Avowed delayed to February to 'give players' backlogs some breathing room'

A horde of heavily-armoured skeletons in Obsidian's upcoming RPG, Avowed.

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

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August 2: It's official, Avowed has been delayed to Feb 18, 2025. It was previously expected to release sometime this year. Microsoft says it's making the move to "give players' backlogs some breathing room."

So many games coming! As such, we're moving Avowed to Feb 18, 2025 to give players’ backlogs some breathing room.Stay tuned for more from our games across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda & Xbox Game Studios at gamescom, including our Aug 23 livestream for a look at Avowed:… pic.twitter.com/3RnyVwlHRaAugust 2, 2024

The Verge cites STALKER 2's delay into November as a potential motivating factor for the Avowed delay. Despite GSC Game World not being owned by Microsoft, STALKER 2 will be an Xbox (and PC) exclusive coming to Game Pass day one⁠—at least for premium subscribers. Also coming this fall from Microsoft: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, and Diablo 4's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred.

The move makes more sense when you consider how much Microsoft has bet the farm on Game Pass⁠, with the publisher removing pressure from an already crowded fall and instead giving subscribers something to look forward to in the doldrums of January and February. Also worth considering is the planned November release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which got its big reveal as part of Microsoft's summer showcase. While the dynamics at play are very different from last year's Starfield vs. Baldur's Gate 3 matchup, avoiding another such stark RPG head-to-head may have also been on decision-makers' minds.

Avowed has been cooking for a long time, with an initial pre-rendered announcement trailer in 2020. The first-person spinoff to Pillars of Eternity looks like it could be something special, with its vibrant fantasy environments expertly evoking the Pillars games' pre-rendered worlds. It was, however, recently revealed that Obsidian went back to the drawing board on Avowed's combat, making it "more juicy" in response to criticisms of its initial reveal.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.