With January in the rearview mirror, the release of Avowed is on the horizon. Created by Obsidian Entertainment — the developers behind The Outer Worlds, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Fallout: New Vegas — Avowed is an action RPG set within the Pillars of Eternity universe. While engaging with Avowed‘s fantasy narrative, players will get to take on the role of an envoy of Aedyr — a customizable character with multiple playstyles to choose from — sent to investigate a plague ravaging the mysterious Living Lands.
Avowed‘s nearing release is great news for fans of both Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox. Not only is Avowed exclusive to Xbox Series X/S and PC, but it will be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch. Many players are already optimistic about the game thanks to its positive previews, but if recent rumors are to be believed, then the release of Avowed is only the start of an exciting year for Xbox and RPG fans.
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Two RPGs Could Make 2025 a Year to Remember for Xbox Players
Obsidian Entertainment isn’t the only RPG developer under the Microsoft umbrella. Back in 2020, gamers were shocked to hear that Microsoft would be acquiring Bethesda, the iconic studio behind The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Since the deal was finalized in 2021, Bethesda released its sci-fi role-playing epic Starfield and has continued to expand upon Fallout 76‘s online experience. While Fallout 76 has grown in popularity thanks to Prime’s Fallout streaming series, Starfield failed to satiate players’ appetites for a fully fledged Bethesda RPG experience.
The next mainline Elder Scrolls or Fallout games likely won’t be released any time soon. In the meantime, one new rumor suggests that Avowed might not be Microsoft’s only fantasy RPG coming out this year.
Oblivion’s Rumored Remake
A plethora of recent rumors have suggested that Bethesda will be breaking up the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 by releasing an Oblivion remake later this year. Originally released all the way back in 2006, Oblivion was the first Elder Scrolls entry released on the Xbox 360. Though not as popular or approachable as its successor Skyrim, the impact that Oblivion has had not only on The Elder Scrolls series but on Western RPGs as a whole is monumental.
It seems that after releasing edition after edition of Skyrim, Bethesda may finally be giving Oblivion its time in the sun. The Oblivion remake will supposedly be released this year, with several rumors suggesting that it could launch as early as this spring. Though it seems surprising that Bethesda would wait until so close to the game’s release date to announce it, Microsoft is likely having the developer hold off so that the Oblivion remake doesn’t distract from the upcoming release of the conceptually similar Avowed.
The Impact of Avowed and Oblivion’s Neighboring Launches
While these two games do run the risk of cannibalizing each other’s success, they could also come together to make 2025 a great year for Xbox and the RPG fans in its playerbase. Dropping a brand-new RPG like Avowed and then following that up with the re-release of one of the most iconic RPGs of all time has the potential to be the perfect one-two punch. Players will have dozens if not hundreds of hours of content available to them, and they will have the opportunity to explore both an entirely new open world and one that has since become a beloved classic.
Both games will also likely be available on Game Pass, meaning that subscribers won’t even have to pay full price for this treasure trove. As an added bonus for Microsoft, the lengthy runtimes for both games will also encourage players to keep their Game Pass subscriptions up and running for quite some time. If this rumor proves to be true and Bethesda does release its Oblivion remake alongside Avowed this year, then it could be just the break that Xbox needs.
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