10 Best RPGs You Can Play on Xbox Game Pass
If you're looking for something new to play, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of games to pick from on Game Pass. One genre that really stands out is roleplaying games, with so many to choose from that take dozens of hours to complete.
While Game Pass is probably the best subscription service for RPG fans, you might need a little help narrowing things down. Here are some recommendations on where to start, and what you're missing out on if you're not subscribed yet.
If you are looking for a great RPG, you should check outYakuza 0. This is the prequel to the beginning of the Yakuza series, which is often referred to as a "beat 'em up RPG" because it mixes fast-paced fighting with classic roleplaying features.
In it, you explore lively, fictionalized locations in 1980s Tokyo. You play as two main characters, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, switching throughout. Yakuza 0 has an amazing and gripping story, packed with intense, emotional moments made even better by fantastic voice acting.
Outside the main story, you will find tons of extra things to do, like running businesses such as a real estate company or a cabaret club, playing minigames like karaoke, bowling, or just wandering around.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is an updated version of the beloved 2006 classic. It drops you into the huge, high-fantasy world of Cyrodiil.
You start as a nameless prisoner who soon finds themselves at the heart of an epic story involving the Emperor and the desperate struggle to close off the demonic realm of Oblivion. This isn't a remake, but a remaster that has been rebuilt with the help of Unreal Engine 5, delivering a major visual upgrade that brings the world to life with stunning graphics and modern lighting effects.
While it keeps the same great core gameplay and some of the original's quirky charm, it also introduces quality-of-life improvements. These improvements include sprinting, better leveling, more satisfying weapon combat, and a much cleaner user interface.
Persona 3 Reload is a complete remake of the original Persona 3, updated while keeping everything that made the original so special. It is a great JRPG and social simulation game.
You play as a transfer student at Gekkoukan High School, juggling school life, forming friendships, and fighting supernatural creatures called Shadows during a secret time known as the Dark Hour. A major part of the game revolves around planning your schedule using a calendar system.
You can choose from different activities during the day and night, such as going to class, taking on part-time jobs, or, most importantly, hanging out with friends to strengthen your connections. When nighttime comes, or you step into the mysterious tower known as Tartarus, the gameplay switches to turn-based battles.
The Outer Worlds was made by Obsidian Entertainment, a studio famous for creating well-loved RPGs like Fallout New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic II. In this single-player, first-person sci-fi adventure, you wake up in the Halcyon colony after being lost in space for decades on a colony ship.
Soon, you find yourself caught up in a dangerous conspiracy that could destroy the entire colony. One of the best things about The Outer Worlds is its strong focus on classic RPG features.
The game stands out for its storytelling, characters, and world-building. The writing is sharp and full of humor, and the voice acting is excellent. While you make decisions, it's not as choice-driven as other games from the studio, but it's still a great game.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is an excellent RPG trilogy. This bundle includes the highly praised Mass Effect trilogy, along with almost all of the original downloadable content, giving you a huge amount of content to play through.
You take on the role of Commander Shepard, a main character you can customize in many ways that make them feel like your true avatar. Your journey becomes the heart of a grand story about rescuing the galaxy from serious danger.
One of the biggest strengths is how your tough choices have major and long-lasting effects on the story, the characters, the different groups you encounter, and even the future of entire civilizations throughout all three games. The Legendary Edition is the best way to enjoy this series, especially if you've never played before.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is included with Game Pass through EA Play. It is the much-awaited follow-up to Jedi: Fallen Order. It pushes the boundaries of what might be considered an RPG, but it incorporates many RPG elements and will have you settling into the role of a Jedi in no time.
The story continues five years after the first game's events, putting you back in the shoes of Cal Kestis, who has grown into a more skilled Jedi Knight. Your journey takes place in a galaxy ruled by the harsh Empire as you try to find a place of safety.
You do not need to be a Star Wars expert to enjoy the game; just knowing that an evil empire is hunting the Jedi is enough to understand the plot. The story is gripping and emotional, staying true to the spirit of Star Wars while adding Soulslike elements.
Stardew Valley combines farming simulation with RPG features. You start the game by inheriting an old, neglected farm and moving to the quiet village of Pelican Town.
From there, you can grow crops, venture into mines, catch fish, and get to know the locals. Stardew Valley is one of the best Game Pass games because of the freedom it gives you. You can set your own goals and take your time completing them, with no pressure to finish things quickly.
The game is packed with content, including farming, raising animals, mining, fighting monsters, fishing, and taking part in fun minigames and seasonal events. You can also make friends with the villagers, form close relationships, and even start a family.
The Forgotten City originally started as an award-winning Skyrim mod but became a game after its initial reception. It takes you to a beautifully designed ancient Roman city where you find yourself stuck in a strange time loop.
The city is cursed by an interesting premise: if even one person commits a sin, everyone will be turned into gold. Your mission is to solve this mystery and find a way to break the loop.
The loop only restarts when you decide to break the Golden Rule by committing a sin. This gives you the freedom to follow different story paths and test out decisions at your own pace before needing to reset. It's very well done and worth playing if you've never tried it before.
Assassin's Creed: Origins represented a major change for the long-running Assassin's Creed series. This game moved away from its traditional action-adventure style and fully embraced the action-RPG genre.
You play as Bayek of Siwa, the last Medjay, in a story that explains the beginnings of the Brotherhood of Assassins. Your adventure is fueled by a personal desire for revenge and will keep you hooked until the end.
Bayek himself is a fantastic and unforgettable main character. The game avoids the repetitive mission design of older entries, instead offering multi-part stories and branching narratives with more developed characters. The side quests are a huge upgrade compared to past games.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stands out when it comes to RPGs on Game Pass. You are brought into a world where humanity is living under a shared death sentence.
Every year, a mysterious being called the Paintress awakens and paints a cursed number on her monolith, and anyone older than that number turns to smoke and vanishes. With each passing year, the number gets smaller, and more people are erased.
When the Paintress writes the number 33, you join Gustave and a group of Expeditioners on a desperate mission to destroy her before she can bring death again. The story is widely praised, deeply emotional, and thought-provoking, dealing with heavy themes like loss, grief, family, and how art can help people cope with death.
RPGs are one of the most popular genres in gaming. Xbox Game Pass has given many popular RPGs a chance to get their claws into more players. Seeing Yakuza on Game Pass was how I first decided to play it, and now I'm a huge fan.
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Digital Trends
3 days ago
- Digital Trends
3 new Game Pass games to play this weekend (June 27-29)
It may be hard to believe, but it is already the end of June. This was quite an exciting month, what with Summer Game Fest and the Xbox Games Showcase giving us a great look at some upcoming Xbox Series X games. Tons of those reveals are also going to be coming to Game Pass, but we're still a ways away from most of them. Never fear, though, because Xbox isn't slowing down the cadence of adding fresh new titles to the service for us to enjoy. This month, I think you'll be pleasently surprised by the variety of titles on offer. Whether you're an old-school gamer, indie lover, or want an addictive game to play with friends, I have the best new Game Pass games you should play this weekend right here. Rematch Coming from the team that brought us Sifu, Rematch might seem like a big departure for the studio. However, I find it perfectly lines up with its mentality of making simple but mechanically satisfying controls — only now you're playing soccer instead of fighting. There aren't a ton of moves or any crazy twists here, but that's what makes it so great. The handful of maneuvers you do get have hide a deceptivly high skill ceiling for players who want to master them. If you don't, that's no problem. It is a perfectly enjoyable soccer game to play casually with friends as well. This was a day one addition on Game Pass last week technically but I'm still hooked on it and had to give it a shoutout this weekend. Recommended Videos Rematch is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Warcraft I, II, and III Remastered I feel incredibly old saying this, but it is very likely that a lot of you out there never knew Warcraft before it was an MMORPG. But, over 20 years ago, this series was the king of the RTS genre and that classic trilogy has been fully remastered and are all now available to play on Game Pass. The first game is a bit archaic and clunky, even with the new coat of paint, but still a charming and fun bit of history to experience. The second and third games, though, are still masterpieces to this day. The campaigns are epic and filled with lore WoW fans may have only read about. Warcraft III: Reforged did launch in a rough shape for fans, but thankfully has been fully updated with improved graphics, UI, functionality, and more. Warcraft I: Remastered, Warcraft II: Remastered, and Warcraft III: Reforged are available now on PC. Volcano Princess If you're looking for a more chill vibe this weekend, I have just the game for you. Volcano Princess comes from a Chinese studio and tasks you with preparing the your child to one day rule the kingdom. You will build up her stats by getting her new hobbies, helping her study, train in combat, and interact with the townspeople. It has a disarmingly cute art style and characters and wholesome tone that will instantly grip any simulation fan. This game has already been out on PC for over 2 years now but this will be its console debute so any issues it may have had have already been ironed out. Nothing can prepare you for being a parent in real life, but this is a fun facimily. Volcano Princess is available now on Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
As Play Anywhere takes center stage, the future of Xbox has never been clearer: "Our plan is to keep making amazing games and have them reach as many players as we can"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Xbox is getting serious about Play Anywhere. The initiative has existed in some form for a decade, where a single purchase of a video game carries across to any supported device within the Xbox ecosystem. Despite the clear value proposition, Xbox Play Anywhere has largely been sat in the shadow of Game Pass; more of a curiosity than a centrepiece of the platform. But something has changed. Speaking at the Xbox Showcase, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer declared that "we're working to make sure you're able to play our games wherever you are, which is why every new game in the show is Xbox Play Anywhere." The importance of this is easily overlooked amongst the excitement of an exceptional 2025 lineup of upcoming Xbox games, and the tease of a pivotal 2026 offering which could include new instalments to the platform's most iconic franchises: Fable, Forza, Halo, and Gears. "The Xbox business is pretty unique to the industry" Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios But Spencer's statement is a signal towards the future of Xbox – more critical to the expansion of the platform than any Xbox Game Studios exclusive or day-one entrant into Game Pass could ever be. The way we play is rapidly changing, and Play Anywhere could be how Xbox regains its competitive edge in a marketplace increasingly dominated by Nintendo, PlayStation, and Valve. "The Xbox business is pretty unique to the industry," says Craig Duncan, the head of Xbox Game Studios speaking exclusively with GamesRadar+. "Xbox is a platform. We publish some of the biggest and most-played multiplatform games; we have Cloud Gaming, Game Pass, and Xbox Play Anywhere. Our plan is to keep making amazing games and have them reach as many players as we can, wherever they want to play." To understand the changing dynamics of Xbox in 2025, you need to accept something: whether you like it or not, it's Microsoft's position that everything is an Xbox now – including whatever device you're using to read this article. The platform holder believes that the Xbox Store, Game Pass, and Cloud Gaming are its primary portals into the ecosystem, and that Xbox Play Anywhere will act as the bridge between them. "Recognising that everybody plays in different ways is just so central to what Xbox is trying to achieve – our vision of how we see gameplay evolving," says Roanne Sones, CVP of gaming devices and ecosystem at Xbox. There are over 1000 supported Xbox Play Anywhere titles. If you purchase any one of these video games from any Xbox online store, you'll be able to take it (and your progress) with you to any supported device – allowing seamless switching between console, PC, handheld, and cloud. Now if you only exclusively play Xbox games on console or PC, perhaps this feature doesn't appeal to you. But Xbox has anecdotal evidence and hard data to suggest that you may be part of an increasing minority. "We are really investing in refining the experience of playing your games across multiple devices," says Jason Beaumont, VP of experiences and platforms at Xbox. "What I noticed about my console is that it was just one of a constellation of gaming devices that I use in my house. I'm using my console, my gaming PC, my handheld, and Smart TV apps. I play games everywhere, and I want to be able to pick up my progress and continue that wherever I go." Beaumont is speaking literally here, with Microsoft investing in a collaboration with ASUS to bring the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X to market later this year – handheld gaming PCs that can play Xbox PC games natively, which is undoubtedly a more attractive way to play Xbox games on the go versus the alternative (entrusting your progression to cloud servers and mobile networks). He's also speaking figuratively, to this belief within Xbox that the state of play is changing. "Recognising that everybody plays in different ways is just so central to what Xbox is trying to achieve" Roanne Sones, CVP of gaming devices and ecosystem "Our data shows most console players use two or more devices, and that playing the same game on different devices can be difficult. We also know that the console market growth across generations has slowed," says Duncan. It's why Play Anywhere is the sort of service Xbox is gambling on. Two questions that the company has struggled to answer in the last 12 months are why console players would invest in Xbox over PlayStation when so many of its first-party titles are going multiplatform, and why PC players would purchase games through the Xbox app on Windows when Steam is right there. Here's Duncan's perspective on it: "When you make pro-consumer decisions, you're going to create a strong business now and into the future. We want our game franchises to be as big as possible, while making Xbox the best place to play these games. And our strategy of reaching as many players as we can, anywhere they are, while making it seamless to buy a game once and have it playable across devices is good for everyone." Perhaps Play Anywhere is the answer to both questions, then. A single purchase empowered with cross-progression and cross-entitlement. One which then lets you shift from playing online with friends on console, unlocking achievements on PC, and pick up your play on the move through handheld or mobile devices – your progress, community, and library right there with you. It's a compelling concept, particularly if Spencer's assertion that there's "28% growth in players playing our games on multiple devices, year over year" is evidence of changing consumer trends. One way to look at this is that Xbox is taking proactive steps to meet players. Another is that this shift in strategy is the result of another generation cycle spent in last place – PlayStation recently announced that it has no plans to change its strategy or platform initiatives. Regardless, it's difficult to begrudge Microsoft for wanting to get ahead of a trend rather than be caught following it. The question, of course, is what incentive developers have for supporting something like Xbox Play Anywhere – a service that only works if players are aware that it exists, and if more games are willing to support it. Marcus Morgan, executive producer of Grounded 2, tells me that the executives leading the Xbox division "always talk about Xbox in a way of the platform trying to connect to gamers across the globe – no matter who they are, no matter what they want to play. I think that is such a great and ambitious target." That's a sentiment echoed by Brandon Adler, game director of The Outer Worlds 2: "Anything that encourages more people to play my games I'm always going to love… It's why something like the Play Anywhere initiative is great, because it invites more people to play." Much like Game Pass, it was always going to be down to the first-party developers within the Xbox Game Studios network to really drive something like Xbox Play Anywhere forward. But unlike Microsoft's premium subscription service, I get the feeling that Play Anywhere can only truly succeed as a system seller – a platform incentive that could court players away from PS5 and Steam – if it receives wide adoption from third-party studios. Speaking with Anil Glendinning, creative director of There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, one of the breakout reveals from the Xbox Showcase, tells me that Play Anywhere support "felt like a natural fit" for Friday Sundae's debut game. "We've always believed that players should be able to pick up where they left off, regardless of the screen in front of them – it's something that aligns perfectly with the game's structure." "One moment you're redecorating haunted rooms in a British seaside hotel on your console, the next you're unravelling supernatural mysteries on your handheld. That flexibility just made sense," says Glendinning. "When considering Play Anywhere, the main questions we asked were: will this improve the experience for players? Can we deliver parity across platforms? And does it support the kind of seamless immersion we're aiming for? In all cases, the answer was yes." Of the two dozen independent developers and publishers I've spoken with in recent weeks, I'm told that building Play Anywhere support into upcoming projects is relatively simple (as much as anything in the game development process could be considered simple). A three step process which involves joining the ID@Xbox program, implementing cross-progression, and cross-entitlement. Although the general sentiment between this group was that aligning entitlements (which is to say, each device seamlessly registering that a single purchase should be accessible for a player) can be a 'living nightmare' for teams unfamiliar with the process, and that Xbox's support could be stronger. Does Play Anywhere contribute to (or break through) the noise? "We very much view Play Anywhere as an extension of Game Pass and Xbox's commitment to increasing their audience. That will have beneficial implications for developers, but I don't know if it will remove some of the noise from the gaming landscape," says Squanch Games CEO Mike Fridley. "In the long run, if it survives as a service, it will likely increase the noise as more indie and large studios add more and more titles that take advantage of the Play Anywhere feature. In the short run, though, I think it will give studios that are early adopters of the feature the opportunity to stand out. Long story short, the best way to cut through the noise is to make a great game, build a fanbase, and listen to that fanbase. There is no magic bullet to making your game stand out other than quality and availability. Play Anywhere definitely helps increase your availability." Some developers are taking a proactive approach to ensure its future titles are Play Anywhere ready. Rebellion is one prominent independent studio putting its weight behind the service – including 2025's Atomfall. "At Rebellion, we are keen for as many players as possible to enjoy our games, and Xbox Play Anywhere is a great way to help achieve this goal," says Ben Fisher, head of design at Rebellion. "Specifically, we create games using our own in-house engine, Asura, that has support for Xbox Play Anywhere built in. So, it is very straightforward for our teams to ensure that our titles are compatible for Play Anywhere, as well as support Xbox cloud ecosystem and optimise for Game Pass. The Asura engine also scales nicely for PC-based handhelds, which gives us more options beyond streaming and, alongside Xbox Play Anywhere, gives players a wide choice of when and where they can play our games." Speaking on background, other flashpoints raised by developers weighing support include recognition that video games are both taking longer and costing more to create. That cross-play and cross-progression initiatives have altered player expectations. That cost of living crises have changed spending habits, particularly as games reach $80. With Xbox claiming that Play Anywhere increases awareness, grows engagement, and keeps folks playing for longer, can this initiative help developers shoulder the burden of an increasingly volatile market to keep delivering for players? "We strive to create games that we want to play. As fans of gaming and gamers ourselves, whenever we create something that we love or play a game we enjoy, we want as many people as possible to share that fun," says Mike Fridley, CEO of Squanch Games, following the reveal of High on Life 2 at the Xbox Showcase. "Play Anywhere increases the number of gamers that will be able to play our games and partake in that experience." "Yes, there are potential financial benefits to increasing your audience, and for some other studios, that may be a major driver for them. To some extent, being able to sell to more customers is a driver for us as well, just not our major reason for doing it," says Fridley. "We are a very small indie studio whose fate is directly tied to our market success. We don't have a big publisher conglomerate that will be able to absorb costs if one of our games doesn't hit the financial mark. Being on as many screens as possible comes with some financial benefits that help us keep our doors open." Microsoft Gaming has endured yet another challenging generation cycle. Having spent a decade battling to overcome the perception that Xbox Game Studios isn't delivering new titles, the focus shifted just as the first-party floodgates began to open. There was the public battle to acquire Activision Blizzard, reports of Game Pass missing internal growth targets, and an unsteady venture into multiplatform play. And now, with the incoming release of an Xbox handheld and early talk of next-gen hardware on the horizon, the platform holder is starting to gradually realign its pieces on the board. "We want our players to enjoy the games we make and play where they want to play" Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios "We strive to engage with large communities of players around our franchises, and remove barriers so more people can play together and enjoy the games they love, play with their friends, and connect with likeminded gamers," says Duncan. "It's about playing your favorite games on your Series S or X, having cross-save just work, and your progress coming with you. Or finding new games through Game Pass, or playing cross play with some of our games on PC or that have shipped on other platforms. We want our players to enjoy the games we make and play where they want to play." 'Play Anywhere' is becoming more than an initiative to let you seamlessly carry your digital life between devices, then. It's a mantra which bridges Xbox's multiformat ambitions, its increasing first-party output, ongoing support of Game Pass, and new hardware initiatives. As Xbox looks to its future, with early talk of next-gen hardware on the near horizon, Xbox Play Anywhere is transforming into the sell for the entire ecosystem. Whether it will work, only time will tell. Gears of War: Reloaded campaign preview: If playing this classic campaign co-op with one player on a PS5 and the other on an Xbox Series X is wrong, then we don't want to be right. This is shaping up to be the terrific and loving re-release that builds on the success of Gears' 2015 Ultimate of War: Reloaded multiplayer preview: Both the best and worst thing we can say about returning to the multiplayer mode that once defined our lives is – it's still Gears of War. Chunky, uneven, and punishing. It's a tricky proposition in 2025, but we're so glad Gears is back in Gaiden 4 hands-on preview: It's clear from slicing and dicing waves of enemies that, yes, the joys of the best 3D games in this series are back (and yes, we did manage to beat the boss fight). Talking to the devs, we reflect on the evolution of the action game genre over the last Gaiden 4 interview: Team Ninja and PlatinumGames say that "Soulslikes have kind of taken center stage" since the last installment to the Ninja Gaiden series, but the devs promise that "we are going against the trend in that way" with the upcoming 2025 release of Ninja Gaiden 2 hands-on preview: 30 minutes with a survival game like Grounded 2 is just scratching the surface, but we are already hooked. Talking with the devs, they explain why now was the right time to jump into a full, numbered Grounded 2 an Xbox exclusive? Obsidian won't rule out bringing Grounded 2 to PS5 and other platforms in the future (just as its predecessor did in 2024), but says that this initial release is "all about being in Game Preview and Early Access"Grounded 2 player count: Everything is bigger in Grounded 2, but Obsidian never considered stretching beyond four-players. Speaking to GR+, the studio says doing so "would have undermined what Grounded was really about."Grounded 2 roadmap: Obsidian is targeting updates every "four to five months" after the studio learned the hard way: "When we started with Grounded 1 in early access we were trying to do monthly updates – that was a hassle and it didn't work"ROG Xbox Ally X hands-on preview: With its first handheld, Xbox's 'Play Anywhere' strategy is coming into sharper focus. And I'm not saying I regret buying a Nintendo Switch 2 at launch... but the ROG Xbox Ally X is almost everything I want from a new Xbox Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview: This sequel feels like one of our favorite RPG devs (they also made Fallout: New Vegas and Avowed) finally got the resources to make a new sci-fi adventure with the scope they deserve. Full of details, choices, and great action, this is shaping up to be Outer Worlds 2 exclusive interview: With The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian Entertainment is dedicated to making sneaky playstyles truly viable in its upcoming sequel: "We have a strike team going room-by-room to see if we can stealth properly through each location"The rising cost of video games: The Xbox Showcase confirmed that The Outer Worlds 2 will be the first video game out of Xbox Game Studios in 2025 to cost $80. Obsidian Entertainment says we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" its new RPG.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
How Obsidian became Xbox's most prolific studio: "There's not a lot of studios at Microsoft that have an entire external developer making the whole game for them"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 2025 is the year of Obsidian Entertainment. Formed 22 years ago, the legendary RPG maker responsible for Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol and countless other video games is on something of a hot streak. Microsoft Gaming purchased Obsidian in 2018, folding the team into the Xbox Game Studios group. Since then it has wrapped production of The Outer Worlds; released Grounded, supporting it through years of early access and regular content drops; released Pentiment in 2022, and Avowed in 2025 following a short delay; and managed to bring Grounded and Pentiment to PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch as part of Microsoft's multiplatform initiative. If that weren't enough, it also has The Outer Worlds 2 and Grounded 2 set to release this year. It's a lot, particularly for a first-party studio operating within the Xbox ecosystem. I was keen to understand how the studio has managed this flood of new releases, and thankfully the teams at Obsidian Entertainment were only too happy to answer. When Xbox revealed Grounded 2 at the Xbox Showcase, it announced that "Obsidian and Eidos Montréal have joined forces to bring you the next chapter with even more depth, danger, and discovery to experience." The way development responsibilities have been split between the two award-winning teams says a lot about the flexibility Obsidian has been afforded by Xbox Game Studios. "Grounded 2 is actually a good example of our growth as a developer. We could not do what we're doing right now if we didn't have great development partners and co-dev partners," says Feargus Urquhart, studio head and CEO at Obsidian. "That's one of the big transitions for us" Urquhart says that it has long been his ambition for Obsidian to scale beyond the boundaries of a traditional studio, simply shifting from one project to the next. "With Pillars of Eternity 2, we signed up a publisher late because we really wanted to start publishing games ourselves. We didn't really have the people internally, so we hired some people in but it didn't really work out. So unlike CD Projekt RED, BioWare, and others who were on the cusp of becoming publishers we weren't getting there." "We wound up talking to Eidos about some other stuff and it turned out that they had a small team who absolutely loved Grounded" Chris Parker, game director "This isn't me saying that Microsoft is allowing us to become a publisher," he laughs. "It's more that the acquisition has allowed us to become a more multi-faceted developer, which is what I've always wanted to do." This is a key component behind how Obsidian has been able to scale so quickly, and maintain such a rapid-fire release schedule. Urquhart adds: "It's allowed us to sign up external teams. There's not a lot of studios at Microsoft that have an entire external developer making the whole game for them." Grounded 2 has been in development for just under two years, meaning it entered production around a year after the release of Grounded 1.0 and a year before the survival-adventure made its way to PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. Around this same time, Obsidian was juggling development of Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2. Grounded attracted over 25 million players into the backyard, it's popular and there were demands for more; but how could Obsidian have possibly squeezed in a sequel? "The Grounded team was relatively small, it maxed out in the 20s," says Chris Parker, Obsidian co-founder and Grounded 2 game director. "When we started thinking about doing Grounded 2 it was fortuitous how it worked out, actually, because we wound up talking to Eidos about some other stuff and it turned out that they had a small team who absolutely loved Grounded. They were almost pitching us on the sequel." From there a "significant team up at Eidos" and a "relatively large group at Obsidian" came together to push Grounded 2 through production. Grounded 1's game director Adam Brennecke, its lead programmer Roby Atadero, art director Kazunori Aruga, along with six other principal leads and a small internal steering group at Obsidian joined Parker to collaborate closely with Eidos. "We are constantly at each other's offices. We're talking about stuff daily. It's a really healthy relationship. And because they actually love the game at Eidos, it's not like this dispassionate contractor that we've hired. They are bringing all their own stuff to the table," says Parker. Grounded 2 producer Miles Winzeler adds: "Obsidian and Eidos have similar design goals as studios. We mesh really well together. It's also the difference between the two of them that's been a big strength. It means Grounded 2 will feel like its own piece, as they are able to flex what they're best at, too." Urquhart uses Voltron as his point of reference to describe how external teams join together with Obsidian to create something bigger, more powerful. He tells me that before the 2018 acquisition into the Xbox Game Studios group, Obsidian largely handled work in-house outside of VO, QA, and localization departments. But support from Xbox has allowed the studio to expand here in all areas of design, and reconnect with friends and former developers from across the years. Obsidian is collaborating with Aspiring Unicorn, UI and UX experts working across The Outer Worlds 2. There's a relationship with Digimancy Entertainment, founded by Obsidian veteran George Ziets, and with Beamdog – co-founded by Trent Oster of BioWare, who Urquhart first encountered while working on Shattered Steel at Interplay two decades ago. Urquhart is quick to shout about these relationships (and plenty more of them). Both as an example of the ensuring legacy of Obsidian and how the studio is able to grow the scope of its projects without growing the studio too quickly. "The idea is not to be doing way more than what we're doing right now" Feargus Urquhart, studio head and CEO Still, I wonder whether an increasing reliance on co-dev and outsourcing risks diminishing the identity of an Obsidian game. Urquhart says it's better to think of it as augmenting. With the right people in place, scaling this way is only to the benefit of the games coming out of the studio. "The person in charge of the day-to-day collaboration with Eidos Montreal is Chris Parker, right. He was the producer on Baldur's Gate 2 and he has this length of experience working with external developers. It comes back to this question of, 'What are our strengths?' 'Do we have the people who do these things?'" "The idea is not to be doing way more than what we're doing right now, but I think we've hit a really good size and a really good amount of things we can do. I can still be involved in all of it too, and not lose my mind – at least no more than I already have," he laughs. "You know, Obsidian was founded by three producers, a designer, and a programmer. The intent was always to do this with our projects. Back then it was a little bit more for survival, now it's because I think it makes us better game makers." Working with external development partners is one piece of the puzzle, but not the entire picture. One way Obsidian is able to unleash Avowed, Grounded 2, and The Outer Worlds 2 within a single year is partly because of its ethos as a group: "Perfect is the enemy of the good," says Urquhart. "Our job is to make amazing games, not perfect games." In a world where six-to-eight years is threatening to become the standard timeframe for AAA, first-party game development, seeing Obsidian become so prolific has been great to watch from a distance. Taken at an individual level, the studio is delivering exceptionally fun titles that share a consistent quality – they aren't necessarily changing the video game industry in a fundamental way, but then I suspect that they aren't supposed to. "We've made sure to never lose the muscle memory of having multiple teams, and of having the teams build off of each other" Justin Britch, executive producer "There was a big push for a long time of everything needing to be bigger, better, and perfect, and 'ahhhh'," screams Urquhart, before chuckling: "hey, you know what 'ahhhh' means." What he's saying here is that this need for first-party studios to be operating on a level above the rest of the industry "can lead to trying to move on too many fronts at once." He adds: "That's the biggest thing for us, identifying what we are good at, what we can do with the time that we have, and then just focus on the content that we're creating – because that's what the player actually plays!" The sentiment that "our job is to make amazing games, not perfect games" feels like a healthy outlook to have. The industry is in a bit of a difficult position right now. The cost of video game development is spiralling, with some of that cost starting to come back on the consumer – The Outer Worlds 2 will be Xbox's first game priced at $80. The playerbase is increasing, albeit focused on a smaller selection of titles thanks in no small part to the live-service explosion in 2017. And it seems like we're barely able to go a month without some prominent, legendary development studio suffering layoffs (something the Xbox Game Studios group hasn't been immune to either). Is there not a pressure to deliver "perfect" in this environment? "Nobody at Xbox is putting that pressure on us," says Marcus Morgan, executive producer of Grounded 2. "But it's there in the back of our minds, right? It's something we think about, and something we talked a lot about early on. There were even some moments of like, teenage years, growing through becoming a first-party studio where we wrestled with that pressure." "In one of the first meetings that we had with [Matt Booty, president of game content and studios] and the rest of Xbox after the acquisition, they asked us to continue being true to who we are and they have given us the space to do that. We've made sure to never lose the muscle memory of having multiple teams, and of having the teams build off of each other. We haven't lost that rhythm post-acquisition," adds Justin Britch, executive producer of The Outer Worlds 2. "Every studio has its own role to play in the industry, and its own role to play within the organization that it's in… We want to make games that we're really proud of and get them out into the world. That's our role, and we've been really fortunate to be able to do that within the Xbox ecosystem." Both Morgan and Britch point to Obsidian operating with multiple teams shifting between projects as a point of pride. "We've always been a multi-project studio," says Morgan. "We always have multiple teams working on multiple games, which is somewhat unique – especially in the first-party ecosystem." This way of operating, Britch tells me, intersects directly with another focus for Obsidian: "We have a principal at the studio about building on past success. Some of the studios who I really admire have this iterative approach and keep building on a formula. We try to do the same. We try to keep pushing things forward while recognizing what really worked well; we don't need to reinvent the things that really matter." "That's a component of how we're able to ship multiple games and keep shipping them, because we're so focused on building on our past successes, making them better while making sure that we aren't throwing everything out and starting over every time, because that can make it take a really long time to bring out new games," he adds. "We're just becoming what we've always wanted to become" Feargus Urquhart, studio head and CEO at Obsidian "Another major thing is that you learn when you ship," says Urquhart, speaking to Obsidian's dedication to shorter development cycles. "Not only do you learn because you actually finish a project, but you learn because your game goes out there and people tell you what they really think of it. The longer you go between those cycles, the less you're learning." At this point Urquhart points to Baldur's Gate 3 as an example, something that happens countless times during our conversation – clearly the Larian RPG is on the veteran RPG maker's mind. "The only reason Baldur's Gate 3 can exist is because Divinity Original Sin 2 existed. If Larian took 10 years to develop Original Sin and then 10 years to develop Original Sin 2, then there's no Baldur's gate 3. That's what's super important to me. The idea is that when we ship, we learn; the pursuit of perfection leads to not shipping." A phrase that Urquhart likes to wheel out is "constraints breed creativity." What's interesting here is that, for Obsidian, the constraints seem self-imposed. There's a strong impulse to continue iterating on its foundations, rather than rip them up to try and build something more audacious. A desire to work with external developers and partners rather than grow too quickly, a mind-share of expertise internally and across the industry. And it's in the combination of all of these things which has allowed Obsidian to become the most prolific studio within the Xbox Game Studios group. "Remember, even the work that's done outside of Obsidian comes back inside the building, and that builds on what we're doing" says Urquhart. "There's technology from Grounded that's in Avowed, technology from Avowed that's in Grounded 2, and so on. I'm super thankful that Microsoft has allowed us to build out this group of developers and support networks, and that it just lets us be… Obsidian. We're just becoming what we've always wanted to become, which is this more well-rounded group who is able to take on a lot more of the stuff that we've always wanted to do." The upcoming Xbox Series X games lineup includes Grounded 2, which launches into Game Preview, Game Pass, and Steam Early Access on July 29, 2025. It is followed by upcoming Obsidian game The Outer Worlds 2 on October 29, 2025 where it will release for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass. Avowed launched on PC and Xbox Series X on February 13, 2025. Exclusive | Inside Xbox Play Anywhere: As Xbox Play Anywhere takes center stage, the future of Xbox has never been clearer. To learn more about the initiative, we spoke to leaders from across Xbox Game Studios: "Our plan is to keep making amazing games and have them reach as many players as we can"Gears of War: Reloaded campaign preview: If playing this classic campaign co-op with one player on a PS5 and the other on an Xbox Series X is wrong, then we don't want to be right. This is shaping up to be the terrific and loving re-release that builds on the success of Gears' 2015 Ultimate of War: Reloaded multiplayer preview: Both the best and worst thing we can say about returning to the multiplayer mode that once defined our lives is – it's still Gears of War. Chunky, uneven, and punishing. It's a tricky proposition in 2025, but we're so glad Gears is back in Gaiden 4 hands-on preview: It's clear from slicing and dicing waves of enemies that, yes, the joys of the best 3D games in this series are back (and yes, we did manage to beat the boss fight). Talking to the devs, we reflect on the evolution of the action game genre over the last Gaiden 4 interview: Team Ninja and PlatinumGames say that "Soulslikes have kind of taken center stage" since the last installment to the Ninja Gaiden series, but the devs promise that "we are going against the trend in that way" with the upcoming 2025 release of Ninja Gaiden 2 hands-on preview: 30 minutes with a survival game like Grounded 2 is just scratching the surface, but we are already hooked. Talking with the devs, they explain why now was the right time to jump into a full, numbered Grounded 2 an Xbox exclusive? Obsidian won't rule out bringing Grounded 2 to PS5 and other platforms in the future (just as its predecessor did in 2024), but says that this initial release is "all about being in Game Preview and Early Access"Grounded 2 player count: Everything is bigger in Grounded 2, but Obsidian never considered stretching beyond four-players. Speaking to GR+, the studio says doing so "would have undermined what Grounded was really about."Grounded 2 roadmap: Obsidian is targeting updates every "four to five months" after the studio learned the hard way: "When we started with Grounded 1 in early access we were trying to do monthly updates – that was a hassle and it didn't work"ROG Xbox Ally X hands-on preview: With its first handheld, Xbox's 'Play Anywhere' strategy is coming into sharper focus. And I'm not saying I regret buying a Nintendo Switch 2 at launch... but the ROG Xbox Ally X is almost everything I want from a new Xbox Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview: This sequel feels like one of our favorite RPG devs (they also made Fallout: New Vegas and Avowed) finally got the resources to make a new sci-fi adventure with the scope they deserve. Full of details, choices, and great action, this is shaping up to be Outer Worlds 2 exclusive interview: With The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian Entertainment is dedicated to making sneaky playstyles truly viable in its upcoming sequel: "We have a strike team going room-by-room to see if we can stealth properly through each location"The rising cost of video games: The Xbox Showcase confirmed that The Outer Worlds 2 will be the first video game out of Xbox Game Studios in 2025 to cost $80. Obsidian Entertainment says we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" its new RPG.
