Avowed’s Surprise Launch Platform is a Logical Progression

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 16, 2024 8 Views 6 Min Read
Avowed's Surprise Launch Platform is a Logical Progression

Obsidian’s upcoming RPG, Avowed, was announced all the way back in 2020, right before the start of the Xbox Series X/S generation. It’s no exaggeration to say that a lot has changed in the gaming industry since then. Xbox Game Studios has transitioned from a moderately-sized first-party publisher to a massive gaming juggernaut, one with dozens of companies under its control. Obsidian itself, meanwhile, has become more of a multifaceted studio over the last few years, as it’s developed games in a wider variety of genres than it’s traditionally known for, like the adventure RPG Pentiment and the survival game Grounded. Avowed is the first traditional Obsidian game in quite some time and, after years of anticipation, it’s finally close to being released.




Avowed is slated to launch on Xbox Series X/S and Windows PCs on February 18, 2025, nearly five years after it was initially announced. Like with all Microsoft games, it will be available day-one on Game Pass. Players who pre-order the Premium Edition of the RPG can, however, play it five days in advance. While Avowed is currently purchasable on both Steam and the Xbox store, it’s surprisingly available on Battle.net, as well. Obsidian games have never launched on Battle.net before, but Avowed‘s release on the storefront makes sense, considering Microsoft’s overarching plans for its gaming division.

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Avowed on Battle.net Aligns With Microsoft’s Multiplatform Approach


Microsoft Aims to Make Its Games Accessible on As Many Platforms As Possible

Microsoft has historically released most of its first-party titles exclusively for its console ecosystem, just like Sony and Nintendo. However, ever since the company completed its $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King in October 2023, it has taken more of a multiplatform approach with its games. Instead of focusing on exclusives and trying to get gamers to buy its hardware, Microsoft has opted to bring its games to as many platforms as possible. That includes not just Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, but PS5s, Nintendo Switches, and other non-Xbox devices as well.

Earlier this week, Microsoft launched a new, “This Is an Xbox” ad campaign, which labeled Game Pass and xCloud-compatible devices like smartphones, TVs, laptops, VR headsets, and PC handhelds as “Xboxes.” The intent of this marketing initiative, Microsoft stated, was to “showcase the evolution of Xbox as a platform that extends across devices.” This doesn’t mean that the company is abandoning Xbox consoles, per se, but it does suggest that it’s taking more of a service-based approach with the Xbox brand rather than an approach focused on hardware.


Non-ABK Games Typically Don’t Release on Battle.net, But Avowed Could be the First of Many

At the core of Microsoft’s “everything is an Xbox” strategy lies the idea of player choice: fans’ ability to play their favorite games on any platform they want, whether that’s Steam, Xbox, or in Avowed‘s case, Battle.net. Although Battle.net is a storefront that almost exclusively hosts Activision Blizzard games, Avowed is one of the first titles on the platform to be developed by a non-ABK entity. Obsidian Entertainment and Blizzard may both be owned by Microsoft, but the former operates under the Xbox Game Studios publishing banner while the latter is under ABK.

Microsoft’s willingness to bring Avowed to Battle.net, despite it not being an Activision Blizzard game, suggests that the company is not interested in consolidating its storefronts and pushing people to the Xbox PC app. Instead, it seemingly wants to let players purchase games from whatever storefronts they prefer. Both Battle.net and the Xbox Store are owned by Microsoft, so from its perspective, it doesn’t really matter which of the two platforms gamers choose to buy games on. Ultimately, if Avowed does sell well on Battle.net, Microsoft may consider releasing some of its other upcoming Xbox games on the storefront as well, like Doom: The Dark Ages, Gears of War: E-Day, and Fable.


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