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Obsidian not worried about Microsoft shutting the studio down

Obsidian not worried about Microsoft shutting the studio down

The CEO of Obsidian, Feargus Urquhart, has said that the company is not worried about Microsoft closing the studio down. 

Speaking to PC Gamer, the exec and founder expressed his distress at the wave of layoffs and studio closures, having previously experienced them from a management perspective. Urquhart added that both him and the team are focusing on the now and not thinking too much about tomorrow. 

This follows Xbox closing a number of studios, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, in addition to 1.9k layoffs in recent months.  

"It's just horrible," Urquhart said.

"At Obsidian we had to go through three layoffs [before being acquired]. They're right behind my parents' deaths as some of the worst days I've ever had, so no, these are just not great things."

He continued: "Everything that's happened over the last six months with layoffs and the pinnacle of this stuff with Tango and Arkane and the other studios, it really has made people worried, and shaken. I think we just try to say 'Hey, this is what we're working on today, and we believe in it.' I'm not saying that [Tango and Arkane] didn't believe in what they're doing, but we just keep our heads down and move forward and say we're working on great games. We're working on Avowed, we're working on Outer Worlds 2. It's probably not a surprise—we have other stuff we're thinking about and looking at doing."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.