Obsidian’s Brandon Adler Responds to Rumors After Xbox Layoffs
Obsidian Entertainment director Brandon Adler says he’s fed up with “cold take artists” who have been “running their mouths” about how the studio has supposedly changed after Microsoft’s recent Xbox layoffs.
Adler, who directs The Outer Worlds 2 and is also tied to a separate, currently unannounced project, addressed the chatter in a LinkedIn post shared online. He framed it as an especially rough period for the team, noting it has been “an extremely difficult week,” during which he also took time to say goodbye to colleagues who were laid off before turning his attention to people who have started “coming out of the woodwork” to claim what Obsidian “is” or “isn’t.”
“Another difficult aspect is having to see a bunch of cold take artists coming out of the woodwork to talk about what Obsidian is or what it isn’t,” Adler said. “The number of times I’ve seen people, with no understanding of who has worked on our previous games or what they contributed, talk about how Obsidian isn’t who they used to be… is staggering. Most of the time they are not just wrong, but spreading an enormous amount of misinformation.”
Obsidian was one of the studios named in the wider wave of cuts that Microsoft announced last week. At the time, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma called the move “the most significant restructure” in the company’s history, with 1,600 employees losing their jobs right away and another 1,600 expected to be affected across the remainder of the financial year.
The shake-up also brought changes in studio ownership. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs reportedly moved into agreements under new ownership, while Double Fine and Compulsion Games became independent. Arkane Studios—developer of Marvel’s Blade—remains a question mark, though reports suggest that teams at studios including ZeniMax Online, id Software, and Obsidian were hit with significant staffing reductions.
While Xbox remains in flux, Adler is pushing back against narratives that downplay the talent Obsidian has built over the years. He argued that, in many cases, “the people in lead or director roles are the same people that worked on games like The Outer Worlds, Pillars of Eternity, and New Vegas.”
“Like, literally the same people,” he added. “The through line from KotOR2 to our current games is pretty clear.
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“Is Obsidian the same as it was 20 years ago? No, of course not. Nothing stays the same. But the DNA at Obsidian is the same as it always was. The same DNA that created KotOR, New Vegas, NWN2, and Stick of Truth.
“I’m extremely proud of our history and I am also excited for who we have become.”
Adler closed his post by urging readers to keep in mind that people “spouting off about Obsidian, running their mouths about who we are now vs. what we were then” are individuals who have “zero insight into how a game is made and who contributed to our previous games.” In the wake of the layoffs, Bloomberg also reported that Obsidian recently canceled a sequel tied to its fantasy RPG Avowed and began work on a new project returning to the Fallout setting, led by Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer.
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You can also catch up on other post-layoff updates that have surfaced. For a look at what’s happening at Bethesda, you can check the latest coverage there.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
