Original story: Curiously absent from today’s mass layoff announcement at Microsoft was legendary RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment, which thus far had navigated Xbox’s 2020s layoff waves unscathed. Not anymore: An indeterminate number of developers has been laid off from the company, according to social media posts from current and former employees. I have reached out to Obsidian for comment, and will update this story if I hear back.
Rebs Gaming on Twitter documented four developers who shared their own experiences on LinkedIn, and I was shocked to see artist Daniel Alpert among those laid off. Alpert has been with the company for 21 years, with credits on Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas’ DLC, Alpha Protocol, and most recently The Outer Worlds 2. On the opposite end of the spectrum, engineer Wenzheng Huang had only just started at the company in May.
In addition to Huang, Alpert, area designer Tyler McCombs, and communications producer Geoffrey Fogle, writer Jay Turner has shared that he was laid off from Obsidian. Turner’s only credit with Obsidian was Avowed, but his industry experience stretches back to the golden age of BioWare: Turner is credited on Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, and many more games.
Pentiment artist Soojin Paek, Avowed narrative designers A.K. Fedeau and Katie Tenney, as well as Avowed area designer Bre Seale also number among those affected by today’s layoffs. That brings the total count to nine at the time of writing. Both Turner and Obsidian narrative lead Kate Dollarhyde (who remains at the company) characterize the layoffs as significant in scope.