{"id":85468,"date":"2026-07-07T10:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85468"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:37:21","slug":"obsidian-hit-hard-by-xbox-layoffs-with-25-of-devs-cut-from-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85468","title":{"rendered":"Obsidian Hit Hard By Xbox Layoffs, With 25% Of Devs Cut From Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/xbox-layoffs-studio-closures-and-spin-offs-everything-announced-today\/\">mass layoffs had a heavy impact on the Xbox division<\/a>, and Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds, is one of many Xbox-owned studios where cuts were deep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/avowed-the-outer-worlds-pentiment-studio-obsidian-xbox-layoffs-2000713032\">Kotaku<\/a> reports that between 60 and 70 people&#8211;roughly a quarter of the studio&#8217;s workforce&#8211;have been let go. The talent laid off includes producers, QA testers, artists, and many others spanning different disciplines. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senior talent was not spared in the cuts, with Kotaku saying that some laid off were with the studio for over a decade. Others affected include the art director for The Outer Worlds and the studio&#8217;s lone recruiter. Despite the cuts, it is said that work will commence on Grounded 2 and planned DLC for The Outer Worlds 2, but any plans beyond that are currently unknown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obsidian has a storied history: Founded in 2003, the Irvine, California-based studio became known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and South Park: The Stick of Truth. Microsoft bought the studio in 2018 as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/gallery\/a-year-by-year-breakdown-of-phil-spencers-mixed-legacy-as-xbox-boss\/2900-7553\/#6\">part of an acquisition spree<\/a>, and the studio has since shipped games including Grounded, Pentiment, and Avowed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2025 was massive for Obsidian, as it released Avowed, The Outer Wilds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft&#8217;s mass layoffs had a heavy impact on the Xbox division, and Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds, is one of many Xbox-owned studios where cuts were deep. Kotaku reports that between 60 and 70 people&#8211;roughly a quarter of the studio&#8217;s workforce&#8211;have been let go. The talent laid off includes producers, QA testers,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":85470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85471,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85468\/revisions\/85471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}