spencer Explains Why Avowed Releases in 2025
Avowed's Release Delayed To Pace It With Xbox Game Launches
According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, the delay of Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming fantasy RPG, Avowed, was not borne out of performance or quality issues with the game. In an interview with Game File, Spencer explained that due to Microsoft's stacked line up of game releases for late 2024, they had decided to pace out Avowed's launch and delayed it to next year.
Initially, Avowed's release date was scheduled for this year, but has since then been announced to be pushed back to February 18, 2025 instead. With many first-party Xbox titles slated for release during the remainder of the year, Spencer previously said they wanted to give "players’ backlogs some breathing room."
Explaining the delay further, he said,"We can afford it when we have the Diablo expansion, then Black Ops, then Indy [Indiana Jones and the Great Circle]. We didn’t move it because Obsidian needed the time. They’ll use the time." Though Spencer remarked that Obsidian Entertainment will "use the time" in between Avowed's 2025 release, he didn’t go into detail what the developer was left to focus on in the given timeframe.
Moreover, regarding the relatively busy window of Game Pass releases, Spencer added that he and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty "plan it out" and consult with the Game Pass team. "We said, ‘Okay, let’s make sure we pace this out a little better’," Spencer explained.
In September, during an interview on the Iron Lords podcast, Avowed art director Matt Hansen revealed that the game is "running pretty smooth" for how visually dense it is. Hansen added further that it was always the team's goal, "but as far as a greater understanding of performance spec, we're still figuring all that out. It's one of the last things [we] do."
Hansen also shared that Obsidian Entertainment is targeting 30 frames per second (FPS) as a bare minimum standard for Avowed's performance on Xbox Series X. "Performance is one of the last things we figure out, right? And I think we've announced this elsewhere. We are 'core targeting' 30 frames per second bare minimum. Like, that's the expectation," he said.
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Interview: Microsoft's Phil Spencer has a lot to say about Xbox's game line-up
Phil Spencer says Avowed wasn’t delayed due to quality concerns
