Obsidian Entertainment Confirms New Fallout Game Led by Josh Sawyer Amid Studio Restructuring
Obsidian Entertainment has officially announced development of a new Fallout game, marking the studio's first return to the franchise in over a decade following Fallout: New Vegas. Josh Sawyer, a lead developer at Obsidian, will helm the project as it moves into active production.
The game's announcement follows significant upheaval at Xbox, where recent layoffs eliminated roughly a quarter of Obsidian's workforce and resulted in the cancellation of several other projects, including a planned Avowed sequel. The Fallout title appears to have retained priority status despite the broader studio contraction and industry restructuring.
- Obsidian Entertainment is developing a new Fallout game, their first since New Vegas in 2010
- Josh Sawyer is leading the project
- Development proceeds despite 25% workforce reduction and cancellation of other games following Xbox layoffs
New here? Start with this
Obsidian Entertainment is a games studio best known for Fallout: New Vegas, a 2010 spin-off of the long-running Fallout series that many fans still regard highly. Josh Sawyer is a veteran designer at the studio who worked on that earlier game and is now set to lead its successor, giving the project a strong link to what came before.
The wider context is a period of turbulence at Xbox, which owns Obsidian. Recent layoffs have cut a significant share of jobs at the studio and led to other projects being scrapped, so the decision to press ahead with a new Fallout game stands out against that backdrop.
This matters because Fallout is a major franchise with a large, dedicated fanbase, and any new instalment is closely watched. It also offers a signal of how Xbox is prioritising its studios and projects at a time when the games industry has seen widespread job losses and cancellations.
Coverage